The Flight into Egypt (Ms. 23, fol. 114v, from the Crohin-La Fontaine Hours)

Master of the Dresden Prayer Book · about 1480–1485 ?
Getty Center, Los Angeles

Another page of the Crohin-La Fontaine Hours, painted in Bruges about 1480–1485 and credited to the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book or his workshop. The scene sits inside a wide border of grey-white acanthus and flowers on a painted gold ground.

A young woman in a gold dress walks beside a donkey loaded with a great bundle. An old man in a green hood follows, holding the swaddled Child. Behind them rise a round brick tower and a wood.

From the text

Joseph takes the Child and His mother and withdraws to Egypt (Matthew 2:14)

The warning given to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 2:13)

The artist’s own

Mary on foot and Joseph carrying the Child — painters more often put her on the donkey

A Flemish road with a castle tower

Details

Mary

She walks in a gold dress and a white veil.

Joseph and the Child

An old man in a green hood carries the baby.

The donkey

A grey donkey carries a large bundle.

The tower

A round tower and trees on the hill behind.

Master of the Dresden Prayer Book or workshop (Flemish, active about 1480–1515). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 23 (86.ML.606), fol. 114v) · Tempera colors and gold, on parchment · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://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.”