Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt

English

Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt: Rembrandt

Price: Price on Request
Art Type: Oil Painting
Size:
English Comments: 0
International Comments: 0
Creating Date:
Introduction and Works of Rembrandt >>

Contemporary-Art.org

Reproduction

Enlarge

Rembrandt Oil Painting - Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Keywords: Landscape, Rest, Flight, Egypt

Work Overview: Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt
REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn
1647
Oil on panel
34 x 48 cm
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

This painting is Rembrandt's only night scene. It is an adaptation of a famous painting by Adam Elsheimer that circulated in the Netherlands during Rembrandt's youth, and that was reproduced in an engraving by the Utrecht artist Hendrick Goudt in 1613.

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.[1]

The subject did not develop until the second half of the fourteenth century, though it was an "obvious step" from depictions of the "legend of the palm tree" where they pause to eat dates and rest; palm trees are often included.[2] It was a further elaboration of the long-standing traditions of incidents that embellished the story of the Flight into Egypt, which the New Testament merely says happened, without giving any details.[3]

The earliest known Rest is a panel in the large compartmented Grabow Altarpiece by the north German painter Meister Bertram, from about 1379,[4] and the subject was mainly found north of the Alps until 1500 or later. Most depictions are made for wealthy homes rather than churches, and the subject only rarely forms part of cycles of the Life of Christ in churches (though the Grabow Altarpiece is one exception). As landscape painting increased in popularity, it became an alternative to the original scene of the family on the road, and by the late sixteenth century perhaps overtook it in popularity.[5]

The figures are often simply resting, but sometimes more definite camping or picnicing is shown, perhaps assisted by angels. In earlier pieces the Virgin is sometimes breastfeeding, connecting to the long-standing iconography of the Virgo Lactans.[6] Joseph may be active, gathering firewood or fetching water, but in later pieces he is sometimes fast asleep, which the Virgin rarely is. In larger landscapes, other legendary incidents from the Flight may be seen in the distance.

Having been notified that a new ‘King of the Jews’ had been born, King Herod ordered the slaying of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem. In order to save the Christ Child, an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him to flee with his family to Egypt. This subject occupies only a small place in Rembrandt’s painting. The artist chose to place more emphasis on the mesmerising atmosphere of a hilly landscape at night, illuminated by multiple light sources. The painting is one of nine painted landscapes by Rembrandt and the only by night.

Copyright Statement:
All the reproduction of any forms about this work unauthorized by Singing Palette including images, texts and so on will be deemed to be violating the Copyright Laws.
To cite this webpage, please link back here.

>> English Comments >> Chinese Comments >> French Comments >> German Comments >>Report

Rembrandt

Work Overview