Artwork
The Flight into Egypt
The Flight into Egypt is an oil painting by the Mannerist artist El Greco. It dates from 1570 and is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado. Created around 1570, this oil on canvas depicts the biblical episode of the Holy Family’s departure for Egypt.
About this work
Overview
Created around 1570, this oil on canvas depicts the biblical episode of the Holy Family’s departure for Egypt. The composition centers on a woman cradling an infant, seated on a dark donkey, while a man guides the animal with a rope and a staff. They are set against a gently rolling landscape beneath a clear sky, rendered in muted earth tones.
Subject & Meaning
The work illustrates the moment of exile described in the Gospel of Matthew, emphasizing the vulnerability and devotion of the family. The mother’s protective hold on the child and the father’s guiding posture convey both the physical journey and the spiritual perseverance required by the fledgling Holy Family.
Technique & Style
The painting reflects El Greco’s early Venetian phase, borrowing compositional elements from Tintoretto and Jacopo Bassano, particularly in the expansive landscape and atmospheric clouds. The colour palette combines the bright yellows and reds of the figures with a sky rendered in soft blues, echoing the tonal influences of Raphael and Michelangelo while retaining the artist’s emerging chromatic sensibility.
History & Provenance
Now part of the Museo del Prado’s collection in Madrid, the canvas belongs to the artist’s formative period before his move to Spain. Its dating to his Venice stay is supported by stylistic parallels with other works of the time, such as the Healing of the Man Born Blind, confirming its place among his earliest surviving paintings.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Doménikos Theotokópoulos was born in 1541 in Candia (modern Heraklion), the capital of Venetian-ruled Crete, where he was trained in the post-Byzantine tradition of icon painting.
