The Food of Angels

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s The Gathering of the Manna ostensibly depicts events first recorded in Exodus 16:15, in which the Israelites collected the miraculous bread provided by God, and questioned its nature. Here, Moses appears raising his hands toward heaven, with his staff held in his right hand. At the top of the composition, the heavenly source of the manna is revealed, distributed from heaven by the hands of angels. The artwork’s vast size (10 metres high) as well as its placement over an altar, draws viewers up and into the scene, making them almost participants in it. Like the Israelites gathering manna, worshippers in the church stand under the upraised arms of Moses as they receive their own miraculous bread in the eucharist. This detail of the angelic distribution suggests that the inspiration for Tiepolo’s work was not Exodus alone, but also Psalm 78. The psalm draws on diverse biblical narratives including the splitting of the sea and the plagues wrought against Egypt, all of which facilitated Israel’s emancipation. Notably, the psalm includes non-biblical traditions such as the Ephraimites’ retreat on a day of battle (v.9). The connection between Tiepolo’s painting and Psalm 78 lies in a specific detail concerning the portrayal of the manna’s divine source. Exodus describes manna in Exodus 16:4 as bread that comes from heaven, a sentiment echoed in other biblical texts (e.g. Nehemiah 9:15; Psalm 105:40). Psalm 78, however, presents a unique portrayal of the manna in verse 25, referring to it as the ‘bread of angels’, which suggests a divine food that angels consume in heaven. This angelic association is vividly captured in the upper portion of Tiepolo’s work, in its depiction of angels scattering the manna. By incorporating this detail, Tiepolo aligns his portrayal of events with Psalm 78’s poetic tradition describing men partaking of the food of angels, and implies that those before the altar are also partakers of this heavenly feast. References Dotti, Davide. 2023. Tiepolo a Verolanuova. Due capolavori restaurati (Milan: Silvana Editoriale) Gruber, Mayer I. 2007. Rashi’s Commentary on the Psalms (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society), p. 518