The Flight into Egypt

Adam Elsheimer's "Flight into Egypt" (1609) at the Alte Pinakothek is one of the most revolutionary paintings of the early Baroque, depicting the Holy Family's nocturnal journey under a star-filled sky with an astronomically accurate Milky Way. Elsheimer, a German painter working in Rome, died the following year at thirty-two, but this small masterpiece influenced Rembrandt, Rubens, and Claude Lorrain.

The tiny copper panel depicts multiple light sources—the moon reflected in water, the campfire, the torch, and the star-filled sky—with unprecedented accuracy, creating a nocturnal landscape of remarkable luminosity and scientific observation.