Rest on the Flight to Egypt

Albrecht Altdorfer painted this Rest on the Flight to Egypt around 1510 for the Gemäldegalerie Berlin. Altdorfer transforms the traditional subject into an occasion for his revolutionary landscape painting, with the Holy Family resting beside a spectacular fountain in a visionary forest setting Egg tempera on panel was the dominant technique of the period, demanding careful layer-by-layer construction and patient craftsmanship It is now held at The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, housing one of the w

The panel demonstrates Altdorfer's extraordinary integration of narrative and landscape, with the fantastical fountain and lush forest setting becoming as important as the sacred figures, rendered in his characteristically luminous and atmospheric style.