The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Part II of 3

Laurent de La Hyre, The Rest on the Flight into
Egypt
French, 1648
Louisville, Speed Art Museum

As we have seen in the previous essay, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Part I, by the period around 1500 the subject of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt was well enough established to begin to move beyond strict adherence to its specifically Biblical and apocryphal sources.  

Just Resting

In many works of art, the Holy Family is seen to be simply resting.  They may be seated on the ground, or under a tree, or finding shelter in ruined buildings (the latter carries with it a reference to the end of the old order, which is to be transformed by the Infant Jesus).  

As happened in paintings of the Flight into Egypt itself, artists frequently set the Rest on the Flight amid landscape, which sometimes dwarfed the figures of the Holy Family at rest as it had in motion.

Parmigianino, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c.1523-1525
London, Courtauld Gallery

Cornelys Massys, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, c.1540-1545
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Pieter Lastman, The Rest on Flight into Egypt
Dutch, c.1600
Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

Abraham Bloemaert, Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Dutch, c.1605-1610
Utrecht, Centraal Museum

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Forest Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, 1607
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Peter van der Borcht, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, c.1618
Brighton, Brighton and Hove Museums and Art Galleries

 

Cornelis van Poelenburch, The Rest on Flight into Egypt
Dutch, c. 1640-1650
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

Cornelis van Poelenburgh, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Dutch, c.1640
Cambridge (MA), Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University

Laurent de la Hyre, The Rest on Flight into Egypt
French, 1641
Nantes, Musee des Beaux-Arts

Laurent de La Hire, The Holy Family in a Landscape with Antique Ruins
French, After 1641
Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with the Rest on Flight into Egypt
French, 1647
Dresden, Gemaeldegalerie Alte Meister

Rembrandt, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Dutch, 1647
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland

Bernard Fuckerad, The Rest on Flight into Egypt
German, before 1662
Cologne, Church of the Assumption

Bartolome Esteban Murillo, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Spanish, c.1665
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Giambattista Pittoni, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c. 1725-1726
Pedralbes, Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza

Paul Delaroche, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
French, 1844
London, Wallace Collection

Resting Activities

As part of this more independent strain of interpretation other symbols, activities and attributes began to be added to engage the Holy Family.   Among them are:

Feeding the Baby – The earliest of these images show a quiet scene in which Mary feeds Jesus, while Joseph rests or tends to the donkey.

Gerard David, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, c. 1500
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

Gerard David, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, c.1500
Oslo, Nasjonalmuseet

Orazio Gentileschi, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c. 1622-1628
Vienna, Kunstshistorisches Museum

Noel Halle, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
French, c. 1755-1760
Private Collection

Jacob More, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Scottish, c.1780
Private Collection

Reading -  This activity, a sign of a certain amount of available leisure and therefore conveying the idea of rest, is primarily engaged in by Saint Joseph, occasionally by Mary and also occasionally by Jesus.   It is also a reference to the Old Testament writings which predicted or prefigured the coming of the Messiah. 

Andrea del Sarto, The Madonna del Sacco
Italian, 1525
Florence, Church of Santissima Annunziata

Francesco Albani, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c.1610
Private Collection

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, 17th Century
Nantes, Musee des Beaux-Arts

Pierre Puget, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
French, c. 1662-1663
Private Collection

Aert de Gelder, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Dutch, c. 1690
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

Listening to Music – What is perhaps the most famous image of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt is that painted by Caravaggio around 1596.  

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c. 1596-1597
Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilii

In this picture we see Mary cuddling the sleeping Child to the right while Joseph, seated at the left, holds music for the angel who stands at the center of the painting, his back to us, as he plays a viol or violin.   

Other pictures show angelic orchestras serenading the Child and His Mother. 

Arcangelo Salimbeni, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c. 1571-1572
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Carlo Saraceni, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, 1606
Frascati, Eremo dei Camaldolesi

Playing – Occasionally, some artists depicted the Christ Child as playing with angels or with butterflies or birds.  Butterflies are usually considered to refer to the Resurrection, since they emerge for the cocoons of their larval stage through a process that resembles death and resurrection.  Birds often refer to the souls of the Blessed, freed from their earthbound existence.¹

Albrecht Altdorfer, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
German, 1510
Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Parmigianino, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, 1524
Madrid, Museo del Prado

Maerten van Heemskerck, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Dutch, c.1530
Washington (DC), National Gallery of Art

Anthony van Dyck, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, known as the Madonna with the Partridges
Flemish, c. 1630-1632
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Antoine Watteau, The Holy Family (Rest on the Flight into Egypt)
French, 1719
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Lambs – The infant Saint John the Baptist is often shown in proximity to a lamb, which is one of his attributes, based on his adult declaration that the adult Jesus is the “lamb of God”.  However, in a few cases lambs also appear in images of the Rest when John is not there.  

