Rest during the Flight into Egypt

Warned in a dream that Herod meant to kill the child, Joseph took Mary and the infant Christ and fled by night into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15). Gentile da Fabriano sets the journey across a golden dawn - the Virgin and Child on the donkey, Joseph striding ahead, a maidservant following - with shepherds and walled hill-towns dotting the rolling land. From the predella, the base, of his Adoration of the Magi, the little panel is famous for its gilded, low-hanging sun and orange trees heavy with fruit, an early, tender attempt to bathe a whole landscape in real morning light.