Artwork · 16th century · Gerard David

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The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Gerard Davidca. 1512–15Oil on wood53.3 × 39.8 cm

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At a glance

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On the run to Egypt, the Holy Family stops at the edge of a wood, and Mary, seated on a rock, nurses the infant Jesus.
Gerard David, a painter working in Bruges, made it in oil on a wooden panel around 1512–15.
The panel is only about 21 inches tall, yet it holds Mary's face, a distant church tower, and tiny travelers deep in the forest.

Reading the picture

4 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in on the center. Mary supports her breast with two fingers as the baby feeds. He nurses, but his eyes wander off to the side, the way babies' eyes do. His little shirt is so thin it is almost transparent, and you can see his skin through it.
Now look down the forest path on the right. A woman in blue rides a donkey with a baby in her arms, and a man with a bundle on his back walks along with them. They are the same family who rest in front. The painter put the pause and the journey that follows into one picture.
Zoom in on the rock beside Mary, on the right side of the picture. A leafy branch lies there with a few round apples still attached. In Christian pictures the apple recalls the sin of Adam and Eve. Placing it beside the Christ Child points to the one who would take that sin away.
Zoom in on the town far off on the left. A tall square tower, a church with pointed gables, and town walls with round towers stand against green hills. The story says this is the road to Egypt, but the scenery looks like the northern European towns the painter knew.

When it was painted

When he painted this picture, Gerard David was well past fifty. Born in Oudewater, in what is now the Netherlands, he joined the painters' guild of Bruges in 1484 and made that city his home. After Hans Memling died in 1494, David became one of the leading painters in Bruges.

His life there was settled and successful. In 1496 he married Cornelia Cnoop, the daughter of the head of the goldsmiths' guild. In 1498 he finished The Judgment of Cambyses, a large painting for the Bruges town hall. The city trusted him with a picture meant to remind its judges of justice.

But the world around him was shifting. Antwerp, to the north, was booming as a trading city, and merchants and buyers were moving there from Bruges. In 1515 David joined the painters' guild in Antwerp as well.

Several versions of the same scene survive, and the Metropolitan Museum sees in them a carefully planned model that David could adapt for the open market, without waiting for a particular patron. The resting Virgin, the woods, and the far-off town could be reworked from one version to the next.

David died in Bruges in 1523 and was buried in the Church of Our Lady. Then his name slipped out of memory for centuries. In the nineteenth century the English scholar James Weale found the records in the Bruges archives and brought him back to light. This panel came to the Met in 1949 with the collection of Jules Bache.

So look again at Mary's blue cloak. It pours from the rock to the ground in calm, careful folds, each one laid down with patience. That quiet care is the signature of a Bruges painter the world once forgot.

The painter

Gerard David

1455–1523

All paintings by Gerard David →

More by the same painter

Archangel Gabriel; The Virgin Annunciateca. 1510

Christ Carrying the Cross, with the Crucifixion; The Resurrection, with the Pilgrims of Emmausca. 1510

Questions to think about

Look for itHow many birds can you find flying in the sky and above the trees?
Why?Why do you think the painter showed the family a second time, traveling down the path?
What about you?This family has left home to escape danger. What kind of rest do families fleeing their homes today need most on the road?

Same period