Rest on the Flight to Egypt

Orazio Gentileschi - Rest on the Flight to Egypt - 1625-26 - Oil on canvas, Height: 54 in (137.1 cm); Width: 85 in (215.9 cm) - Kunsthistorisches Museum - Vienna (click photo for larger image)Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639) was one of the more important Italian Mannerist painters who came under the influence of Caravaggio and who was one of the more successful interpreters of his style. His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was trained in his studio, also became a noteworthy Baroque artist.

Bisected by a rough brick wall, dominated by the donkey’s head popping above it, Gentileschi’s Rest on the Flight to Egypt seems a strange composition. Joseph is essentially passed out with exhaustion, his head lolling backwards. The Virgin Mary’s feet are dirty and she is too tired to even cradle the hungry baby, who looks furtively in the direction of the viewer while being nursed. The Holy Family are fugitives from the murderous Herod and his Massacre of the Innocents (another theme addressed in the history of art).