The Donkey Led to the River

This series by Herman Swanevelt, The Flight into Egypt, illustrates an event from the New Testament of the Bible. Joseph, Mary, and Christ fled into Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution. Traditionally represented as a single image, Swanevelt enlarged the story into four scenes. The Holy family is first shown traveling with three angels behind them, then Joseph helps Mary off the donkey, next Joseph leads the donkey to water as Mary changes the child, and finally the family is at rest. However, the main focus of each of these prints is the depiction of landscape, a genre that reached unprecedented levels of popularity during the 1600s. The scenery, looking much more like the Italian countryside than Egypt, was inspired by Swanevelt's paintings. Although he was Dutch, he spent most of his career in Paris and Rome. As a painter, he was known for his ability to convey warm, glowing sunlight, a quality also found in his etchings.

A horizontally oriented etching in black ink depicts a landscape where fine lines convey dense trees and a rocky cliff on the left. In the foreground, two winged figures kneel before a woman holding a child. To the right, a figure leads a donkey toward a river near a gnarled, fallen log. The scene opens to a wide, clouded sky, with cursive inscriptions lining the bottom edge.

The Donkey Led to the River

c. 1652–54

Herman van Swanevelt

(Dutch, c. 1600–1655)

Netherlands

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