The Flight into Egypt

c. 1485

Bernardino Butinone (Italian, c. 1450-before 1510)

This panel and it’s companion, The Descent from the Cross, were originally part of a series of scenes from the life of Jesus that constitute Bernardino Butinone’s best-known works. The first painting depicts the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt as part of Mary and Joseph’s attempt to protect the newborn Jesus from being murdered by King Herod, who viewed the divine child as a threat to his power. The second painting shows Jesus’s body being lowered from the cross into the arms of his grieving mother and followers.

Born in Treviglio in Lombardy in Northern Italy, Butinone worked primarily for patrons in and around Milan. His distinctive, eccentric style is characterized by expressive figures and highly imaginative descriptions of landscape settings.

Status: On View, Gallery 204
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Bernardino Jacobi Butinone
Title: The Flight into Egypt
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1480–1490
Medium: Tempera on panel
Dimensions: 25.6 × 22 cm (10 1/8 × 8 11/16 in.); Framed: 30.5 × 25.4 cm (12 × 10 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1003
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16134/manifest.json

D. C. Rich, “Three Paintings of the Quattrocentro,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 21 (1921), pp. 86-88, ill.
E. S. Siple, “Art in America: The Art Institute of Chicago − The Ryerson Collection,” Burlington Magazine 51 (1927), pp. 240-241, pl. I.
Mario Salmi, “Bernardino Butinone ― I,” Dedalo 10 (1929), pp. 347, ill., 351.
Lionello Venturi, Pitture italiane in America, 1931, pls. CCCXXV–CCCXXVI.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1932), p. 179, nos. 803.27, 804.27.
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1932), p. 121.
William R. Valentiner, Paintings in the Collection of Martin A. Ryerson, unpub. MS [1932], Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago, n. pag.
Bernard Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento (Milan, 1936), p. 105.
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1948), p. 25.
Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools (London, 1951), p. 102, under no. 3336; rev. ed. 1961, p. 132, under no. 3336.
C. Baroni and S. Samek Ludovici, La pittura lombarda del quattrocento (Messina and Florence, 1952), pp. 235, 238-39.
Federico Zeri, “Two Contributions to Lombard Quattrocento Painting,” Burlington Magazine 97 (1955), p. 77 n 4.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 63-64.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” in Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae (Munich, 1961), p. 517.
Elvira Cassa Salvi, Butinone e Zenale (Maestri del colore 230) (Milan, 1966), n. p.
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools (London, 1968), vol. 1, p. 69.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972), pp. 38, 275, 295, 571.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, rev. ed. (London, 1977), p. 30.
Hugh Brigstocke, Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1978), pp. 25-26.
Mauro Natale in Mina Gregori, ed., Pittura tra Adda e Serio: Lodi, Treviglio, Caravaggio, Crema (Milan, 1987), p. 165.
A[ngelo] O[ttolini], “Butinone, Bernardino” in Federico Zeri, ed., La pittura in Italia: Il quattrocento, Milan, 1987, p. 594.
Christopher Lloyd, Italian Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1993), pp. 53-58, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, Glad Tidings of Great Joy – Christmas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1993), pp. 35, ill., 39.
Christie’s, New York, Important and Fine Old Master Paintings, May 19, 1993, under no. 30.
Andrea Bacchi in Pittura Lombarda 1450–1650, ed. Alessandro Morandotti, exh. cat., Campagnia di Belle Arti (Milan, 1994), pp. 16–25, fig. 5.
Francesco Rossi, “Bernardino Butinone. La Critica,” in J. Shell, F. Rossi and P. De Vecchi, Butinone e Zenale [extract from I Pittori Bergamaschi] (Bergamo, 1994), pp. 184–85, 189, 219, no. 6, ill., pp. 204, 251, 252.
Paolo Galli, “A proposito di Bernardino Butinone miniatore,” Arte Lombarda, no. 137 (2003), pp. 20, 22 n. 16, 23 n. 30.

New York, Lotos Club, 1927, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 82.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1934, no. 26.
Art Institute of Chicago, Glad Tidings of Great Joy, 1994–1995, no cat.

Count de Malherbe, Paris, by 1921 [Kleinberger stock card, Department of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art]; sold to Kleinberger, Paris and New York, 1921 [according to Kleinberger stock card cited above]; sold by Kleinberger to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, 1927; on loan to the Art Institute from 1927; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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