The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Moses praying to end the serpents’ attack on the Israelites (folio 63 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier

1602–4

Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim

(1569–1627)
Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper
Page: 26.3 x 15.6 cm (10 3/8 x 6 1/8 in.); Painting only: 18.9 x 10.5 cm (7 7/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2005.145.63.b
Location: Not on view

Description

After the Israelites complained about the difficulties of their journey out of Egypt, God punished them for their lack of gratitude by sending snakes to bite and plague them. Apparently reveling in the brutality of the scene, the artist shows men and women alike being savaged by snakes, one of whose tail slithers over the rulings of the right margin. An Israelite woman raises her hands and pleads with Moses to help them, promising repentance, and he intercedes on their behalf. Father Jerome used this episode to demonstrate how repentant believers merit salvation.
  • before 1930s–2005
    An Indian family in Great Britain, whose grandfather brought the manuscript to England in the 1930s or 1940s
    2005
    (Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2005–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Carvalho, Pedro de Moura, and W. M. Thackston. Mirʼāt al-quds (Mirror of holiness): a life of Christ for Emperor Akbar: a commentary on Father Jerome Xavier's text and the miniatures of Cleveland Museum of Art, Acc. no. 2005.145. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
  • Prince Salim's Life of Christ (Manuscript Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 2, 2019-July 1, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=Moses praying to end the serpents’ attack on the Israelites (folio 63 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier|url=false|author=|year=1602–4|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.145.63.b