On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P07772
- Author
- El Greco
- Title
- The Flight into Egypt
- Chronology
- Ca. 1570
- Technique
- Oil
- Support
- Panel
- Measures
- 15,9 cm x 21,6 cm
- School
- Spanish
- Theme
- Religion
- On display
- Yes
- Procedence
- Acquisition, 2001
This devotional painting shows the Holy Family's Flight into Egypt, to escape the massacre of children ordered by King Herod, as told in the New Testament (Matthew I, 13-15).
Both the technique and the composition derive from El Greco's period of training in Italy, with clear influences from Tintoretto and a treatment of the subject that is typical of Bassano.
Outstanding here is the interest the artist seems to take in the landscape, which is a characteristic totally outside his early training in Byzantine art.
















