The Earls of Radnor owned the pair from then until 1945, when it was split for the first time and The Adoration of the Golden Calf bought by the National Gallery in London for £10,000, half of which was contributed by the Art Fund.

It now hangs in Room 19 of the National Gallery, where it and Poussin's The Adoration of the Shepherds were vandalised with red spray paint on 17 July 2011.

[2] The painting's subject follows an event described in the Book of Exodus, chapter 32: during Moses' ascent to Mount Sinai, Aaron gatherred the people's gold to build a Golden Calf, an idol inspired by the Egyptians deities, despite the prohibition of the third commandment of the Decalogue.

Moses, returning back with Joshua, discovers the scene of idolatry, lifts the tablets of the Law to break them.

The decoration of the painting includes two trees on either side, a dry one on the right, and another bearing foliage on the left, in the direction of the two men descending from the mountain, Moses and Joshua.