Scripture · Matthew 2:14-15
Matthew 2:13
The Flight into Egypt
When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
A great tree rises above two mounted travelers beneath a luminous blue sky. The Holy Family seems very small within Tanner’s night landscape.
About the artwork
The spreading tree is enormous beside the two mounted travelers, yet it does not close over them like a shelter. Its branches stretch into the luminous blue sky while the family crosses the open foreground. The upright figures and lowered heads of the animals give their progress a different rhythm from the broad sweep of the landscape.
Tanner repeatedly painted this escape, changing the surrounding country and the arrangement of the travelers. Here he leaves a wide interval of sky and land beyond the family. Matthew gives no description of the route; the painter’s landscape makes room for the distance and exposure that a short account of departure can leave us to imagine.
Featured in: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris
What does Matthew 2:13 mean?
Matthew 2:13 comes immediately after the Magi’s departure. An angel tells Joseph to take the child and His mother to Egypt because Herod intends to kill Him. The instruction includes remaining there until a further message, so the journey begins without a stated date of return.
The following verse describes Joseph responding at night. Tanner makes that short narrative interval into a landscape the viewer can dwell within. The luminous sky does not remove the reason for the escape: the child’s safety depends on a household leaving its surroundings and becoming strangers elsewhere.
Matthew’s warning gives the small mounted figures their urgency, while Tanner’s great tree and sky enlarge the world through which they must pass.
Sources
Cincinnati Art Museum (2002.47); oil on canvas, 49.6 × 64.4 cm.
Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Matthew 2 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Matthew 2:13.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:The Three Kings See the StarFlight into EgyptCongregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen