The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea

The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea, 1514–15, printed 1549. Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576), published by Domenico dalle Greche (Italian, 1503–1603). Woodcut; unframed: 40 x 55 cm (15 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1952.296

Created in 1514 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the daily life tradition. Titian worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

As woodcut (Unframed: 40 x 55 cm (15 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.)), the work shows the tool marks and layering choices typical of Titian's output in this period — decisions about ground, underpainting, and glaze that a photograph can only partly convey.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Even the everyday is loaded: a basin, a candle, a worn shoe become small monuments to a vanished daily world.

Today the painting is held by Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, where it remains a touchstone for understanding Titian's contribution to Western art. It has been studied, copied, restored, and argued over for centuries — proof that great paintings keep generating new readings long after their creators have gone.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”