The Flight into Egypt

Abraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck · c. 1650

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

43.8 × 31.8 cm (17 1/4 × 12 1/2 in.); Framed: 64.8 × 53.4 × 10.2 cm (25 1/2 × 21 × 4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Diepenbeeck's tender rendering of the Holy Family's flight from Herod carries the warmth and intimacy that defines the best of Flemish Baroque devotional painting — soft golden light falling across Mary's face, Joseph guiding them forward through a gently darkened landscape. Abraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck trained under Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp and absorbed the master's gift for graceful, luminous figures and rich tonal depth. Unlike many of his contemporaries who leaned into drama and spectacle, Diepenbeeck favoured quiet human moments — a quality that gives this panel painting its unusual emotional stillness. His technique on panel allowed him fine control over surface texture, and the result is a composition that feels both monumental and tender at once. Diepenbeeck was as accomplished a designer for tapestry and stained glass as he was a painter, and this versatility is reflected in the clean, considered compositional structure visible here — shapes that read clearly even from a distance, as though designed to be read through light. Held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the original remains a quietly beloved example of mid-seventeenth century Flemish religious painting. A hand-painted oil reproduction brings that same careful craftsmanship into your home, made stroke by stroke on canvas using traditional oil pigments.