ELSHEIMER, Adam
(b. 1578, Frankfurt/Main, d. 1610, Roma)

The Flight into Egypt

c. 1605
Oil on silvered copper, oval 10 x 7,6 cm
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

This tiny painting demonstrates Elsheimer's extraordinary skill as a painter of oval works. The landscape, bathed in light, is exceptionally delicate. A distant castle on the left is immersed in the atmospheric, hazy blue of the mountains, while to the right minutely observed figures carry out their rural occupations on soft woodland slopes.