The Flight into Egypt

Warned by an angel that King Herod had ordered all infants in Bethlehem to be killed, Joseph ‘rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt.’ Following the biblical account, here the Holy Family make their way through a dark forest. While the donkey and the figure of Joseph are lost in the shadows, Cavallino uses a shaft of cool moonlight to illuminate the tender interaction between Mary and Jesus. Cavallino depicts Mary in her iconic red gown enveloped by a rich blue mantle. Joseph is also wearing a blue shirt, which is torn at the elbow to reveal a white undergarment, symbol of his lowly status. He reaches into the palm tree behind them, and may be picking dates. Sold as a work by an ‘Anonymous Italian’, this canvas is placed in the crucial phase of the Bernardo Cavallino’s painting activity, after the early 1640s, which was characterised by formal elegance, theatrical layout, natural light, jewel-like colours, and a restrained rendering of moods. Warned by an angel that King Herod had ordered all infants in Bethlehem to be killed, Joseph ‘rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt.’ Following the biblical account, here the Holy Family make their way through a dark forest. While the donkey and the figure of Joseph are lost in the shadows, Cavallino uses a shaft of cool moonlight to illuminate the tender interaction between Mary and Jesus. Cavallino depicts Mary in her iconic red gown enveloped by a rich blue mantle. Joseph is also wearing a blue shirt, which is torn at the elbow to reveal a white undergarment, symbol of his lowly status. He reaches into the palm tree behind them, and may be picking dates. Sold as a work by an ‘Anonymous Italian’, this canvas is placed in the crucial phase of the Bernardo Cavallino’s painting activity, after the early 1640s, which was characterised by formal elegance, theatrical layout, natural light, jewel-like colours, and a restrained rendering of moods. Last updated: Sensing Naples, 2023