Spanish or Flemish school; 17th century.

Spanish or Flemish school; 17th century.
"Return to Egypt".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 60 x 80 cm; 75 x 97 cm (frame).
This scene is developed in an idealized landscape which shows the strong influence in this work of Spanish Baroque models of the XVII century, among other details. Although there are no horses, except for a donkey, and there are no figures, the natural environment suggests that it shows the Rest in the Flight into Egypt, although the absence of such figures could also mean that it is a Holy Family.
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 throughout the journey, among which we find the rest during the flight to Egypt, an obligatory pause for the Virgin to suckle the Child.