Spanish school; 17th century.
"Rest of the Flight into Egypt".
Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.
It has repainting and restorations.
It conserves a period frame.
Measurements: 42 x 32; 61 x 50 cm (frame).
The flight to Egypt is an episode of the Gospel of Matthew very treated in art, frequently used to identify the Holy Family with those disadvantaged by emigration and political repression. The New Testament account, very brief and typical of Matthew's Gospel, tells how an angel appears in a dream to Saint Joseph and tells him that he must flee to Egypt with Mary and the Child, because King Herod was looking for him to kill him. Joseph obeys, and after a time he is ordered to return, in a similar manner. The evangelist himself sees in the episode the fulfilment of an Old Testament prophecy: "out of Egypt I called my son" (Hosea 11:1). In the apocryphal Gospels and in later Christian tradition, this episode will be expanded with a multitude of anecdotes and miracles that take place during the journey, including the rest during the flight into Egypt, a necessary pause for the Virgin to suckle the Child.
This scene is set in an idealised landscape, which shows the strong influence of 17th-century Spanish Baroque models on the present work, among other details. Although there are no horses, except for a donkey, and no figures, the natural setting suggests that it depicts the Rest in the Flight into Egypt, although the absence of such figures could also mean that it is a Holy Family.