Holy Family Resting on the Flight to Egypt

Cardinal Antonio Barberini, of the family of Pope Urban VIII, ordered this little picture from Pietro da Cortona as early as 1639. It seems to have been finished only around 1643. In those years the painter spent most of his time away from Rome, in Florence, covering the rooms of the Pitti Palace with frescoes for the Medici grand duke, so a small devotional piece for a Roman patron had to wait its turn. It is painted on a sheet of copper less than half a metre high, a support valued for its smooth surface and lasting colour. The flight into Egypt is a story of danger, the family running from King Herod's soldiers. Here it has become a pause in the countryside, and the museum singles out the angel offering fruit to the Christ Child. The picture reached Munich in 1799, with the paintings of the electoral gallery in Mannheim.