Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
18.5 × 23.3 cm (7 5/16 × 9 3/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
145834
Art Historical Context
Sébastien Bourdon's *Rest on the Flight into* captures a tender moment from the biblical narrative in the Gospel of Matthew, where the Holy Family pauses during their perilous escape from King Herod's massacre of the innocents. Bourdon, a prominent 17th-century French artist (1616–1671), in Paris and Rome, blending dramatic Caravaggesque light with elegant French classicism. This undated etching reflects his skill in translating grand history paintings into intimate prints, making sacred stories accessible to a wider audience during the Counter-Reformation era. Rendered as an etching on luxur...
About the Artist
Sébastien Bourdon · 1616–1671
Sébastien Bourdon (1616–1671) was a French Baroque painter of remarkable versatility and restless ambition, whose career carried him from the workshops of Paris to the courts of Rome and Stockholm before he returned to France to become a founding member of one of Europe's most important artistic institutions. Born on 2 February 1616 in Montpellier into a Protestant family, Bourdon was apprenticed ...