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Exodus 2:5-8 (ANIV)
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister [Moses’ sister, Miriam] asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother.

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Mid morning.

LIGHTING NOTES:
The sun lights this scene from the right.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
From left to right: Male servant (holding up pole supporting sun shade over Pharaoh’s daughter), female servant knee deep in water, Pharaoh’s daughter (holding the baby Moses), second male (holding other sun shade pole), female servant (carrying the reed basket Moses was in on the Nile), another female servant girl.

Lastly, notice Miriam (Moses’ sister) watching the scene from the river bank reeds on the extreme middle right.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
There are two versions of this scene:
01) (This page) Exodus 02 – Birth of Moses – Scene 02 – Pharaoh’s daughter (Version 01). This is the original version, with bare chested Egyptian men.

02) (Next page) Exodus 02 – Birth of Moses – Scene 02 – Pharaoh’s daughter (Version 02). This is the newer, more modest version (specifically requested by a customer) which covers up the bare chested men in the scene.

Here is the scene without the Egyptian figures:

Background of Exodus 02 – Birth of Moses – Scene 02 – Pharaoh’s daughter (Version 01 and 02)

Click on the colour bar below to view/buy this Background:
Background of Exodus 02 – Birth of Moses – Scene 02 – Pharaoh’s daughter (Version 01 and 02)

I wanted to show the wealth of Pharaoh’s daughter in this scene, which is why I have her wearing gold jewellery, with bright red, blue & green gemstones. None of the other figures are wearing gold.

Pharaoh’s daughter’s servant girls have arm bands, but their jewellery is made of silver. Notice also that I have designed their waist belts of alternative layers of leather & silver, a colour motif that is also seen in the 2 male servants who are wearing leather arm bands, with silver inlaid into it. These people could be servants of Pharaoh’s daughter, but equally they could be slaves, since slavery was accepted practice in ancient Egypt. Bearing that in mind, perhaps the leather & silver motif denotes slave ownership by Pharaoh’s daughter.

My research into ancient Egyptian costume informs me that men & women often wore fine, transparent linen clothing, presumably due to the high temperature of the Egyptian climate. You’ll notice that you can see the skin tones underneath the pleated, folded clothing of the figures in my scene, which is how I illustrate translucent clothing materials.

“The ancient Egyptians wore light clothes made from linen. Linen is made from flax – a plant which was grown along the Nile. Once harvested, the flax was soaked in water until soft. The soften flax was then separated into fibres which were beaten before being spun into thread which was then woven into cloth.

Egyptian women wore full length straight dresses with one or two shoulder straps. During the New Kingdom period it became fashionable for dresses to be pleated or draped. The dresses worn by rich Egyptian women were made from fine transparent linen. Like the men, rich Egyptian women decorated their clothes and wore jewellery and headdresses.”
(Source: http://www.historyonthenet.com/Egyptians/clothing.htm)

The stone carved statue on the pedestal is of Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, and Sobki), who was a crocodile-headed man deity figure in ancient Egyptian mythology. That seemed fitting, as the scene is set on the Nile river bank.

There are two flamingo’s (Phoenicopterus roseus) flying overhead.