The Holy Family (The Holy Family Fleeing to Egypt)

An episode of the biblical story about the Holy Family resting during their flight into Egypt is the theme of this painting. Mary, worn down by the great heat of the desert, wanted to rest in the shade of a palm tree. Baby Jesus first ordered the palm tree to bend so that Mary could pick some fruit; then he ordered it to straighten up and reveal water at its roots. Thus, the donkey drinks from the spring next to resting Mary with child and Joseph under the palm tree. 

The unknown artist of this painting probably used several templates. Most likely, he related the adaptation of the theme of the flight from Egypt in the graphic work by
Camillo Procaccini. In both works of art, the Holy Family is under a palm tree; in one, Joseph’s back is to the spectators, while the motif of the drinking donkey dominates the other. The second version is also known in the form of a drawing. Because of the unclear motifs and significantly different colors, it is almost certain that the artist of this painting did not know Procaccini’s monumental altar painting of the same theme which is in the Chapel of St. Joseph in Rho (Santuario dell’ Addolorata).

Around 1593, Gaspare dall’Oglio of Bologna (documented from 1583 to 1601) published a graphic depiction of the Holy Family and a donkey. He worked in Brescia and Venice and his sons married into the family of Jan Sadeler (1550–1600). The signature of Gaspare dall’Oglio in the graphic works of Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), Orazio Farinati (1559 – po 1616) and Camillo Procaccini, is sometimes modified. Procaccini’s vision of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt became an available inspiration through workshop production.

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.