03 — ARTWORK
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
- MEDIUM
- Oil on oak panel, 103 x 65 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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CURRENT LOCATION · Groeninge Museum
- FILE
- 801 × 1177 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The early sixteenth century saw the establishment in Antwerp and Brussels of a new, modish style of MannerismA movement in Italian art from about 1520 to 1600. Developing out of the Renaissance, Mannerism rejected Renaissance balance and harmony in favor of emotional intensity and ambiguity. In Mannerist painting, this was expressed mainly through severe distortions of perspective and scale; complex and crowded compositions; strong, sometimes harsh or discordant colors; and elongated figures in exaggerated poses. In architecture, there was a playful exaggeration of Renaissance forms (largely in scale and proportion) and the greater use of bizarre decoration. Mannerism gave way to the Baroque. Leading Mannerists include Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigianino, El Greco and Tintoretto. that broke radically from the serenity that had characterized the previous century. In Bruges, by contrast, a traditional undercurrent survived. The 'Bruges style' was greatly influenced by Gerard David and dominated by two of his pupils, Adriaan Isenbrant (c. 1490-1551) and Ambrosius Benson, both of whom remained active until about 1550. The sfumatoA technique, largely developed by Leonardo da Vinci, in which the transitions from light to dark are so gradual they are almost imperceptible; sfumato softens lines and creates a soft-focus effect. technique employed by Isenbrant and the dramatic colour contrasts used by Benson owe much to Italian influence. What is typical about these two painters is the way they grafted their innovations onto old compositional and iconographical schemes, especially those of a religious nature. In the secular field, the Lombard immigrant Benson was already clearly a Renaissance painter.
The very traditional Rest on the Flight into Egypt was the central panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. of a triptychA painting in three sections, usually an altarpiece, consisting of a central panel and two outer panels, or wings. In many medieval triptychs the two outer wings were hinged so that could be closed over the center panel. Early triptychs were often portable.. It is shown in the original frame.
OTHER WORKS BY AMBROSIUS BENSON
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r4f758fa952dd4b,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Rest on the Flight into Egypt by BENSON, Ambrosius},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/benson-ambrosius-rbc5dcc283a78e2/rest-on-the-flight-into-egypt-r4f758fa952dd4b},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.