Landscape with the Flight into Egypt

Aelbert Cuyp was interested in the Italianate landscapes of Cornelis van Poelenburgh in the early 1640s and, from 1645 onward, those of the newly returned Jan Both. The degree to which Cuyp responded to Both becomes even more conspicuous in works of the 1650s. The present painting is one of the clearest examples of Cuyp's response to the Italianate landscapes of Jan Both.

About two dozen landscapes by Cuyp are enlivened by religious figures, and at least three of them (including the present painting) by the Holy Family on their way to Egypt. The placement of religious figures in extensive landscapes went back to the beginning of the genre in the Netherlands and continued through the seventeenth century. The whole tradition originates from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting of 1563.