3-042-065 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Flight into Egypt; Hours of Simon de Varie, 1455. Additional Info: In this miniature depicting the Flight into Egypt, the Virgin, baby Jesus, Joseph, and a female attendant escape to Egypt to elude Herod's soldiers, who search for Jesus to kill him. The artist squeezes the figures into the foreground, while a deep vista unfolds behind them. The long path winding back in space conveys a suggestion of their long journey. In the border, the illuminator included a figure cutting wheat and a soldier, referring to the Miracle of the Wheat Field, an apocryphal story about the soldiers' unsuccessful search for Jesus. This miniature in Simon de Varie's book of hours accompanies the Vespers text of the Hours of the Virgin, a series of prayers devoted to the Virgin Mary.