STUDIO OF SIMON VOUET (PARIS 1590-1649)

There are many versions of this apocryphal scene from the infancy of Christ, following Simon Vouet's composition, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen (inv. no. 80.9.2). The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, as it is depicted in the present composition, is known from extrabibilical narratives dating from the eighth and ninth centuries. According to these stories, the Holy Family was overcome by fatigue and hunger and settled for the night under a fruiting date palm. There, the infant Christ performed an early miracle, causing a branch of the palm to bend down so that the fruit could be reached.