Moses Bringing down the Tables of the Law, 1872-1878 – John Rogers Herbert

While I was strolling through NGV on Thursday, this massive painting caught my attention. Among many others, this is the only one where I stood for more than a minute and just be at awe of its magnificence. With regards to the characteristics of its “framework”, what caught my attention was the composition of the characters within the frame. I could see that although the background is cut off a bit, the characters perfectly fit within the boundaries of the frame. The wide shot is composed by Moses, being the central character in the story, is in the centre of the image, making it easy for the audience to draw their attention to him. Surrounding him is the Jewish from Egypt, and this placement signifies how Moses gathered the Jews so that they can escape from Egypt. For me, the composition just doesn’t show the positions of the character, but it tells the story in and of itself. This picture doesn’t show it, but it actually covers the whole wall, and weighs 500kgs!