User:Hafspajen/The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

The Rest on The Flight into Egypt is a painting by the Flemish artist Gerard David. The painting's narrative is based on the apocryphal legend telling the story of Flight into Egypt, This episode is frequently depicted in art history. The work is showing the scene when during the journey  the Holy Family takes a rest beside a small watercourse. The painting is executed in oil on panel, and it is dated from circa 1510.

Background
The painting is a small panel that shows a serene landscape scene with figures, charcterised by a mood of calm equilibrium, telling the story of the Flight into Egypt. In the Gospel of Matthew is described how Joseph had a dream where an angel warns him that King Herod intends to kill the infants in the area he lived and that he must flee with his family:

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
 * And when they were departed, behold,
 * the angel of the Lord appeareth to
 * Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and
 * take the young child and his mother,
 * and flee into Egypt, and be thou there
 * until I bring thee word: for Herod will
 * seek the young child to destroy him.

Matthew verse 2:13

The scene depicts a miracle that occured on the way, while feeing outside the dominions of King Herod, according to an other source, from the New Testament apocrypha. the First Infancy Gospel of Jesus After three days of travel, the family was tired and the Virgin Mary was sitting beside the road, hungry. Joseph is trying to find some food in the surroundings, and he is trying to reach up the fruits on the branches  of a tree with a  stick. Joseph can't reach the date–palm branches to pick the fruit, the branches were too high for him. When the Child Jesus saw this he commanded the palm to lower its branches, witch the palm did. Gerard David rewrote -?- this miracle a little, by giving Joseph a stick to hit the branches with, while he  replaced the  date–palm from the legend with a  chestnut tree, instead.

The composition has a good balance, the figures of the Madonna and the Child are centrally placed, while the donkey is standing to the left, and Joseph, in seen the backgroung, in an imaginary landscape  that relates harmoniously  to the depicted figure. There are trees on both sides and behind the woods there is a hilly landscape revealed in the backround, with a small road, houses and a little town
 * the Madonna has her's robes painted with subtle differences of colour variations, lightblue and dark blue, the whole painting has the dominant colur blue, the main figure as well as the background. Her symbolic colors are red and blue; the colours she is often depicted wearing, and the blue has the symbolic meanings of  purity of the soul and heaven. The bunch of grapes held by the Madonna in thront of the child has a the special significance: it is the symbol of the Eucharist. The fine rays of golden light surrounds the head  of the child; showing that this is not like any other child, but a holy child, capable to do miracles. The alternating bands of light and dark, the soft shapes and voids and the restful blue color  throughout the composition unifies the work and it confers an ethereal and peaceful quality to this work. They are characterised by an atmospheric, timeless, and almost dream like serenity, achieved through soft, warm and subtle colourisation, and masterful handling of light and shadow

Painter


Gerard David was the last great artist in Bruges, painted with the gentle mood and style of an earlier generation. In that sense he held to a tradition that was already being abandoned in more “modern” cities such as Antwerp. In other respects, however, especially in his innovative use of symbols and sensitive treatment of the landscape, David was quite progressive.

These qualities are apparent in this small panel of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. The quiet and peaceful scenery shares prominence with the tender image of the Virgin and Child, suggesting narrative elements of the story and amplifying their meaning. At the right, Joseph beats chestnuts from a tree. In northern Europe at this time, the chestnut was a staple in the diet. This image was familiar from manuscripts, which often illustrated their calendars with labors appropriate to each month, including nut gathering in October and November. David substituted the chestnut for the more exotic date palms that usually figure in the story. They were said to have bent to offer their fruit to the hungry family.

In the foreground, each carefully painted plant would have been recognized by contemporary viewers as a symbol that enhanced the meaning of the scene. Violets, for example, underscore the Virgin’s humility. The plantain, which stanches blood, alludes to Christ’s death, and the grapes Jesus holds suggest the wine of the communion.