Provenance
Edward Solly [1776-1844], Berlin; purchased 1821 for the Königliche Museen (painting collection installed 1904 in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum), Berlin; sold 1924 to (Charles Albert de Burlet, Berlin). (Professor Luigi Grassi [1858-1937], Florence and Rome).[1] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London). acquired 1927 by Otto H. Kahn [1867-1934], New York. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 26 April 1937 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] Ellis K. Waterhouse, "Review of Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979," _The Burlington Magazine_ 122 (September 1980): 637, states that the painting is "widely believed to have been painted almost entirely by Luigi Grassi." However, conservation examination and treatment by the NGA that was concluded in 1995 indicates that the original paint layer is well preserved.
[2] Mellon Trust purchase date is according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).
Accession Number
1937.1.28
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
painted surface: 72 x 111 cm (28 3/8 x 43 11/16 in.) | overall (including attached pieces): 74 x 113 cm (29 1/8 x 44 1/2 in.) | framed: 122.9 x 160 cm (48 3/8 x 63 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Tags
Painting Renaissance (1400–1599) Oil Painting Panel Painting Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460-1526) was a Venetian painter known for his narrative cycle paintings of saints' lives—the Legend of Saint Ursula, the Legend of Saint George, and the Life of the Virgin—rendered with the architectural detail and landscape richness that distinguish his work from the more austere manner of other Venetian painters. The Flight into Egypt from c. 1515 depicts the biblical episode in which the Holy Family flees to Egypt, rendered in Carpaccio's characteristic manner with rich landscape and architectural detail that transforms the biblical narrative into a Venetian pastoral. The c. 1515 date places this in Carpaccio's mature period, when he was producing the narrative paintings that are his most accomplished works.
Cultural Impact
The Flight into Egypt is important in Carpaccio's oeuvre because it demonstrates the rich landscape and architectural detail that distinguish his narrative paintings from the more austere Venetian manner. Carpaccio's treatment of the biblical episode transforms the Flight into Egypt into a Venetian pastoral, with the landscape and architecture of contemporary Venice providing the setting for the sacred narrative.
Why It Matters
The Flight into Egypt is Carpaccio's narrative painting at its most detailed: the biblical episode rendered as a Venetian pastoral with the rich landscape and architectural detail that distinguish his work from the more austere Venetian manner. The c. 1515 painting transforms sacred narrative into contemporary Venetian life.
