Artwork Page for The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Details / Information for The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

1587–90

Camillo Procaccini

(Italian, 1546–1629)
Culture
Italy, 16th century
Medium
etching
Support
Laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 22 x 27 cm (8 11/16 x 10 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2015.26
Catalogue raisonné
TIB 39, comm. pt. 2, 3904.002
State
II/II
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Camillo Procaccini used etching, a relatively new medium at the time, to create what were considered “printed drawings,” prints with the effect of spontaneous drawings, made with delicate and fluid lines on the etching plate. Here, he filled almost every inch of the composition with moving foliage, practically fusing nature with Mary, Joseph, and the Christ child, who have stopped on their flight from King Herod’s troops sent to kill Christ. Nature functions less as a container of symbols and more as a vibrant life force meant to evoke the viewer’s pious emotion.
A horizontally oriented etching in dense black-inked lines depicts the Virgin Mary and baby Christ with light skin tones seated beneath dense trees. Mary holds the infant in her lap on our left. To our right, Joseph, an older bearded man, sits and gestures toward them. A donkey stands behind Joseph, while a rectangular plaque hangs from a branch in the upper right. The figures are set against a landscape with a distant horizon.

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

1587–90

Camillo Procaccini

(Italian, 1546–1629)
Italy, 16th century

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