The Flight into Egypt

c. 1650

Abraham van Diepenbeeck
Flemish, 1596-1675

The flight into Egypt—a common subject in European art—refers to an episode in the life of Christ when his family fled King Herod, who sought to kill the infant Jesus. Abraham van Diepenbeeck made the theme his own by including an angel and the inquisitive cow at bottom right. This panel was not intended to be a finished painting; it is instead a grisaille (monochrome grey) oil sketch, which was then translated into an engraving. Collaborating with printmakers could be lucrative for painters while also providing an opportunity to advertise their artistry more widely.

Status: On View, Gallery 208
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Abraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck
Title: The Flight into Egypt
Place: Flanders (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1640–1660
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 43.8 × 31.8 cm (17 1/4 × 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Michael W. Straus in memory of Michael Straus
Reference Number: 1963.44
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/16497/manifest.json

J. de Bosschere, ed., De Kerken van Antwerpen (Schilderijen, Beeldhouwwerken, Geschilderde Glasramen, enz., in de XVIIIe eeuw beschreven door Jacobus de Wit (Uitgaven der Antwerpsche Bibliophilen, no. 25), (Antwerp and The Hague, 1910), p. 147.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 1963-64 (Chicago, 1964), p. 19.
Alfred Werner, “Berichte,” Pantheon 23 (1965), pp. 121-22.
David W. Steadman, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painter (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1982), pp. 28-29, 101, 175, no. 48, fig. 45.
Guy C. Bauman and Walter A. Liedtke, Flemish Paintings in America. A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America (Antwerp, 1992), p. 328, no. 186, ill.
Hans Vlieghe in Meesters van het Zuiden. Barokschilders rondom Rubens, ed. Paul Huys Janssen, exh. cat., Noordbrabants Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, 2000, pp. 73-74, under no. 19.
Ann Diels, The Shadow of Rubens: Print Publishing in 17th-century Antwerp. Prints by the history paintings Abraham vanDiepenbeck, Cornelis Schut and Erasmus Quellinus II (Turnhout, 2009), pp. 77-79.
“Diepenbeeck, Abraham van” in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon Online: http://www.degruyter.com/view/AKL/_10188856?rskey=px6Pa0&result=10&dbq_0=diepenbeeck&dbf_0=akl-fulltext&dbt_0=fulltext&o_0=AND
accessed June 9, 2014

Fondatie Terninck in the parish of Saint George, Antwerp, by about 1748, [with four other grisailles by Diepenbeeck according to De Bosschere 1910, p. 147, reprinting the manuscript description of Jacob de Wit from about 1748; see also Steadman 1982]; probably dispersed by 1767 [Steadman 1982]. Michael Straus (died 1943), Hinsdale, Illinois, possibly from 1893 [a letter of December 18, 1963 from his son Michael W. Straus to John Maxon states that his father had acquired the painting, then attributed to Anthony van Dyck, in connection with his role in the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, copy in curatorial file]; by descent to Michael W. Straus, Washington, D.C.; given to the Art Institute, 1963.

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