The Flight into Egypt
Vittore Carpaccio·c. 1515
Historical Context
Carpaccio's Flight into Egypt from around 1515 depicts the holy family's journey to Egypt after the angel warned Joseph of Herod's massacre of the innocents — a subject that allowed the painter to combine sacred narrative with the Venetian tradition of landscape painting. By 1515, Carpaccio was in his late career, having completed the great cycle paintings of the 1490s-1500s that documented the legends of Saint George and Saint Ursula for Venetian confraternities. His late works show him maintaining the narrative skill and documentary attention to costume and landscape that had made the cycle paintings so distinctive while working in smaller formats for private devotional clients.
Technical Analysis
Carpaccio's oil-on-panel technique combines the warm coloring of the Venetian tradition with precise, descriptive detail in the landscape and figures. The carefully observed natural setting and atmospheric distance demonstrate his skill in integrating figure groups with expansive landscape views.
Provenance
Edward Solly [1776-1844], Berlin; purchased 1821 for the Königliche Museen (painting collection installed 1904 in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum), Berlin; sold 1924 to (Charles Albert de Burlet, Berlin). (Professor Luigi Grassi [1858-1937], Florence and Rome).[1] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London). acquired 1927 by Otto H. Kahn [1867-1934], New York. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 26 April 1937 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] Ellis K. Waterhouse, "Review of Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979," _The Burlington Magazine_ 122 (September 1980): 637, states that the painting is "widely believed to have been painted almost entirely by Luigi Grassi." However, conservation examination and treatment by the NGA that was concluded in 1995 indicates that the original paint layer is well preserved. [2] Mellon Trust purchase date is according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).
