The Dream of Saint Joseph

Daniele Crespi painted this around 1620 in Milan, a city then under a strict programme of church reform that wanted religious pictures plain, clear and easy to feel. He gave them exactly that. Joseph has fallen asleep in his chair among his carpenter's tools, shavings still on the floor, while an angel leans in to touch his shoulder and point him toward Mary and the child. The moment is the warning that comes to Joseph in a dream, telling him to take the family and flee to Egypt. There is no grandeur to it, just a tired man woken in the night. Crespi was one of the most gifted painters in Milan, and he had little time. He died in the plague that swept the city in 1630, still only in his early thirties.