Vintage 1940s Gerard David "Flight Into Egypt" Art Print Folio

A beautiful print of Flight Into Egypt by Gerard David (Flemish School 1460—1523) tipped into its own thick portfolio with information and provenance of the work enclosed. Folio is made of thick vintage textured paper with a lovely patina and deckled edge.

10" x 13"

Commentary on the work circa late 1940s:

“IN THE YEAR 1488 the citizens of Bruges put their ruler, the Austrian Maximilian, in prison until he was of a mind to accept their plan for a Council of Regency for Flanders. Maximilian was disturbed by the rusty bars on the fortress windows, so the courteous city council had them painted a cheerful red. Perhaps out of deference to imprisoned majesty, they chose a painter of some repute for the job -a member of the Guild of St. Luke, one Gerard David by name.

A Hollander by birth, Gerard David probably found his earliest influences in Haarlem, where there were a number of prominent painters. In his twenty-third year we find him registered in the painters' guild at Bruges, the same Flemish city that had attracted the renowned Memling from Germany some twenty years before. Five years later he became an officer of the guild and, eventually, dean. When he was thirty-six he married Cornelia Coop, a rich goldsmith's daughter who was also a skilled miniature painter. In 1515 he went to Antwerp, then the greatest commercial city of Europe, where he joined the painters' guild headed by Quentin Massys.

The work of Gerard David belongs to the last phase of Gothic painting in Flanders. A conservative by temperament and a patrician by marriage, the fact that he became a member of the religious Confraternity of the Dead Tree, and that this Confraternity was very exclusive may be taken as symbolic of his life and art. Gentleness, sobriety, serenity, a deep and tender piety inform his paintings, in which everything is reasonable but everything is profoundly felt and beautifully rendered. The original of Flight Into Egypt may be seen in the National Gallery in Washington.”