The Flight into Egypt

Although Dürer’s woodcut depicts a later event in the biblical narrative, the composition is similar to the scene from the Mirror of Holiness, "Mary and Joseph Travel to Bethlehem" CMA 2005.145.24.b—even to the inclusion of an ox. Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus fled Jerusalem for Egypt after Joseph was warned in a dream that Jesus’s life was in danger. The dense, dark forest through which the Holy Family travels seems to close threateningly around them. While the Indian artist envisioned a “pack beast” as a camel, Dürer invented a Middle Eastern landscape by incorporating a palm tree and other curious vegetation.

A vertically oriented print in black ink depicts a bearded man leading a donkey carrying a woman and infant across a stone bridge. They move from left to right through a dense forest, framed by a large palm tree on the left. An ox follows behind. In the upper right, several winged child figures float among clouds. Intricate hatching creates texture across the landscape and the travelers' heavy, draped clothing.

The Flight into Egypt

c. 1503–5

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)

Germany, early 16th Century

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