Italian renaissance

 


This painting is called Landscape with the Flight into Egypt by artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The painting was made in 1563 in Belgium and is oil on a wooden board, it depicts Mary and Joseph fleeing from Bethlehem with baby Jesus. I find this piece captivating for its use of a dramatic and imaginative landscape to add a sense of divinity to Mary and Joseph's journey. The atmospheric perspective gives the painting a sense of scale with Mary's saturated red dress standing out in the foreground. This creates a very strong focal point and draws the viewer's eye closer to the subject, upon doing so baby Jesus's head from among Mary's cloak becomes obvious to the viewer. This well-thought-out progression curated by the artist sets this piece apart from other landscape-style biblical pieces from this time. Bruegel worked in the aftermath of the Reformation and his landscape paintings represent a separation from the long-standing iconography of the Catholic church. By doing this he began to use a more contemporary insight into the natural world. Bruegel reimagined scenes from biblical history in a new style, this was all doable because of the Reformation. 



References;

“Landscape with the Flight into Egypt.” Art UK, 2 Feb. 2010, artuk.org/discover/artworks/landscape-with-the-flight-into-egypt-207067.

Wisse, Jacob. “Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525–1569): Essay: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, 1 Jan. 2000, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/brue/hd_brue.htm.






Comments

  1. arbitraryanalystHMFebruary 22, 2024 at 7:30 PM

    I didn't know there were any landscapist paintings from reformation artists. I had to actually check, because I didn't think Egypt had a lot of mountains, but apparently they do, and especially on the Sinai Peninsula (between Israel and Egypt). I agree that the red cloak is eye-drawing, but I don't see the baby Jesus taking the type of recognition you're talking about. Perhaps it's just the browser preview resolution. They appear to show the distance by making the farther away lines less distinct. Maybe I should look into more of the reformation art where biblical story is kinda there in addition to the larger painting.
    https://peakvisor.com/adm/egypt.html

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  2. mercedes lindquistFebruary 22, 2024 at 11:43 PM

    i love that you chose this painting. I love that the background stretches out so far and is so detailed, but like you mentioned, Mary's cloak is a bright red, which catches the attention of your eyes. I personally prefer paintings like this, as instead of it feeling like your eyes are getting yanked around trying to figure out what to focus on, there is one focal point on Mary. I actually did my assignment on one of his pieces too, created 2 years after this one.

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  3. Anthony MorelliFebruary 23, 2024 at 12:57 AM

    Hi, I really like this painting with the beautiful landscape. Something I found very interesting was the fact that it feels like they have traveled a very long distance from the right side of the painting, and still have a hard journey in front of them with the towering mountains on the left. Additionally, the light behind the mountains almost makes it seem like they are heading somewhere better and almost holy.

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  4. SallieFebruary 28, 2024 at 12:06 AM

    Hi Fin! I really like the painting you chose. Landscape painting is one of my favorite pieces to look at because there is always something to explore and look at. From how the perspective of the painting looked, it really seems like May and Joseph has traveled a really long distance. I love how even though I only see the shapes of the landscape, it's really much more detailed than expected. Also, the colors are on the softer side than bold side.

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