The Flight into Egypt (c. 1590): Art, History and Details

The Flight into Egypt (c. 1590) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Gregorio Pagani (Italian, 1558–1605).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this composition, Gregorio Pagani remained close to the New Testament account of the final episode of Christ’s nativity (Matthew 2:13–23), in which Joseph, Mary, and infant Jesus fled into Egypt after learning that King Herod intended to kill all the male infants of Jerusalem. Staff in hand, Joseph forges ahead while Mary and Jesus follow behind on a donkey. Fluttering angels hover above; one at the left urges the Holy Family onward. Pagani was commissioned by the Médicis to create decorative schemes for their celebrations, and especially for altarpieces for churches and convents, but few of his paintings have survived. He is best known for highly finished, fully realized drawings such as this example in pristine condition.

Object facts

• Title: The Flight into Egypt
• Date: c. 1590
• Creator attribution: Gregorio Pagani (Italian, 1558–1605)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white, over black chalk, on beige paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 39.9 x 25 cm (15 11/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2015.67

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.