Title: The Flight into Egypt

Artist: Luca Giordano (Italian, Naples 1634–1705)

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 24 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.

Gallery: The Met Collection, New York

Though just two verses of Matthew’s infancy narrative (Mt 2:13-15), the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt has provided Christians with a meaningful source of meditation for millennia. Its richness is manifested in sacred art, which captures the many aspects of the Holy Family’s journey: peril, providence, surrender, participation, and even rest. The Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods contain countless renditions. Giordano (1634-1705), a late-Baroque artist whose work we see here, painted multiple variations of the theme. His style synthesizes Roman classicism with Baroque dynamism — a harmonious yet complex result that suits the subject perfectly. 

In this painting, Giordano’s Holy Family is ushered across the Nile River by a pre-figured Christopher, or “Christ-bearer,” calling to mind that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus encountered God in his angels and servants continuously, even in exile. A theme of duality plays across the canvas in color, light, content, and even brushstroke: warm and cool, dark and light, old and young, strong and meek, action and rest, rough and smooth. Each element repeatedly draws the viewer into meditation of this God-man, his Virgin Mother, and the active surrender of the Holy Family that we are each called to pursue.