(Matt. 2:13–15)
Warned in a dream that Herod was searching for the infant Jesus to kill him, Joseph took him and his mother away to safety in Egypt where they remained till Herod's death. The bare statement given by Matthew was greatly amplified in various New Testament apocryphal texts which are the source of the themes found in art. The principal figures are three: the Virgin carrying the infant Christ in her arms and riding an ass, and Joseph leading the beast by the halter. Usually one or more angels are guarding them. Early Renaissance pictures may include the three sons of Joseph and the midwife Salome. An ox, with an ass, also refers to the Nativity. In Counter-Reformation painting the ass is more often omitted and the party travel on foot. A cornfield with reapers in the background sometimes features in examples from northern France and the Netherlands of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. It was told that the Holy Family passed by a husbandman sowing seed. He was instructed by the Virgin to say to inquirers that he had seen them go by at the time of sowing. The corn miraculously grew and ripened overnight. Herod's soldiers arriving next day gave up pursuit on being told quite truthfully that their quarry had gone by at the time of sowing. A version sometimes found in 17th and 18th century Italian and French painting shows the family embarking on a boat, about to be ferried by an angel across a river. Poussin, and Boucher after him, represent the ferryman as Charon, who ferried the souls of the dead in classical myth, to signify the foreshadowing of the death of the Savior. The same idea is sometimes further adumbrated by a vision of angels in the clouds above, bearing the cross. The flight is sometimes represented taking place at night, in accordance with the gospel account. Artists sometimes choose to depict the moment of departure showing the Virgin making her farewells, or waiting under a tree while Joseph saddles the ass. The theme may form part of the cycle of the Seven Sorrows of the, Virgin.
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The rest (or repose) on the flight. A popular theme in the art of the Counter Reformation, more often of a devotional than a narrative character. The Virgin and Child are seated in a landscape, usually under a palm tree. Joseph is beside them, and the ass may be in the background. Their belongings lie on the ground, tied up in a bundle. Angels hover overhead or bring food on a dish. An old woman is Salome, the midwife. Broken images on the ground allude to a story from the apocryphal gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: when the party reached the town of Sotinen in Egypt the Virgin and infant Jesus entered a temple, whereupon the statues of the pagan gods fell to the ground and were broken. This theme is also represented as a separate subject, especially in French medieval cathedrals. From the same source comes the story of the palm tree under which the family were resting, which bent its branches at the orders of the infant Christ so that they could gather its fruit. The tree, whose frond is the emblem of the Christian martyr, features very commonly in the "Repose". Joseph may be plucking dates and handing them to the child; sometimes angels are shown drawing down a branch. Another late theme shows the Virgin washing clothes on a rock by the river's edge in the traditional manner of the countrywoman, while Joseph takes care of the child.
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Return from Egypt. A theme similar in treatment to the "Flight" but distinguished from it by the age of the Child, who is now no longer an infant but a small boy. The legendary meeting of the Holy Family with the young John the Baptist was said to have taken place on the Return. It is occasionally found in Italian Renaissance painting.
James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, New York: Harper & Row, rev. ed. 1979