Flemish school of the 17th century. Lot n° 35

Flemish school of the 17th century. "Flight into Egypt". Oil on copper. Size: 59 x 76 cm; 72 x 90 cm (frame). The flight to Egypt is an episode of the Gospel of Matthew very treated in art, often used to identify the Holy Family with those disadvantaged by emigration and political repression. The New Testament story, very brief and typical of the Gospel of Matthew, tells how an angel appears in a dream to St. 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 while he is ordered to return, in a similar manner. The evangelist himself sees in the episode the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy: "out of Egypt I called my son" (Hosea 11:1). In the apocryphal Gospels and in the later Christian tradition, this episode will be expanded with a multitude of anecdotes and miracles that occurred throughout the journey, among which we find the rest during the flight to Egypt, an obligatory pause for the Virgin to breastfeed the Child. The luminosity of the palette used and the detail in the representation of the characters allow us to attribute this scene to the Flemish school of the 17th century.