{"id":3665,"date":"2017-12-28T14:48:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T18:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=3665"},"modified":"2017-12-28T14:48:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T18:48:32","slug":"paintings-flight-egypt-make-look-like-pleasant-jaunt-european-wine-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2017\/12\/paintings-flight-egypt-make-look-like-pleasant-jaunt-european-wine-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Paintings of the Flight Into Egypt that Make It Look Like a Pleasant Jaunt Through European Wine Country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Brueghel_Rottenhammer_Flight_into_Egypt\"<\/p>\n

I wrote a sophisticated and mature post<\/a> on the Holy Innocents and the Flight into Egypt just a couple weeks ago in my Seven Sorrows meditations.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Go there and read that first if you want the pathos and self-searching that the Commemoration of the Holy Innocents so justly deserves.<\/p>\n

But I noticed, while I was writing that post, that it was very difficult to illustrate.<\/p>\n

I usually go to Wikimedia Commons and find an icon or a fine art painting to illustrate my Marian meditations. But I couldn\u2019t find a single public domain painting of the Flight into Egypt, in the vast majority of Western Art History, that made it look anything like a flight. Here, take a look for yourself:<\/p>\n

\"Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-20-_-_Flight_into_Egypt\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an attempt by Giotto Scrovegni. Now, I love me some Giotto. He\u2019s one of my favorite painters. If I could bring one person back from the dead for a weekend I\u2019d raise Giotto and have him paint frescoes all over my house. But he\u2019s decided to take this horrendous nightmare of a late-night escape from genocide and set it in broad daylight against some pleasant mountains. No one in the painting looks frightened.\u00a0Gabriel is sad, Joseph is carsick, and Jesus and Mary are grumpy. I don\u2019t know who all those little kids are crowding around the donkey, but they\u2019re just enjoying the stroll. And the donkey himself looks pleased. If you met up with these people somewhere in rural Italy, you would not assume they were refugees in danger. You\u2019d just try to get out of the way before that grouchy\u00a0lady in pink ran her smiling donkey over you.<\/p>\n

\"868px-Fra_Angelico_005\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Fra Angelico\u2019s\u00a0version. The donkey is no longer smiling, and Mary looks a bit worried. She looks like she doesn\u2019t know whether she left the iron plugged in. Baby Jesus seems confused, which is realistic. Saint Joseph is perturbed, but look at his feet. He\u2019s not running to keep up with the donkey. He\u2019s taking easy strides. The donkey is clearly just mincing along. This isn\u2019t a flight into Egypt; it\u2019s not even a canter into Egypt. It\u2019s a slightly anxious\u00a0walk through the pleasant Italian countryside.<\/p>\n

\"Toppling_of_the_Pagan_Idols_(Bedford_Master)\"<\/p>\n

The Bedford Master just has everybody irritated, and too distracted to see the brass imp falling off his pedestal. Somehow I missed that part of the Bible story.<\/p>\n

\"1024px-Albrecht_D\u00fcrer_022\"<\/p>\n

Albrecht Durer can usually be relied upon for some earthy gruffness, but he\u2019s gone and painted Mary and Jesus asleep. Do you know how slowly a donkey has to be moving for someone to be able to sit sidesaddle on it, asleep, and not fall off? I don\u2019t either, that\u2019s why I\u2019m asking.<\/p>\n

\"1024px-Correggio_059\"<\/p>\n

Antonio De Correggio says, \u201cScrew this, I want to paint Saint Francis.\u201d I don\u2019t even know why this painting is called \u201cThe Flight into Egypt.\u201d They\u2019re not fleeing anywhere. It\u2019s just the Holy Family having a picnic while a disembodied hand points at them in the top right hand corner.<\/p>\n

Saint Francis looks as confused as I am.<\/p>\n

\"Poussin_-_Fuite_en_Egypte\"<\/p>\n

Thank you, Poussin. This is much more like an actual flight. Saint Gabriel\u2019s freaking out, Saint Joseph\u2019s actually looking at him, Mary and Jesus are worried. They\u2019re painted in the act of going somewhere. I don\u2019t know why they have a donkey, though. He doesn\u2019t seem necessary for the composition. Where in the Bible does it say the Holy Family had a donkey? Weren\u2019t they poor? Wouldn\u2019t they have\u00a0 walked?<\/p>\n

\"Brueghel_Rottenhammer_Flight_into_Egypt\"<\/p>\n

Brueghel the Elder just wanted to paint a bunny and some putti. Always bunnies and fat babies, that Brueghel the Elder.<\/p>\n

\"Carolsfeld-Die_Flucht_nach_\u00c4gypten\"<\/p>\n

Thank you, Julius Schnorr Von Carolsfeld. Saint Gabriel\u2019s got the donkey by the bridle now. He\u2019s taking charge. \u201cIf you want something done right, you\u2019ve got to do it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

All it\u2019s missing is Ian McKellen saying \u201cFly, you fools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"512px-Almeida_J\u00fanior_-_Fuga_para_o_Egito,_1881\"<\/p>\n

Oh, Almedia Junior? We\u2019re stopping again? Tell me that\u00a0puddle\u2019s not supposed to be the Nile.<\/p>\n

Well, in any case, we know they eventually made it one way or another.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(images are all photos of paintings in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 I wrote a sophisticated and mature post on the Holy Innocents and the Flight into Egypt just a couple weeks ago in my Seven Sorrows meditations.\u00a0\u00a0Go there and read that first if you want the pathos and self-searching that the Commemoration of the Holy Innocents so justly deserves. But I noticed, while I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3761,97,2132,866,734,183,813,4267,1217,43,651,744,746,729],"tags":[4413,4412,4312,2342,4415,64,4284,194,4414,457,1658],"class_list":["post-3665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-angel","category-art","category-art-review","category-babies","category-baby","category-comedy","category-fun","category-gabriel","category-gospel","category-humor","category-interpretation-of-scripture","category-jesus","category-joseph","category-mary","tag-art-history","tag-donkey","tag-flight-into-egypt","tag-genocide","tag-giotto","tag-jesus","tag-joseph","tag-mary","tag-old-master","tag-painting","tag-saint-francis"],"yoast_head":"\nPaintings of the Flight Into Egypt that Make It Look Like a Pleasant Jaunt Through European Wine 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