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The Flight into Egypt
Caravaggio, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1597
- Painter
- Caravaggio
- Collection
- Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome
- Scripture
- Matthew 2:14
- Published
- 5 October 2026
- Image
- Wikimedia Commons, public domain ↗
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The family has stopped to rest. Mary has fallen asleep with her cheek on the child's head. Joseph sits on a sack and holds up a book of music for an angel, who stands with his back to us and plays the violin.
It is one of Caravaggio's early pictures and one of the few with a landscape. The notes in the book can be read: they belong to a motet on words from the Song of Songs, “Quam pulchra es”, how beautiful thou art. Behind Joseph's shoulder the donkey listens with one large eye.
Joseph, the music and the eye of the donkey.
Mary's hand has gone slack in sleep.