Landscape with the flight into Egypt 1626 - 1680

Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi created this landscape with the flight into Egypt as an etching. Notice how the formal structure of the piece divides the composition, and therefore, the narrative into distinct zones. On the right, we see Mary and the Christ Child on their donkey, rendered with a delicate line. To the left, the figures in the boat are defined by a coarser, more emphatic use of the etching needle. These different applications of the printmaking technique serve to highlight the foregrounded religious figures from the quotidian figures. Grimaldi has employed line and form to suggest a contrast between the earthly and the divine. The landscape, rather than simply serving as a backdrop, becomes an active participant in the narrative, its structured composition mirroring the theological themes at play. The composition does more than depict a biblical episode; it engages with the very categories through which we understand the sacred.