Gaspare Diziani, The Flight into Egypt

18th century
Church of Santo Stefano, Venice

The church's label calls this painting "The Flight into Egypt," and the same title is given to other paintings of the Holy Family entering a boat. But neither scripture nor the apocryphal accounts of the flight mention any boat. Rather, it is on the return to Palestine that they cross water by ship, according to The Vision of Theophilus. That source says that on the return from Egypt the family came to the sea and the Christ Child "made the sign of the Cross on the water and it became like a ship." In our painting Diziani communicates the miraculous nature of the boat's appearance by having the child look at his mother and gesture to the angel while the angel makes the same gesture to the boat.

The painting is on the left side of an oculus; on the right side is an Adoration of the Magi by the same artist.

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