The Flight into Egypt

Given the brief biblical account in Matthew 2, verses 13-15 and a few other apocryphal references, The Flight into Egypt, depicted in 24 etchings, can be considered one of those artistic challenges that Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo masterfully accomplished with extraordinary creativity and technical skill. Today the cycle is deemed the best-known graphic series with this theme. Tiepolo produced it when he was in Würzburg, where he was decorating, together with his father and brothers, Prince-Bishop Carl Philipp von Greiffenclau’s newly built residence with large fresco cycles. He dedicated the suite, bearing a frontispiece and title page, to this client. (Sonja Brink)