The dream of Saint Joseph to flee to Egypt
Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra, 1650
This painting by Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra depicts an episode from the Gospel of Matthew: an angel appears to Joseph of Nazareth in a dream to reveal that Mary's son was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It is a small oil on canvas, a size that suits the private devotion of the period. According to Antonio Palomino, who trained with the painter, it was one of a set of four canvases once kept in the house of the cathedral treasurer in Granada. In 2008 the Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba acquired it, together with another work from the same series, The Sacrifice of Isaac, and it remains there today. Its appeal lies in how it stages the scene: Joseph's dream becomes a moment of revelation, an intimate instant handled with a simple, restrained composition typical of the Baroque painting of Córdoba.
- Painter
- Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra
- Date
- 1650
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 46 × 36 cm
- Museum
- Museum of Fine Arts of Córdoba, Córdoba
- Movement
- Baroque painting, Cordoba School of Painting
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- Saint Joseph, angel
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