Anonymous, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, c.1620
Enniskillen (NI), Castle Coole, National Trust

Angelo Caroselli, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Italian, c. 1630-1645
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica

Whenever they do appear, however, they are references to the same idea, that Jesus is the sacrificial, pure Lamb of God.

Arriving in Egypt

A few images show the Holy Family arriving in Egypt and surrounded with elements of Egyptian civilization, as it was known at the time in which that particular work was painted.  Thus the earliest images in this group are quite fanciful and imagine Egypt as being similar to contemporary Europe. One can see, through these paintings, the growing level of awareness of Egyptian civilization and art. Thus the images made in the later years of the nineteenth century are archaeological in character, reflecting the greatly increased knowledge of Egyptian civilization.  

The Holy Family Arrives in Egypt with the Fall of the Egyptian Idols
From the Salzburger Missal
German (Regensburg), 15th Century
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
MS BSB Clm 15708, fol. 90v

Nicolas Poussin, The Holy Family in Egypt
French, c. 1655-1657
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Jan Frans van Bloemen, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Flemish, c.1690
Private Collection

Jan van Huysum, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Dutch, c. 1700-1749

Peterborough (UK), Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery

Luc Olivier Merson, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
French, 1879
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

One of the most striking images of the Holy Family following their arrival in Egypt is this late 19th Century image.  It draws upon the growing fascination of Europeans with the artifacts of ancient Egypt and with the dry landscape of Egypt itself, presenting Mary and the Child Jesus asleep between the paws of a guardian Sphinx, while Saint Joseph lies asleep by the campfire and the donkey grazes on the meager vegetation.

Edwin Long, Anno Domini, The Arrival of the Holy Family in Egypt
English, 1883
Bournemouth (UK), Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum

James Tissot, The Sojourn in Egypt
French, 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum

Glyn Warren Philpot, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
English, 1922
London, Tate Britain

The very latest of this kind of image that I could find, from the 1920s, reflects early twentieth-century artistic movements and is a return to a kind of symbolic world view. As the Holy Family lie asleep on the ground beside a fallen statue, they are observed, not by angels, but by mythical creatures from Roman and Egyptian religions. There are centaurs, a faun and a dark and ominous sphinx.

To Be Continued....

© M. Duffy, 2017

________________________

1. See:  George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, New York, Oxford University Press, 1961, which is still the standard work on this subject.

Peter, Paul and Caravaggio

Cerasi Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
(In reality, never as brightly lit as this photo)

Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The two are generally seen as the pillars of the early Church. Peter the Apostle chosen by Jesus to lead the Church into the future and Paul the convert and Apostle to the Gentiles. Between them they established the fledgling Church, carrying the Word far beyond the confines of Palestine and into the Greco-Roman world. And they both suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Nero.


They are also frequently seen together in artistic creations. In 2008 I wrote about Raphael’s inclusion of the two saints in his tapestries for the Sistine Chapel. Today I would like to look at the two paintings by Caravaggio in the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.


Completed around 1600 they have long been recognized as being among the finest works of Caravaggio’s early maturity. Typical of his work they feature startlingly realistic figures seen in strong chiaroscuro (dark/light). In the space of the tiny Cerasi chapel, they are overwhelming in their impact on the viewer.

I have already written about the Conversion of St. Paul (here)

Caravaggio, Conversion of St. Paul
Italian, 1600
Rome, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Cerasi Chapel

Facing it is the Martyrdom of St. Peter. As with the Conversion of St. Paul this is an exceptionally intimate experience.  We see St. Peter as he is being raised on the cross, head first, as tradition suggests. The three executioners, none of whose faces we can see clearly, strain to raise the cross. Only Peter’s face is visible. It is as though we were among the witnesses to his crucifixion.  Perhaps it is our own hands that have driven the nails into his.  This interpretation is suggested by the fact that we see his body turned in our direction and his eyes directed toward the nails. 

Caravaggio, Martyrdom of Saint Peter

Italian, 1600

Rome, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Cerasi Chapel

Such visionary immediacy is typical of the early Baroque. The intent is to involve the viewer of a work of art as immediately as possible, to force us to place ourselves in the position of participants, even to shock. It is a way of making the past real to us, part of our time.  We are called to both compassion and sorrow, even to guilt for our own sins. 

© M. Duffy, 2011



The Conversion of Saint Paul and the Two Michelangelos

 Michelangelo Buonarroti, Conversion of Saint Paul
Italian, c. 1542-1545
Vatican City, Apostolic Palace, Pauline Chapel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"On that journey as I drew near to Damascus,

about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.

