Francisco Comontes
The Flight into Egypt
1540-45
Oil on canvas
Toledo Cathedral, Toledo, Spain
Comontes illustrates the traditional story of the palm tree that gave fruit to the Holy Family and moved its roots to reveal a spring of water. The artist references the spring by putting a water wheel in the lower left and then adds a use for the water not mentioned in the ancient source.
The city in the background is most likely Sotinen, the family's first stop in Egypt according to The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, xxii.
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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.