According to the Old Testament, while Moses was on Mount Sinai the Israelites made themselves an idol to worship - a false god in the form of a golden calf. Poussin's painting shows them dancing wildly around the idol (a bull in Poussin's picture), while in the background at the left, a furious Moses smashes the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments.
Nicolas Poussin was a French artist who lived and worked in Rome. He was fascinated by the art of ancient Rome, and his dancers resemble the figures in a classical frieze, frozen in suspended animation.
As in all his works, Poussin pays meticulous attention to the composition of figures and the distribution of colours across the canvas.
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