Akademik

   When Herod ordered the massacre of the innocents, an angel warned Mary and Joseph of the impending danger to the Christ Child. To ensure his safety, the holy couple took the boy to Egypt. In art, the scene is presented in various forms. Sometimes the Virgin and Child sit on a donkey led by Joseph, an image that grants an opportunity to portray the landscape, as in Annibale Carracci's Flight into Egypt of 1603 (Rome, Galleria Doria-Pamphili), and Melchior Broederlam's triptych for the Carthusian Monastery of Dijon (1394-1399), which combines the Flight with Christ's Presentation in the Temple. Other works show the Holy Family resting from their journey, as in Lucas Cranach the Elder's Rest on the Flight into Egypt of 1504 (Berlin, Staatliche Museen) where angels comfort the Virgin and Child. Caravaggio's rendition of c. 1594 (Rome, Galleria Doria-Pamphili) shows an angel playing music, the score held by Joseph, as Mary soothes the Christ Child to sleep. On a few occasions, artists depicted the return of the Holy Family from Egypt, as in Nicolas Poussin's example in the Cleveland Museum of Art (c. 1627). Here Mary, Joseph, and an older Christ Child travel back to Nazareth on a barge.