The Israelites gathering Manna in the Desert

Collecting manna in the desert is a painting by the French painter Nicolas Poussin.

The theme of the painting was taken from the Old Testament and the event was described in the Book of Exodus (16:1-36) and the Book of Numbers (11:7-9). The story tells how, while passing through the desert of the Israelites, they ran out of supplies and, faced with starvation, began to complain against Moses and Aaron. In the evening, a huge flock of quails appeared in their camp, and in the morning small grains of grain with the taste of honey cake – manna appeared on the ground.

Throughout his work, Poussin painted about nineteen paintings illustrating the life of Moses. In The Manna Collection, he focused on depicting human different reactions and contrasts. It shows the joy of the appearance of food, as well as the suffering of hunger; the figures gathered in small groups either thank God for the miracle (the figures standing in front of Moses and his brother Aaron) or fight among themselves for manna (the two boys on the left). On the right, a woman in a blue dress breastfeeds her mother and at the same time comforts her baby. The scene refers to the motif of Caritas Roman illustrated by Rubens.

Poussin himself wrote about the diversity of emotions accumulated in the scene in a letter to his friend Paul Fréart de Chantelou in 1639: