| The Flight into Egypt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Claude Lorrain |
| Year | 1635 |
| Type | Oil painting on canvas |
| Dimensions | 71 cm× 98 cm(28 in× 38.5 in) |
| Location | Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis |
The Flight into Egypt is a 1635 oil painting by French artist Claude Lorrain, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. It depicts the Flight into Egypt, when the Holy Family fled to Egypt to escape Herod's persecution. [1]
This early painting by Claude shows Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fleeing the massacre in Bethlehem. In a prefiguration of his future role, the infant Jesus holds the donkey's reins. Although the trio is escaping a slaughter, Claude depicted them in a serene setting. Landscapes like this made Claude famous by combining a rustic vocabulary of shepherds and towering trees with realistic portrayals of the Roman countryside. He perfected his depictions of the latter by risking malaria in order to make the sketches that would allow him to capture the campagna's golden sunlight and atmospheric effects. [2] The Holy Family may be the subject, but the real focus is on light, not narrative. Claude's idealized, Acadian landscape is a study of light and atmosphere in which the religious theme is secondary. [3]
Claude depicted the Flight into Egypt many times, especially in his earlier works. He never painted anything but landscapes, but he created those with such skill that he elevated the genre to new heights. [4] His poetic vision of nature was so highly regarded by his wealthy seventeenth-century patrons that it helped establish landscape painting as a genre in its own right, just like religious and historical paintings. [3]
As a part of the Clowes Collection, The Flight into Egypt was on display at the IMA for decades before it was officially donated, in 2003. At that point, it became a part of the permanent collection and was given the accession number 2003.171. It currently hangs in the William L. and Jane H. Fortune Gallery. [2]
Pieter Bruegelthe Elder was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes ; he was a pioneer in making both types of subject the focus in large paintings.
Claude Lorrain was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in Italy, and is one of the earliest important artists, apart from his contemporaries in Dutch Golden Age painting, to concentrate on landscape painting. His landscapes are usually turned into the more prestigious genre of history paintings by the addition of a few small figures, typically representing a scene from the Bible or classical mythology.
Pieter Aertsen, called Lange Piet because of his height, was a Dutch painter in the style of Northern Mannerism. He is credited with the invention of the monumental genre scene, which combines still life and genre painting and often also includes a biblical scene in the background. He was active in his native city Amsterdam but also worked for a long period in Antwerp, then the centre of artistic life in the Netherlands.
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works, landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects.
The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus since King Herod would seek the child to kill him. The episode is frequently shown in art, as the final episode of the Nativity of Jesus in art, and was a common component in cycles of the Life of the Virgin as well as the Life of Christ. Within the narrative tradition, iconic representation of the "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" developed after the 14th century.
Juan Sánchez Cotán was a Spanish Baroque painter, a pioneer of realism in Spain. His still lifes and bodegones were painted in an austere style, especially when compared to similar works in the Netherlands and Italy.
Landscape with the Flight into Egypt is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Annibale Carracci. Dating from c. 1604, it remains in the palace for which it was painted in Rome as part of the collection of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.
Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre particularly strong from the 17th to 19th centuries. In practice the term often covers art showing shipping on rivers and estuaries, beach scenes and all art showing boats, without any rigid distinction - for practical reasons subjects that can be drawn or painted from dry land in fact feature strongly in the genre. Strictly speaking "maritime art" should always include some element of human seafaring, whereas "marine art" would also include pure seascapes with no human element, though this distinction may not be observed in practice.
The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century.
The Flight into Egypt is an oil-on-copper cabinet painting by the German artist Adam Elsheimer dating from about 1609, while he was in Rome. It is thought to be the first naturalistic rendering of the night sky in Renaissance art. At Elsheimer's death in Rome in 1610, this picture was hanging in his bedroom. Like many other artists before and after him, Elsheimer has depicted the biblical Flight into Egypt, in which Joseph, Mary, and Jesus seek refuge from possible persecution by Herod. For its innovative fusing of religious and landscape elements, and its detailed juxtaposition of light and darkness, The Flight into Egypt is one of Elsheimer's most well-known and lauded works. It is also likely his last painting, for he died a year later.
The Boat Builders is an oil painting on panel by American landscape painter Winslow Homer, which is held in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.
The Banks of the Oise near Pontoise is an 1873 oil painting by French artist Camille Pissarro, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. It depicts the river Oise near the market town of Pontoise.
Aristotle is a 1637 oil painting by Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is part of a series of six portraits of ancient philosophers commissioned by the Prince of Liechtenstein in 1636.
Entry of Christ into Jerusalem is an 1125 fresco by the Master of San Baudelio de Berlanga, originally located at San Baudelio de Berlanga but now on display in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. It depicts Christ and seven disciples entering Jerusalem to the acclaim of its inhabitants.
Triptych of the Annunciation is a 1483 triptych by the Flemish artist known only as the Master of the Legend of Saint Ursula, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. It depicts the Annunciation on the central panel, while the surrounding panels and the outside of the wings are covered in various pairs of male saints.
The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist is an oil painting by Italian artist Giovanni Francesco Bezzi, also known as Nosadella, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. Painted roughly 1550-1560, it depicts Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and John in a powerful, Mannerist style.
Afternoon Tea is a 1910 oil painting by American artist Richard E. Miller, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana. Like many of Miller's paintings, it depicts women in a sunny scene, filled with flowers, depicted in his Impressionist style with a distinct flavor of Japonism.
The world landscape, a translation of the German Weltlandschaft, is a type of composition in Western painting showing an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. The subject of each painting is usually a Biblical or historical narrative, but the figures comprising this narrative element are dwarfed by their surroundings.
A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms is a painting by the Netherlandish artist Pieter Aertsen (1508–1575). It was completed in 1551. A large painting, it depicts a peasant market scene, with an abundance of meats and other foods. In the background, it shows a scene from the biblical theme of the flight into Egypt, where the Virgin Mary is seen stopped on the road, giving alms to the poor. Thus, although the painting seems to be at first sight an ordinary still life concentrating on foodstuffs, it is rich with symbolism; it in fact hides a symbolic religious meaning, and embodies a visual metaphor encouraging spiritual life. Aertsen made a name for himself during the 1550s painting scenes from everyday life in a naturalistic manner.
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt is a subject in Christian art showing Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus resting during their flight into Egypt. The Holy Family is normally shown in a landscape.