Rest on the Flight into Egypt - Elisabetta Sirani

A delicate etching by the Bolognese Baroque artist Elisabetta Sirani, depicting the Holy Family in a moment of repose during their flight into Egypt.

This etching by Elisabetta Sirani depicts the Holy Family during their journey to Egypt. Sirani, a prolific artist of the Bolognese school, demonstrates her technical facility with the needle in this composition. The scene shows the Virgin Mary seated beneath a palm tree, cradling the infant Jesus, while Joseph rests nearby. The figures are rendered with fluid, expressive lines that define their forms and the folds of their garments. Sirani was one of the few women to achieve professional success in seventeenth-century Italy. She operated a busy studio in Bologna and produced a significant body of work before her premature death at the age of twenty-seven. Her approach to printmaking often mirrored the spontaneity of her drawings, prioritising movement and emotional clarity over rigid structure. The background features a simplified horizon line, allowing the focus to remain on the interaction between the figures. The inclusion of small cherubic heads in the upper left corner adds a traditional devotional element to the scene. This print offers a glimpse into the graphic output of a highly skilled practitioner of the Baroque period. The work is characterised by its light, rhythmic hatching and the gentle posture of the figures. It avoids excessive ornamentation, relying instead on the balance of the composition to convey the narrative. As a fine art print, this piece retains the character of the original copperplate, capturing the delicate pressure of the artist's hand. It is a representative example of the religious subject matter that dominated the artistic output of the era, executed with the confidence and precision for which Sirani was known during her short but productive career.