“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under…” (Matthew 2.16)
Matthew tells us that an angel appeared before Joseph and warned him that Herod intended to search for Jesus and kill him. He enjoined Joseph to flee to Egypt with Mary and the child in order to escape Herod’s wrath.
Although there is no description in Matthew’s Gospel of the manner in which the Holy Family made their escape, it has long been depicted in art with Joseph on foot, beside Mary with the child Jesus placed upon a donkey. The emphasis is either on the family itself, or on the entire scene with landscape.
Cosimo Tura painted his version of the flight into Egypt in the 1470s and it is part of the renowned Roverella Altarpiece. Created from oil and egg-tempera on poplar wood, it is one of Tura’s most significant works.
Tura was born in Ferrara, Italy, in the early 15th century, at a time of creative and intellectual fervour, when the Renaissance was erupting across Europe. As this painting demonstrates, his work was characterised by light and shadow (chiaroscuro), form and colour, drama and tension, mystery and intrigue.
The chiaroscuro creates the effect of depth, so that the Holy Family appears to be moving out of a harsh rocky landscape towards the viewer.