"The Rest On The Flight Into Egypt"

François Boucher - Oil
The Rest On The Flight Into Egypt (1737) is an oil on canvas painting by François Boucher. It depicts a popular legend which builds upon the sparse treatment in the Bible of the Flight into Egypt. Late medieval and renaissance painters frequently painted scenes depicting the holy family resting on this long trip by which they were fleeing the fury of the Jewish king. But Boucher has gone way beyond a simple picture of a resting family group. Here are hosts of angels and, rather inexplicably, John the Baptist as a baby playing with Jesus. Joseph seems to be doing all the work, while Mary rests on a cloud intent on her prayers and is accompanied by a sheep - perhaps a gift from one of those Bethlehem shepherds, but certainly not part of the biblical account. This painting is now in the Collection of the The Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg.