The Flight into Egypt, from the Life of the Virgin

Prints and Drawings

c. 1504–05, published 1511

Albrecht Dürer
German, 1471-1528

Early in his career Albrecht Dürer set out to meet Martin Schongauer but arrived after the famous printmaker’s death. This woodcut from The Life of the Virgin, one of Dürer’s three major illustrated books along with The Passion and The Apocalypse, represents an homage to Schongauer. Compared to Schongauer’s print of the scene, Dürer’s image shares an interest in a variety of exotic vegetation (palms) and desert creatures (lizards) and by suggesting the arid nature of the landscape, visually reinforces how far the family had to travel to escape the persecution of Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Albrecht Dürer
Title: The Flight into Egypt, from the Life of the Virgin
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1504–1505
Medium: Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Image: 30.1 × 21 cm (11 7/8 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 45.2 × 30.8 cm (17 13/16 × 12 3/16 in.)
Credit Line: Clarence Buckingham Collection
Reference Number: 1919.2604
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Bartsch 89

Meder 201 1511 Latin text

Strauss 92

Schoch, Mende, & Scherbaum 179

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