Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Picturesque Ideas on The Flight into Egypt
1750-53
Etchings
New York Public Library, New York City
The artist did twenty-seven etchings on this subject, six of which the library exhibited in 2018. Here are the six, ordered by my own guesswork as to chronology.
Responding to the angel's command (Matthew 2:13), Joseph gathers his family for their journey. They leave a "house," as specified in Matthew 2:11, not the cave or stable that we usually see in images of the actual birth of Jesus. Is the man with his hand out an innkeeper? (View this image in full resolution)
The holy family leaves Bethlehem. (View this image in full resolution)
On the road to Egypt. The tree on the right may be a reference to the miracle of the palm tree, related in pseudo-Matthew, 20. (View this image in full resolution)
"The Rest on the Flight into Egypt" is a common theme for individual paintings in the Renaissance and later. (View this image in full resolution)
I still have not come across a text that has the family taking a boat for part of their journey into Egypt. The Vision of Theophilus does say that a ship took them part of the way home to Nazareth. In any case, paintings of the journey often include an arrival or departure by sea. (View this image in full resolution)
The family arrives in "the regions of Hermopolis, and enter[s] into a certain city of Egypt which is called Sotinen" pseudo-Matthew, 20-24). (View this image in full resolution)
