![Ercole de’ Roberti - The Israelites Gathering Manna [c.1490s] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2829/12202620395_9ac639b388.jpg)
Ercole de’ Roberti - The Israelites Gathering Manna [c.1490s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
Originally a predella (an Italian term for the long horizontal structure at the base or foot of an altarpiece) panel (now transferred to canvas) to one side of The Institution of the Eucharist (also in the Collection). Moses depicted to the left with Aaron, instructs the starving Israelites to gather the small pellets of bread (manna) which fell from heaven.
Ercole de' Roberti is first documented as being in Ferrara in 1479. In 1480 he painted an altarpiece for the church of St. Maria in Porto, Ravenna (Milan, Brera), which illustrates the influence of Antonello da Messina and Giovanni Bellini. Before 1486 Ercole worked in Bologna on the frescoes decorating the walls of the Garganelli Chapel, which were widely admired (only one fragment depicting a woman in lamentation survives, in the Pinacoteca, Bologna). From 1487 onwards the artist is recorded as back in Ferrara, and employed by the d'Este family.
[National Gallery, London - Tempera on canvas, transferred from wood, 28.9 x 63.5 cm]