The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

1624

Guercino

(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).
  • Blythe, Joan. “Reading Milton Greenly.” In Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Milton's England, edited by Ken Hiltner, p. 183, fig. 41. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2008.
    De Grazia, Diane. "Guercino decoratore." in Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1966, p. 58, fn. 79. Bologna: Nuova Alfa editoriale, 1991.
    Brigstocke, Hugh. William Buchanan and the 19th Century Art Trade: 100 Letters to His Agents in London and Italy. Art Documents. London: The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 1982. pp. 491, 340, 401, 403, 416-417.
    Buchanan, William. Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. Vol. 2. London: Printed for R. Ackerman, 1824. p. 155. archive.org
    van Serooskerken, Tuyll. Guercino (1591-1666): Drawings from Dutch Collections. S’Gravenhage: Gary Schwartz/Sdu, 1991. p. 50.
    Catalogue des Objets d'Art et de Haute Curiosité Antiques, du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance Qui Composent les Collections de feu M. le Compte de Pourtalès-Gorgier. Monday 6 February 1865. Rue Tronchet, No. 7, Paris, France. n. 64. p. 25. www.digitale-sammlungen.de
    Valentini, Anna. “Tra Estasi e Quotidiano: La Musica Nelle Opere Sacre del Guercino.” Giornata di Studi Guerciniani (October 19, 1991): p. 210, fn. 34.
    Zeri, Federico. Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 2. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery Trustees, 1976. p. 480.
    Stone, David M. Guercino, master draftsman: works from North American collections. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1991. p. 114, no. 91.
    Cavazzini, Patrizia. Palazzo Lancellotti ai Coronari: Cantiere di Agostino Tassi. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, 1998. p. 154, no. 171.
    Mahon, Sir Denis. Guercino: Master Painter of the Baroque. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art Trustees, 1992. p. 221, fn. 13.
    Duffin, Ross. RIdIM/RCMI Inventory of Music Iconography. No. 8. New York: Research Center for Music Iconography, 1991. p. 9, no. 175.
    “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 10 (December 1967): 302–346. Reproduced: p. 312; Mentioned: p. 343, no. 55 www.jstor.org
    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
    Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. “Guercino’s Versions of the Rest on the Flight to Egypt and the Lancellotti Tondo.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 3 (March 1970): 93–102. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 93-94, fig. 1 www.jstor.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=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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