Rest on the Flight into Egypt with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Francesco Granacci, a close friend and fellow pupil of Michelangelo in Ghirlandaio's workshop, painted this Rest on the Flight into Egypt around 1494. Granacci maintained a productive Florentine workshop throughout the early sixteenth century, producing devotional works and decorative paintings. His early work shows the strong influence of Ghirlandaio's clear, narrative style. This work belongs to the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the preceding century were synthesized into works of monumental clarity and ideal beauty.

Tempera on panel with warm Florentine coloring and careful landscape setting. The Rest on the Flight subject allows Granacci to combine devotional intimacy with the naturalistic landscape typical of late fifteenth-century Florentine painting.