Rest on the Flight to Egypt
Details
The story
In 1626 Gentileschi, by then past 60, moved to London at the invitation of the Duke of Buckingham, the favourite of King Charles I, and for his first years in England the duke was his main patron. This canvas was in Buckingham's collection.
It shows the Holy Family stopped on the flight from King Herod. Joseph has fallen asleep, exhausted, and Mary sits on the ground nursing the Child in front of a crumbling brick wall. Gentileschi repeated the composition several times, and other versions are in the Louvre, in Birmingham and at the Getty in Los Angeles.
Buckingham was murdered in 1628, and in 1648, with England at war with itself, his pictures were sold abroad. This one was in the imperial collection in Prague by 1685. The signature, HORATIVS GENTILESHVS FECIT, is at the lower left.
