Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Cima da Conegliano's Rest on the Flight into Egypt, painted around 1496 and now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, depicts the Holy Family resting during their flight to Egypt to escape Herod's massacre. The subject offered Cima the opportunity to showcase his gift for landscape painting, setting the sacred figures in the luminous Veneto countryside that characterizes all his major works. The painting's presence in Lisbon reflects the Gulbenkian Foundation's superb collection of Renaissance art.

Cima's technique creates a luminous pastoral setting with his characteristic crystalline atmosphere, soft blue-green mountains, and the balanced integration of figures and landscape that distinguishes his narrative compositions.