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The Drama of the Incarnation in Caravaggio’s Visual Homily

“Rest on the Flight into Egypt” (Il Riposo durante la Fuga in Egitto) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, oil on canvas, 1594–96. (Photo courtesy of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome)

As we prepare for the graces of Advent and Christmas we are invited into the drama of the Incarnation of God in human history. An exquisite painting by the Italian Baroque master painter, Caravaggio, entitled, "Rest on the Flight into Egypt," completed around 1597, offers a stirring visual homily for our contemplation during this sacred season.

The painting is among some 60 artistic masterpieces gathered in a landmark exhibition, "Picturing Mary," now on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts till April 12, 2015. The exhibit features exquisite and rarely seen depictions of Mary in works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Vasari, Pisano, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Guercino, and a little known seventeenth century woman artist, the nun Orsola Maddalena Caccia, among others.

Caravaggio’s masterpiece depiction of the "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" comes to the Washington exhibition from the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome, a vast private art collection housed in the heart of the Eternal City. In its original setting in the Pamphilj palace, the work is displayed on an immense wall along with several dozen masterworks. There, one can almost miss the painting and its singular beauty. But in the Washington exhibition, the viewer enjoys this Baroque masterwork framed only by two paintings. To the left of Caravaggio’s masterpiece is a painting by his first teacher, Simone Peterzano, who was, in turn, a pupil of Titian, whose work is displayed on the right.

 “Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt…for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there till the death of Herod” (Matthew 2: 13).

This stirring passage from Matthew’s Gospel recounts why and how the Holy Family became refugees, fleeing from their home with an infant Child, to a distant land. As refugees they would have experienced the fears, uncertainties, and the profound displacement of such a treacherous journey. And while the Gospels offer little detail about their flight, many apocryphal accounts and tales emerged around the biblical narrative during the Middle Ages. In one of these medieval legends, Joseph and Mary are said to have rested in an orchard of trees that bent their branches willingly with fruit for their nourishment, while springs of water flowed to quench their thirst.

In Caravaggio’s masterpiece, we see many of these apocryphal details, including a wide-eyed donkey in the background. Yet the essential drama of the Gospel scene he depicts points to the deeper spiritual reality of Christmas. For who was Herod seeking to destroy? None less than the One who is the very Incarnation of God in human history! The mystery of the Incarnation of God in the form of an innocent Child sent to redeem us is the real drama evoked in this scene.

Reading the painting from left to right, we see the figure of Saint Joseph seated low to the ground holding a sheet of music. His weary face barely reveals his many anxieties as he fulfills his role as “Guardian of the Redeemer.” Yet Caravaggio seems to capture that moment when Joseph’s real fears are calmed by heavenly music played by a robust and youthful winged angel, an ethereal messenger of comfort and peace. Joseph gazes on the angel with gratitude for the heavenly assurance that all will be well, even in the midst of this terrifying ordeal. On the right side of the painting, Mary enfolds the Infant Jesus in her arms, as both of them rest in peaceful slumber, soothed by the harmony of the angel’s music set that mingles with the sounds of a running stream.

It is as if these words of Isaiah are now fulfilled while the Holy Family rests. “I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand. It is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you”…I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights…and the dry ground into springs of water…That all may see and know, observe and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:13-20)

Within Saint Joseph’s intense gaze at the angel unfolds the drama of the Incarnation itself. God, out of divine love, sends His Son into the world, to calm the deepest of human fears. Sure, one can find drama in Herod’s bloodthirsty search. But this profound image gives us confidence that the lust and domination of a tyrant like Herod is not the final word on the human condition. The power of God’s redeeming love is stronger than the world’s darkness. Jesus Christ, the light of the world, born of the Virgin Mary, is with us to live, suffer, and die for us.

In the hectic pace of the Advent and Christmas seasons, this image from the hand of the Baroque master artist invites us to rest. Like the Holy Family, we too are invited to rest from the anxieties and troubles that mark our own daily flight from task to task, and from care to care. And in the contemplative rest of this sacred season, we too, like the Holy Family, will surely find true joy, lasting hope, and the radiant light of Christ that shines on the path of our life’s journey.

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