Hooded, she holds the Child close as she rides.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Flight into Egypt
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
Quartley engraved this plate and signed it at the lower right. It is a quiet design: a wide plain, three figures and a donkey, and a sky that fills more than half the sheet with fine horizontal lines.
Joseph walks barefoot ahead, a staff in one hand, leading the donkey by the bridle with the other. Mary sits on the donkey, hooded, holding the Child close. Thin halos float over their heads, and rays surround the Child. Palms line the far river bank, and a soft light spreads along the horizon.
From the text
- An angel tells Joseph in a dream to take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13)
- “he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt” (Matthew 2:14)
The artist’s own
- A pale sky with light on the horizon, though the text says they left by night
- Halos over Joseph and Mary and rays around the Child, as painters traditionally drew them
- Palm trees and a prickly-pear cactus along the road
Details
Mary and the Child
A halo
A thin ring floats over Joseph’s head.
Palms
A row of palm trees stands along the distant water.
The donkey
It walks with lowered head, ears pricked.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.