This work transposes the story of the Holy Family fleeing persecution in Egypt to an imaginary northern landscape with a broad river valley bordered by dramatic craggy peaks. In his biography of Pieter Bruegel, published in 1604 as part of the Schilder-boeck, Karel van Mander wrote, ‘it is said that while he was in the Alps he swallowed all those mountains and rocks which, upon returning home, he spat out again onto the canvases and panels, so faithfully was he able, in this respect and others, to follow Nature’. Although it is plausible that in creating this work Bruegel may have drawn on his experience crossing into Italy around 1551-52, the high viewpoint, panoramic effect and use of bands of colour to separate the foreground from the distance are conventions of a landscape painting tradition that would soon evolve into a more naturalistic approach. Bruegel would himself contribute fully to these innovations.
The dramatic landscape and abundant detail serve to enhance the religious narrative. At the lower left travellers struggling over a narrow footbridge emphasise the perilous nature of the journey undertaken by the Holy Family. The idol seen tumbling from its shrine in a pollarded willow symbolises the defeat of paganism by the arrival of Christ. Bruegel may have painted this work for one of his principal patrons, Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, counsellor to the regent of the Netherlands, in whose inventory it is recorded in 1607. In the seventeenth century it was owned by Rubens and subsequently by the Antwerp collector Pieter Stevens.
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London.
(Text from gallery label)
