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Close to us, a bearded, balding man leads a donkey carrying a woman and child to our right against a hilly landscape in this horizontal painting. All three people have pale, peachy skin and halos. The man has a gray beard and hair, and wears a royal-blue tunic under a ruby-red robe. He leans on a walking stick and looks back at the donkey. The woman riding the donkey wears a blue and gold brocade-like cloak covering her head and body. She has a straight nose, small pink lips, and she looks toward the infant she holds close to her body. The baby wears a white garment and reaches for the woman’s face with one hand as he turns to look over his shoulder toward us. The path they walk on is lined with grass and detailed plants. A river runs parallel to the path a short distance away. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the painting is lined with green trees, blue mountains, and a few buildings to our left. Wispy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky streaked with peach near the horizon.

The Flight into Egypt, c. 1515

Vittore Carpaccio

West Building, Main Floor - West Stair Lobby

Joseph, Mary, and her newborn son, Jesus, have fled Bethlehem and are on the road to Egypt. They are escaping from King Herod, who wanted the child killed. Rather than focus on their urgent flight, Carpaccio shows the Holy Family mid-journey, their pace unhurried. Joseph urges the plodding donkey onward and looks back caringly at Mary and the child. The setting is tranquil, with dawn breaking over a lush landscape and a meandering river.

This story tapped into the growing popularity in sixteenth-century Venice of Saint Joseph as an ideal father. It also enabled Carpaccio to showcase his talent for depicting textures, from the donkey’s fuzzy fur to Mary’s almost metallic cloak. Such a family subject would have been appropriate for display in the home.

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Object Data

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

painted surface: 72 x 111 cm (28 3/8 x 43 11/16 in.)
overall (including attached pieces): 74 x 113 cm (29 1/8 x 44 1/2 in.)

framed: 122.9 x 160 cm (48 3/8 x 63 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.28

Artists / Makers

Vittore Carpaccio (painter) Venetian, c. 1465 - 1525/1526

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Detail Information

Provenance

Edward Solly [1776-1844], Berlin; purchased 1821 for the Königliche Museen (painting collection installed 1904 in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum), Berlin; sold 1924 to (Charles Albert de Burlet, Berlin). (Professor Luigi Grassi [1858-1937], Florence and Rome).[1] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London). acquired 1927 by Otto H. Kahn [1867-1934], New York. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 26 April 1937 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Ellis K. Waterhouse, "Review of Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979," The Burlington Magazine 122 (September 1980): 637, states that the painting is "widely believed to have been painted almost entirely by Luigi Grassi." However, conservation examination and treatment by the NGA that was concluded in 1995 indicates that the original paint layer is well preserved.

[2] Mellon Trust purchase date is according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).

Associated Names

Burlet, Charles A. de
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Grassi, Luigi, Professor
Kahn, Otto H.
Kaiser Friedrich Museum
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Solly, Edward
Sulley & Co., Arthur J.

Exhibition History

2016: Glory of Venice: Masterworks of the Renaissance, Denver Art Museum; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 2016-2017.

Bibliography

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 82, repro., as by Giovanni Bellini.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 19, no. 28, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 67, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 34, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 302, repro., as by Giovanni Bellini.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 23.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 16, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 54, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:118-119; 2:pl. 81, as Attributed to Carpaccio.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 203, no. 240, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 75, repro.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 197-200, color repro.

2010: Martin, Kathleen. “Donkey,” in The Book of Symbols. Cologne, 2010: 361, fig. 1.