The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Southern Netherlands, circa 1510
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California

This glass roundel has a strong relationship to Madonna and Child portraits, in particular those influenced by the Orthodox icons known as the Parthenos Eleousa (example), where the mother and child press faces together and the child reaches for the mother's veil. This being the flight into Egypt, a rustic wooden box substitutes for the usual throne. And this being the early 16th century, the child is naked. Even Joseph's hand-on-cheek pose is a borrowing – from traditional Nativities (example).

The river in the right background is not mentioned in the gospels. In the apocrypha, the only body of water is the "sea" that the family crossed on their return from Egypt in the Vision of Theophilus. Or the river and the distant city on the hill (Jerusalem?) may be intended simply to register the family's separation from their homeland.

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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.