The Flight into Egypt

Dürer · c. 1503–5
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Dürer made the woodcuts of the Life of the Virgin in Nuremberg around 1501–05 and sold them as single sheets; in 1511 he published the series as a book.

Joseph leads the donkey through a dark forest, a bundle on his shoulder; Mary rides holding the child, and an ox follows behind. A date palm heavy with fruit stands at the left, and small angels watch from the clouds.

From the text

The angel tells Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13)

“So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt” (Matthew 2:14)

The artist’s own

A thick German forest with one exotic palm

The ox from the Nativity scenes travelling with them

A traveller’s bundle on a staff and a little bridge

Details

Mary and the child

Mary rides the donkey, a wide hat hung on her back.

Joseph

Joseph strides ahead with a staff and bundle, pulling the reins.

The ox

An ox with long horns walks behind.

The palm

A date palm with hanging clusters of fruit.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1959.99.14) · Woodcut · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

Matt 2:13–15When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.” So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”