Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Gerard David worked in Bruges around 1515, when that Flemish city, once one of the richest trading towns in Europe, was slipping into decline as its harbour silted up. He takes a moment the Gospels barely mention, the holy family resting on the long road to Egypt, and makes it quiet and domestic. Mary sits nursing the child in front of a deep northern forest, the kind of wooded country David knew rather than any eastern desert. He built the group as a calm pyramid and modelled the faces in soft light and shadow, ideas drifting up from Italy, while the minute finish of every leaf looks back to older Flemish masters like Memling and van Eyck. David painted the subject more than once. This version is in the Prado in Madrid.