Getty Museum
The Flight into Egypt
Creator
Simon BeningFlemish Illuminator · 1483–1561
All works by this person →One of the most celebrated painters of Flanders in the 1500s, Simon Bening was hailed by Portuguese art critic Francisco da Hollanda as the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe. In addition to producing books for powerful aristocrats such as Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Bening worked for a group of international royal patrons including Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infan
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1525–1530
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf
- Culture
- Flemish
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Fleeing to Egypt to avoid Herod's massacre of all newborn children, Joseph walks beside his wife the Virgin Mary, who cradles the Christ child while seated on a donkey. As the family passes a pagan idol atop a column, it breaks in half, signifying the downfall of paganism and the onset of the new Christian era. In the middle ground at the left, soldiers pursuing the Holy Family stop to question a farmer in a field. He truthfully informs them that he saw the family when he was planting his crops, omitting to tell them that the wheat had miraculously grown to full height overnight. Assuming that they had missed the family by months, the soldiers give up their search. These two apocryphal stories often appeared in medieval depictions of the Flight into Egypt.
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