Artwork
The Rest on the Return from Egypt
The Rest on the Return from Egypt is an oil painting by the Early Baroque Italian artist Paris Bordone. It dates from 1540 and is held in the collection of the National Galleries Scotland. Created circa 1540, this oil painting shows a seated woman in a red robe holding an infant, with a child beside her reaching for a scroll.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a work of religious art, the piece focuses on this intimate, domestic pause during the biblical narrative of the return journey.
Paris Bordone's painting depicts a specific moment from the Holy Family's journey following their flight to Egypt. The scene illustrates the Rest on the Return from Egypt, featuring the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, and the Child Saint John. According to the visual record, the composition includes Mary reading a book while the infants engage in a kiss, symbolizing their spiritual connection and the recognition of Christ's divinity by John.
As a work of religious art, the piece focuses on this intimate, domestic pause during the biblical narrative of the return journey.
Technique & Style
The Rest on the Return from Egypt is executed in oil on canvas, a support and medium consistent with Paris Bordone's Venetian practice of the mid-sixteenth century. The canvas measures 104 cm in height by 140.8 cm in width, giving the composition a horizontal format suited to a multi-figure religious narrative. Classified as a painting, the work is a religious composition depicting the Holy Family with attendant figures during the return from Egypt.
No source provides information on the painting's present condition, state of conservation, handling of paint, or specific stylistic qualities such as palette, brushwork, or compositional devices.
History & Provenance
Paris Bordone painted The Rest on the Return from Egypt in 1540, an oil on canvas work measuring 104.0 cm by 140.8 cm. The National Galleries Scotland acquired the painting in 1996, accepting it in lieu of inheritance tax with a contribution from Gallery funds. Its provenance and acquisition history are documented in the National Galleries Scotland collection records, confirming its presence in the Scottish National Gallery since that time.
The painting is held by the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, part of the National Galleries of Scotland collection. It is catalogued under the accession number NG 2651. The work entered the national collection in 1996, when it was accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Gallery of Scotland, with a contribution from Gallery funds.
No prior exhibition history beyond this acquisition is documented in the available sources.
Context
The Rest on the Return from Egypt by Paris Bordone was painted in 1540 as an oil on canvas work measuring 104 by 140.8 cm. It is classified as a religious genre painting depicting the Holy Family’s return from Egypt, including figures of Mary, the infant Christ, and the Child Saint John. The composition incorporates symbolic gestures such as a kiss and references to narrative texts. The artwork is held by National Galleries Scotland and is part of the collection at the Scottish National Gallery, accessioned in 1996 through acceptance in lieu of inheritance tax.
Its provenance and significance are documented within art-historical scholarship on Bordone’s religious output and Venetian Renaissance painting practices.
Overview
Created circa 1540, this oil painting shows a seated woman in a red robe holding an infant, with a child beside her reaching for a scroll. Behind them a gently rolling landscape unfolds beneath a cloudy sky, dotted with distant figures and a lone donkey. The work is part of the collection of the Scottish National Gallery.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Paris Bordone (Paris Paschalinus Bordone; 5 July 1500 – 19 January 1571) was an Italian painter of the Venetian Renaissance who, despite training with Titian, maintained a strand of Mannerist complexity and provincial vigor.
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The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
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Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John
The Rest on The Flight into Egypt
Madonna of the Well or Madonna and Child with the young St. John the Baptist
Madonna and Child