Vittore Carpaccio
The Flight into Egypt

“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt." 

The story according to the Gospel of Matthew ... In Carpaccio's painting, day is just dawning. Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus and the donkey must have been on the road for hours. They're passing through a rolling landscape criss-crossed by rivers with boats on them. It's not unlike the countryside around Venice.

Carpaccio relies on that recognition effect. All the merchants who travelled to and from Venice over land or by water would probably have recognised the lagoon landscape. So he not only alludes to the everyday lives of his viewers, enhancing his work's appeal; he also shifts the biblical narrative into his own time. If the rescue of the infant Christ could have taken place literally on the doorstep, that makes it relevant to his contemporaries.

The priceless cloth of gold from which Mary's cloak is made may well be a reference to Carpaccio's home city. After all, many Venetian families had grown rich in the textile trade – specifically the trade in sumptuous fabrics.

We don't know who commissioned the painting, or where it originally hung. It was probably usedin a home for private devotions – perhaps by a wealthy merchant family.