The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

1624
(Italian, 1591–1666)
Italy, 17th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 95.9 x 96.6 x 10.8 cm (37 3/4 x 38 1/16 x 4 1/4 in.); Diameter: 68.5 cm (26 15/16 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1967.123
Location: not on view

Description

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (called il Guercino) created Rest on the Flight to Egypt as a tondo, a circular canvas rarely used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries except in the case of holy subjects. The round shape represents the circle, symbolic for the nature of God, believed to have no end and no beginning. The painting depicts Mary the Mother of God, the Infant Christ, St. Joseph, and a musical angel, serenading the Holy Family during their exhausting journey through Egypt. Guercino, "the squint-eyed", was born near Bologna and became an influential painter in Rome in the early seventeenth century, where he created important commissions. His style was an important mix of the strong use of tenebrism, introduced by Caravaggio, and artists of the classical baroque, such as Domenichino, Annibale Carracci, and Guido Reni. The composition is clearly composed with strongly modeled forms and a cool harmony of colors. The sleeping Infant Christ is lulled to sleep by the angel's violin and the ideal landscape with classical ruins adds to the calm serenity of this painting.
  • Tiberio Lancellotti (Palazzo Lancellotti, Rome, Italy), by 1678, by inheritance to his heirs;
    Heirs of Tiberio Lancellotti, sold to William Buchanan (London, England) through Mr. Irvine, 1804;
    William Buchanan (London, England), 1804-
    Jeremiah Harman, by 1824-1844 (sold, Christies’s, London, May 17, 1844, no. 18, through Lloyd to Henry Vane, Second Duke of Cleveland)
    Henry Vane, Second Duke of Cleveland, 1788-1864
    Private collection, London (sold, Sotheby’s, London, May 19, 1965, no. 100, through Julius Weitzner (London, England), to the Cleveland Museum of Art).
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 114 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 136 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 299; Mentioned: p. 298-299
    Turner, Nicholas. The Paintings of Guercino: A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné. Roma: Ugo Bozzi Editore s.r.l., 2017. Mentioned & Reproduced: p. 399, ig. 128.II
  • Rembrandt exhibition - Reciprocal Loan. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (October 30, 2011-September 16, 2012).
    Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (10/30/2011 - 9/16/2012): Lend-back for Rembrandt exhibition loans
    Bologna, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Sept. 1- Nov. 17, 1968: "Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666)" cat. no. 56, repr. pp. XL, XLI, 128 n. 13, 130, 143, 228 (catalogue by Denis Mahon).;
    Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).
    CMA 1967, Nov. 29- Dec. 31, 1967: "Year in Review," cat. CMA Bulletin, LIV (December 1967): p. 343, no. 55, repr. p. 312.;
  • {{cite web|title=Rest on the Flight into Egypt|url=false|author=Guercino|year=1624|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1967.123