Emilian School, 18th Century, Rest On The Flight Into Egypt

Emilian School, 18th century

Rest During the Flight into Egypt

Oil on canvas, 18.5 x 24.5

The painting depicts, in a bucolic, nocturnal setting, the Virgin Mary seated on the ground with one knee bent and the other leg stretched out, nursing the infant Jesus. St. Joseph stands in the background, almost in a secondary position and in the shadows compared to the Madonna and Child. Finally, the little donkey on which the Virgin and her son set out on their flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s persecution is also depicted, pausing the journey to take a moment’s rest. This subject was particularly popular in the art world, even though the Flight is recounted only in the Gospel according to Matthew and in a verse of the Quran, where the events are set in Egypt. It is the apocryphal texts that provide us with more details about the story, from which artists draw inspiration: from the famous date palms that are said to have bowed of their own accord to offer their fruit to the infant Jesus, to the countless crossings of the Nile River (Historia monachorum in Aegypto); furthermore, from lions and leopards ready to escort the trio (Pseudo-Gospel of Matthew) to Jesus quickening his pace so that his parents would not suffer excessively from the heat, right up to numerous miracles (Arabic-Syriac Infancy Gospel). The painting in question, however, depicts the Holy Family in a rather sparse natural setting, where a few slender saplings can be glimpsed in the half-light.

The treatment of the garments—rendered in soft, well-blended colors with subtle chiaroscuro—as well as that of the skin tones, particularly the Madonna’s porcelain-like complexion, points to an Emilian origin for the painting. The work still reflects 17th-century traditions in its nocturnal setting, but it dates to the first half of the 18th century.

A private collection includes a *Rest on the Flight into Egypt* by an anonymous 18th-century Bolognese artist, partly similar to the one presented here: note, in fact, the pose of the Virgin, depicted in profile, seated on the ground in the same position as the Madonna under consideration. The model for the Virgin has its precedents among the masters of 17th-century Emilian painting, such as Francesco Albani.