I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,

'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'

I replied, 'Who are you, sir?'

And he said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.'

My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.

I asked, 'What shall I do, sir?'

Acts 22: 6-10

 

 

 

 

 

With these words Saint Paul described the powerful experience that befell him on the road to Damascus, an experience that completely reshaped his life. From that point on, the persecutor of the Way in Jerusalem became the great apostle of the Way to the entire world, to Jew and Gentile alike. From this point on the man who had held the cloaks of those who had stoned Saint Stephen to death for proclaiming Jesus the Nazorean as Lord, was himself persecuted, imprisoned and martyred for the sake of that same Jesus. From that time on Saul of Tarsis became Paul, the preacher and teacher.

There are few more dramatic moments in the history of the early church than this event on the road between Jerusalem and Damascus. It is a drama that has received considerable attention from some of the world’s greatest artists. Among the greatest to have tackled it are two Michelangelos: Michelangelo Buonarotti (known as “Michelangelo”) and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (known as “Caravaggio”).

Both men initially imagined the scene as one of high drama and activity. Indeed, Michelangelo imagined it, in his great late painting in the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel (painted 1542-1545), as an event involving large, active groups of figures in both heaven and earth. From heaven, Christ, surrounded by many other figures (angels, saints) plunges dramatically downward, a bolt of lightening springing from his hand, almost in the manner of the classical deity, Jupiter. The bolt hits the earthly group, which centers on the figure of Saul, lying on the ground, with his arm shielding his face, as a companion supports him. Other companions react by trying to shield themselves, or trying to flee, or simply by cowering, while one person tries to recapture Saul’s startled horse. Michelangelo’s Saul appears curiously older than he is usually depicted, being white bearded. He appears to bear a slight resemblance to Michelangelo himself. One wonders if there was some biographical content in his image. Or is it simply that he wanted to balance the older Saint Peter, whose martyrdom is depicted on the opposite wall of the Pauline Chapel?

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Conversion of Saint Paul (detail)
Italian, c. 1542-1545
Vatican City, Pauline Chapel

In the composition, Michelangelo recapitulates some of his work in the Sistine Chapel, especially the “Last Judgment”, while harking back as well to such early Florentine works as the long-vanished “Battle of Cascina”.

 

Caravaggio painted two very different representations of the event on the road to Damascus relatively early in his career (both are dated as being circa 1600). The first version is usually called “The Conversion of Saul” and resides in the Odescalchi Balbi Collection in Rome. It is typical of many of Caravaggio’s compositions from around this time. (One thinks, for example, of the “Martyrdom of St. Matthew” in the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome). There is a great rush of movement from the upper right where Christ and a supporting angel appear to plummet down, toward the lower left, where Saul lies, his hands covering his face. Caravaggio, of course, was the master of dramatic lighting effects, his great legacy to almost all later painters. And there is plenty of drama in the way in which the light from heaven illumines the face of the angel, the hands of Christ, the face of Saul’s startled companion and finally swells to a crescendo on Saul’s body and protective hands. This painting, commissioned by Cardinal Tiberio Cerasi for his chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, was never installed there. It was recently cleaned and exhibited in Milan during Advent 2008.

Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul
Italian, c. 1600
Rome, Odescalchi Balbi Collection

 
The second version, which did get installed in the Cerasi Chapel, where it remains today, is often called “The Road to Damascus”. It is an extraordinary painting. Instead of a narrative full of frantic movement we are faced with the experience itself. With our vision blocked by the body of Saul's horse, we are, as it were, inside the silent center of the experience at the moment it happens. We are one of Saul’s companions. We see him in his weakness, his shock, his blindness. 

Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul
Italian, c. 1600-1601
Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo, Cerisi Chapel

 We see him sprawled on his back, in a tangle of arms and legs: his own and those of his horse and other companion. We do not see the cause of his fall, we see, as his companions did, only the light. But, although we cannot even see much of his face, we see the intensity of his reaction. We know he is listening to a voice we cannot hear. And we are struck with wonder.

Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul (detail)
Italian, c. 1600-1601
Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo, Cerisi Chapel

When you stand in the Cerasi Chapel, which is very, very tiny, the effect of this monumental picture and its equally monumental pendent, “The Crucifixion of St. Peter” is truly overwhelming. One of the aims of Counter-Reformation art and of Baroque art in general is to engage the spectator, to make the events of salvation history present to the viewer. It is hard to imagine a more truly involving work of art.



© M. Duffy, 2009, pictures updated 2024.