Martin SchongauerGerman, 1440–1491The Flight into Egypt
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
According to the apocryphal Gospel by Pseudo-Matthew, while resting in Egypt after fleeing the Massacre of the Innocents and their home in Israel, the Virgin Mary asked Joseph to harvest some dates from a palm. As Joseph could not reach the fruits on the three, Jesus ordered the plant to bend down. Martin Schongauer's print is clearly inspired by this episode. the Virgin Mary is shown holding him and riding on a donkey, which is momentarily resting under a palm. Five hovering angels are pulling down the top of the tree to enable Joseph to pick dates. This print belongs to a set of four engravings considered to be an incomplete series of episodes of the Life of the Virgin, which also include The Nativity (1939.448), The Adoration of the Magi (1942.1070), and The Death of the Virgin (1956.744).
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1954.260
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — Museum open access
Meanwhile, in the life of Martin Schongauer
The whole lifec. 1466 – 1469
Learns painting from Caspar Isenmann
After early training in his father’s goldsmith workshop, he is thought to have learned painting from Colmar’s leading master Caspar Isenmann, a neighbour of his parents and a follower of Early Netherlandish painting. The older view that Master E. S. taught him engraving is now doubted by scholars.
not after 1469
Journeyman travels through Burgundy and the Netherlands
He makes the journeyman’s tour expected of artists of his time, begun by 1469 at the latest: he visits Burgundy and the Netherlands and gets to know the work of Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts, the Cologne school around Stefan Lochner and the Flemish school of Jan van Eyck. He is thought to have worked for a time with Hans Pleydenwurff in Nuremberg, and some scholars believe he also visited Spain, perhaps Portugal.
1469
Back in Colmar
Having finished his travels, he is recorded back in Colmar in 1469.
early 1470s
Begins signing his engravings with a monogram
He is thought to have begun signing his engravings with the monogram M†S in the early 1470s; 116 engravings are attributed to him, and none of them is dated.
1471
Sets up his own workshop in Colmar
By 1471 he has his own workshop: that year payments are made for an altarpiece for the Dominican church in Colmar, now in the museum and regarded as a workshop production.
c. 1471 – 1491
Twenty years at the head of German engraving
He dominates German engraving for about twenty years: his 116 engravings are known in Germany and Italy, reach England and Spain, and in Italy their maker is nicknamed “Beautiful Martin”; according to Vasari, Michelangelo copied his Temptation of St Anthony.
