The Flight into Egypt

Carpaccio · c. 1515
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Vittore Carpaccio, best known for his large story paintings for the confraternities of Venice, painted this panel around 1515. It hung in the royal museums of Berlin for a century before coming to Washington in 1937.

The family walks across the picture from left to right like a frieze: Joseph strides ahead, looking back, and Mary rides behind him with the Child in her arms. The landscape is not Egypt or Judea but the green countryside of the Veneto, with a river, a bridge and blue hills.

From the text

The angel’s warning to Joseph in a dream (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 bright daytime landscape, though the text says they left by night

A donkey for Mary — the text does not say how they travelled

Mary’s cloak of blue and gold brocade, like a Venetian fabric

The countryside, river and villages of northern Italy

Details

Mary and the Child

Wrapped in a brocade cloak; the Child holds on to her and looks out at us.

Joseph

In a red cloak over a blue tunic, leaning on a staff and looking back.

The donkey

Led by a rope, with a brass-studded bridle.

Mountains and houses

A little village and blue peaks on the horizon.

Vittore Carpaccio, Venetian, c. 1465–1525/1526. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.28) · Oil on panel · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

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.”