Provenance:
Private collection, Germany.
Rarer in religious iconography, the Return from the Flight to Egypt portrays the return journey of the Holy Family and Christ as an older child to...
read moreProvenance:
Private collection, Germany.
Rarer in religious iconography, the Return from the Flight to Egypt portrays the return journey of the Holy Family and Christ as an older child to Nazareth, which they had left to escape the fury of Herod. Created on the basis of several lines in the Gospel according to Matthew, the theme of the Flight to Egypt is of considerable importance in the production of painters in the 16th and 17th centuries. Maarten de Vos didn’t choose to portray either the Flight on the back of a donkey or the ensuing Rest. Instead, he chose to paint the Holy Family crossing a river, just as Moses had crossed the Red Sea on his way to the Promised Land.
Set in a panoramic landscape, the scene describes the crossing of a river. The Family is sitting in a boat steered by two boatmen, one perched on the bow and the other on the stern. The Virgin, Joseph, Christ and their donkey are all on board. A fifth person, dressed in a pretty sky-blue dress is also part of the group. Who is she? A villager taking advantage of the expedition to cross the river? Or is she, according to mediaeval tradition, one of Joseph’s children from a previous marriage?
The fact is that the painter shows particular inventiveness to illustrate the movement of the vessel on the water. In the foreground, the eddies indicate a supernatural force, while the two sailors bend back and forth to steer through the water with their oars. The great beauty of the landscape in the background bears witness to the influence of our artist’s trip to Italy. Of equal interest is the variety of expressions of the people in this group, which, like in each of his works, proves the talent of this master at depicting the passions of the soul. Composed of blues, reds and ochre, his palette turns this miniature on copper into a delightful little painting.
1532 – Antwerp – 1603
Maarten de Vos was born in Antwerp. His father, the painter Pieter de Vos from Leiden in Holland, registered with the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1507. The...
read more1532 – Antwerp – 1603
Maarten de Vos was born in Antwerp. His father, the painter Pieter de Vos from Leiden in Holland, registered with the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1507. The youngest of four children, Maarten undoubtedly trained in his father’s studio. He also travelled to Italy at the same time as Pieter Brueghel in 1552 and we know that he executed background landscapes for Tintoretto on his journey through Rome then Venice. In 1558, he was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp and married Joanna Le Boucq. In 1564, he had the good fortune to obtain commissions from the rich Antwerp merchant Gillis Hooftman. He was then called to Celle in 1570 to decorate the palatine chapel of William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Thanks to this growing notoriety, he was appointed dean of the guild in 1572. He was awarded large commissions from the brotherhoods of Antwerp and executed the monumental altarpieces for Antwerp Cathedral. Above all a painter of religious scenes, he was also a highly-skilled portrait painter and artist. Beginning with mannerism, his style evolved to become clear and descriptive, which perfectly corresponds to the ideas of the Counter-Reformation.
