Italian school, possibly Genoa, second half of the seventeenth century.

Italian school, possibly Genoa, second half of the seventeenth century.
"The rest of the flight to Egypt".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 175 x 122 cm; 202 x 144 cm (frame).

This canvas of the flight to Egypt shows the influence of Domenico Piola, one of the most notable painters of the Genoese school of the 17th century. He gained great recognition during his lifetime, as indicated both by the many private commissions from aristocratic families and the Genoese Church. It is a variegated composition with the monumental figure of the Virgin Mary with St. Joseph and Child, surrounded by angels. The earthy tones used and the dynamic and moving figures respond to the aesthetics of this painter. The flight to Egypt is an episode of the Gospel of Matthew, often used in art to identify the Holy Family with those disadvantaged by emigration and political repression. The New Testament story, very brief and typical of the Gospel of Matthew, tells how an angel appears in a dream to St. Joseph and tells him that he must flee to Egypt with Mary and the Child, because King Herod was looking for him to kill him. Joseph obeys, and after a while he is ordered to return, in a similar manner. The evangelist himself sees in the episode the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy: "out of Egypt I called my son" (Hosea 11:1). In the apocryphal Gospels and in the later Christian tradition, this episode will be expanded with a multitude of anecdotes and miracles that occurred during the journey, among which we find the rest during the flight to Egypt, an obligatory pause for the Virgin to suckle the Child Jesus.