Iconography of the Flight into Egypt

Luc-Olivier Merson, Rest on the Flight into Egypt
French, 1879
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

Our cultural celebration of the Christmas season has become very truncated in recent decades.  Currently, the popular perception of the Nativity stops at the manger scene, with both the shepherds and the Magi in attendance, even though they arrived at different times and probably to different places.  This truncation seems to me to have begun in the mid- to late-1980s. Even the liturgy of the Catholic church reflects this.  For 2024, for instance, the celebration of the Epiphany (the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus) on Sunday, January 7, will be followed immediately, on January 8, with the commemoration of the Baptism of the Lord, something which happened to the adult Jesus.  And that ends the liturgical Christmas season, which once upon a time stretched to February 2nd.

When I was younger there was a more general knowledge of the entirety of the story that is found in the Gospels, not to mention in pious traditions.  So, over the more recent decades we have cut off such important elements as the massacre of the Holy Innocents by Herod and the entire Flight into Egypt and residency there, which once formed such a major portion of the iconography associated with the Nativity of Jesus.  

Indeed I have personally overheard puzzled museum goers try to identify what was happening in a painting that was obviously a Massacre of the Holy Innocents (and clearly labeled as such on the wall card next to the painting).  The three ladies finally decided that the subject must be a massacre of children in Jerusalem by Crusaders during the Middle Ages!  I respectfully intervened to tell them of their mistake and was met by puzzled looks and the objection "Where is that in the Bible?"  It's Matthew 2:16-18.

Massacre of the Innocents

The Magi, who after arriving in Jerusalem were invited by Herod to share with him the timing of the appearance of the star that had sent them on their quest, were warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem but "departed for their country by another way".  (Matthew 2:12)

"When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi." (Matthew 2:16)  This event is known as the Massacre of the Innocents (click here).

The Flight into Egypt

But the slaughter failed completely in its objective because God had other plans.  An angel warns Joseph about Herod's plans and orders him to take the child and his mother to Egypt to wait for Herod's death. (Matthew 2:13-15)  Following the angelic warning the Holy Family flees.

Their flight has been the subject of innumerable paintings, sculptures and decorative works over the centuries.  Indeed, as a subject, it is as important as the Nativity itself, or the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

• The Flight into Egypt -- The Holy Refugees, The "Simple" Images (Part I of a Series)  click here
• The Flight Into Egypt -- The Variations (Part 2 of a Series)  click here
• The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Part I of 3  click here  
• The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Part II of 3  click here  
• The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Part III of 3  click here

So, come and join those who, over many centuries, have contemplated the effects of Herod's horrible attack on the children of Bethlehem and the means by which his intended target was saved to live for the purpose for which he was sent.

© M. Duffy, 2024