Smiting All the Borders with Frogs

‘I Will Smite All Thy Borders with Frogs’ Commentary by Geoffrey Nuttall Bible Passage This fresco is one of twelve episodes from the Life of Moses that Bishop Filos Roverella commissioned in 1547 to decorate one of the principal rooms of his episcopal palace in Ascoli Piceno, in the Italian region of Le Marche. The scene is set outside what is clearly a sixteenth-century reimagining of the palace of the pharaoh, whose al fresco meal has been interrupted by an advance party of half a dozen energetic frogs. Their companions emerge in ever increasing numbers from a circular pond within the palace grounds. The richly clad, white-bearded, black-capped figure of Moses, silhouetted against a carved pilaster in the centre of the composition, stares down at the pharaoh. The latter’s self-referential gesture acknowledges the words Moses has just addressed to him, as the prophet’s left hand, highlighted against the white forecourt of the palace, points to one of the frogs the pharaoh’s defiance has unleashed upon his kingdom. In the foreground, across the width of the mural, a second encounter is taking place, between the pharaoh’s chief magician, dressed in gold brocade and a fantastical pointed hat, and the dynamic figure of Aaron, his rod raised threateningly above his head, as he curses the land of Egypt—a moment to which some of the scene’s amphibious protagonists seem to be paying particular attention. As the frogs pour from the pond, so the pharaoh’s courtiers pour out of the palace, many in exotic costumes. This group seems more curious than afraid, whilst the more timorous look down from behind a marble balustrade abutting the piano nobile of the palace. Beyond the accursed pond, a road climbs through rich fields, towards a small town perched beneath a rocky mountain, evoking the kingdom of Egypt in the guise of the landscape of the Marche, about to be smitten as far as its borders by the plague of frogs. As was widely known across the ancient world, many of the gods of Egypt took on animal form, amongst them Hepet, the frog-goddess of fertility, who rose out of the Nile to regenerate the land. Fogolino’s superficially irreverent depiction of the scene may, therefore (even if unwittingly), have a sound theological basis. The pharaoh’s magicians have their own frogs to summon (Exodus 8:7). Yet they cannot withstand the wrath of the God of Moses. Their attempts make a mockery of their powers and compound the misery of their people. References Blasio, Silvia. 2017. ‘“Finito il tutto con buon gusti, … con dilicatezza da diligente Miniatore”: le storie di Mosè di Marcello Fogolino nel Palazzo Roverella di Ascoli Piceno’, in Ordine e bizzarria. Il Rinascimento di Marcello Fogolino, ed. by Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, Laura Dal Prà, and Marina Botteri (Trento: Castello del Buonconsiglio), pp.399–415 Furlan, Caterina. 1997. ‘Fogolino, Marcello’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 48, available at https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marcello-fogolino_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ [accessed 29 April 2025]