Flight into Egypt
Fra Angelico·1450
Historical Context
Flight into Egypt, painted around 1450 and now in the Museum of San Marco, depicts the Holy Family's journey to Egypt to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. The subject was a favourite in early Renaissance painting, offering landscape, narrative, and the opportunity to depict the tender family group of Mary, Joseph, and the infant Christ in motion. Fra Angelico's version belongs to the San Marco cycle and would have been created in the same spirit as the other works there—as objects for contemplative prayer rather than public spectacle.
Technical Analysis
The Flight into Egypt typically includes the three figures, an ass, and a landscape setting through which the family travels. Fra Angelico uses the horizontal movement of the journey to create gentle compositional rhythm, with the landscape handled in his characteristic combination of schematic mountains and lucid sky.
