Art History Case

A work of art that really impressed me was Flight into Egypt, circa 1544-545, is vivid art which is 60-5/8 x 90 inch can be seen at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. The artist of this work is Jacopo da Ponte called Jacopo Bassano, circa 1510-1592, who is Italian.

When I first look at this painting, I can easily figure out that the painting is painted in Europe. Using the knowledge from the class, I can tell that Flight into Egypt is an oil paint on canvas. The oil paints made this work much easier to work and correction. I was deeply attracted by the fabulous and variety color used in the painting. It allowed the artist to put more detail and luminescence in the work. In my opinion, this work is different from the international style because there is no brilliant color, such as gold background. The whole work looks very realistic.

Flight into Egypt tells of a group of people trying to leave their hometown by escaping into the Egypt. There are seven people in the picture, but nobody is wearing shoes during this escaping. The oldest man is the first person to attract me from the beginning. Although he looks so old with white beard, he seems full of wisdom and experience. He is holding the donkey where the woman and baby are sitting on. This old man is the symbol of the pathfinder who led the woman and baby flight into Egypt. He is holding a cane in his left hand. The cane can show him the way which means although the future undefined, they will get help from others. The old man doesn't look comfortable because his eyes were looking down. Actually when people walk, they constantly look ahead, so I guess the old man is blind.

There are three young men in the art work. The man wearing green shirt and red pants with a lance in his hand looks like a soldier. He looks exhausted when he is too thirsty. From the observation, there are two options. Maybe his country tried to fight with other countries, unfortunately his country lost in the battle and the victory country invaded his country's territory, so he flight to Egypt with those people. Or maybe this soldier is come to help those people to flight to Egypt. There is another man without any shirt says bye to the people in the distance behind the donkey. He did not bring anything and his body is toward the back of the donkey, regardless of the fact that others are in front of him. I think this is the symbolism of he is unwilling to leave his hometown, but they have to leave their family for some reason. Thirdly, the man who owns the cocks seems not in a hurry like other people. He genuinely cares about his property. I deem that he just wanted to stay in his hometown rather than go anywhere else.

The most fantastic part of this work is the beautiful angel. The angel wears gorgeous clothes with beautiful wings. Instead of flying, the angle is running. Angels always symbols positive power and hope. Here, it means she is the one leading others