To flee Herod's wrath and escape the king's slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem, Joseph fled with his new little family southward to Egypt.
Caravaggio's painting Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1597, is a favorite of mine.
An angel playing violin for the baby, Joseph holding the notes -- how did the artist dream up such a scene?!
Click a few times to see the big picture.
Historically, this massacre may or may not have happened.
But we do know that Herod never hesitated to kill, even his own family members.
More about the story, and another old painting, in my earlier post.
More about the Caravaggio painting at Wikipedia.
Wiki explains the Feast of the Holy Innocents here.
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A couple of years ago there was a Caravaggio exhibit at our national gallery. His use of light on the canvas is truly astonishing. This work is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAlways so immediate when you discuss historical events of the region....
ReplyDeleteALOHA from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
<3
What a shame my absolutely favourite artist Caravaggio died so young.. he was only in his 30s. But he was definitely a naughty boy and it was inevitable that one of his drunken brawls would lead to another young man being killed (in 1606).
ReplyDeleteCuriously being homeless and mostly on the run from the law led to him becoming a truly amazing artist.
Herod was not a nice guy.
ReplyDeleteSo different from his later works!
ReplyDeleteI like the music for this episode too - the Coverntry Carol. I remember this past news story about Caravaggio :) ... http://in.reuters.com/article/2009/12/11/us-italy-caravaggio-idINTRE5BA2UG20091211?sp=true
ReplyDeleteAny Caravaggio will do me just fine.
ReplyDeleteAs for Herod, now I've got the Coventry Carol in my head...