Rest During The Flight Into Egypt, Workshop Of Pieter Coecke Van Aelst (1502-1550)

Workshop of Pieter Coecke Van Aelst
16th century
Oil on oak panel
Dimensions: panel: h. 87 cm, w. 56 cm
Original frame in molded oak wood
Dimensions: h. 100 cm, w. 69 cm

Link to our web catalogue
Repos pendant la fuite en Egypte, atelier de Pieter Coecke Van Aelst (1502-1550) (galerienicolaslente.com)

Luminous and rich in fresh and tangy colours, our work illustrates the Holy Family resting against the backdrop of a verdant landscape. The Virgin richly dressed in multiple fabrics is seated in the foreground holding the child Jesus in her lap. Joseph standing slightly in the background, his hand resting on Marie's shoulder, looks attentively at the child. Marie, her head covered with a draped turban, her eyes modestly lowered, holds in her right hand the apple, symbol of the fall of man. Jesus partially lying down, embraces his mother's arm, but seems to want to slip away from her bosom. His evasive and pensive gaze indicates that he is probably thinking of his destiny. The tight framing of the foreground invites us into the intimacy of the holy family. While the second shot opens onto the hilly panorama of the Flemish countryside, with fortified villages, transporting us into the distance. Trees with twisting trunks and bare roots enliven the space and contributed to creating this flight towards the line of the horizon.

The work we are offering is a central panel of a triptych originally accompanied by the shutters (disappeared or detached) which undoubtedly represented the donees or sponsors of the work, like the triptych of the Catharijneconvent museum in Utrecht . Another very close variant is found in the Saint-Sulpice-et-Saint-Dionysius church in Diest (Belgium). Finally a third version in a private collection is published p. 234 in the monograph devoted to Pieter Coeck Van Aelst by Georges Marlier (G. Marlier, La Renaissance Flamande. Pierre Coeck d'Alost, Brussels 1966)

Pieter Coecke van Aelst, or Pieter Coeck d'Aelst, born August 14, 1502 in Aalst and died December 6, 1550 in Brussels, is a Flemish painter and architect-scenographer. He apprenticed in Brussels under the direction of Bernard van Orley. He completed a stay in Italy between 1521 and 1525, where he discovered the masterpieces of On his return from Italy in 1527, he settled in Antwerp, where he worked for Jan Van Dornicke, then married his daughter, inheriting his father-in-law's studio on the death of his father-in-law. His workshops will enjoy a great reputation: engraving, sculpture, scenography for the theater, painting on stained glass, drawings for tapestry and jewelry, all the plastic arts will be implemented there. Others collaborated in the production.Coecke van Aelst also trains Pieter Brueghel the Elder, who will marry his daughter. In 1539, he undertook to publish a Dutch language translation of Sebastiano Serlio's Architettura. Charles V appointed him court painter shortly before his death. in a scene by Leonardo da Vinci, for example in The Last Supper of 1531. His methodical conception of Italian Renaissance art facilitated its dissemination in the southern Netherlands. Although he ran a very active and profitable workshop, very few works by his hand remain, because some of them disappeared under the blows of the Calvinist iconoclasts.