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The Flight into Egypt
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The Flight into Egypt

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), artist · c. 1503–5 · woodcut

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

Although Dürer’s woodcut depicts a later event in the biblical narrative, the composition is similar to the scene from the Mirror of Holiness , " Mary and Joseph Travel to Bethlehem" CMA 2005.145.24.b —even to the inclusion of an ox. Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus fled Jerusalem for Egypt after Joseph was warned in a dream that Jesus’s life was in danger. The dense, dark forest through which the Holy Family travels seems to close threateningly around them. While the Indian artist envisioned a “pack beast” as a camel, Dürer invented a Middle Eastern landscape by incorporating a palm tree and other curious vegetation.

Cleveland Museum of Art’s own description
Credit lineThe Life of the Virgin: The Flight into Egypt, c. 1503–5. Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). Woodcut. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1959.99.14
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