The Figure-Sculpture: Flight into Egypt 263 



I do not know of any miniature of the Flight into Egypt in the Irish or 

 Celtic MSS., but the subject occurs in MSS., sculptured details of 

 churches, and on ivories, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.'^ 



La fuite en Egypte ne parait pas avoir ete figuree dans les monuments 

 avant le XI® siecle.^ 



Italian representations of the 12th century occur at Aosta (Sanf 

 Orso, cloister), Piacenza (Cathedral, architrave of right side-door 

 of facade), Como (Civic Museum, capital), Verona (San Giovanni in 

 Fonte, font), Fano (Archiepiscopal Palace, fragment from Cathedral), 

 Parma (Baptistery, bas-relief), Alatri (S. Maria Maggiore, sacristy 

 door), Gaeta (Cathedral, candelabrum), Benevento (Cathedral, 

 door-panel), all figured by Venturi,^ except that at Aosta. Of these, 

 none are of particular interest in this connection except those at 

 Piacenza, Fano, and Gaeta, that at Piacenza being especially signi- 

 ficant on account of its having been sculptured by Nicholas.* 



There is a Flight into Egypt (and a representation of the fall of 

 the idols in Egypt,^ as told in the apocryphal gospels) at the abbey 

 of Moissac. This is found in connection with an Annunciation (the 

 head of the angel is a bad modern restoration), a Visitation, an 

 Adoration of the Magi, a Presentation at the Temple, and a Vision 

 of Joseph, all dating from about 1180.^ It is also found sculptured 



1 Allen, Early Christian Symbolism, pp. 220, 222 ; he pictures the Flight 

 on the Moone Abbey cross (p. 221), probably of the 12th century (cf. Ri- 

 voira, Lomb. Arch. 2. 255-7). Of manuscripts, AUen mentions Nero C. IV 

 of the British Museum ; of sculptured details, the capital of a column at 

 St. Benoit-sur-Loire (see below) ; tSt. Maire a ToscaneUa, Italy, for which 

 see Gailhabaud's Architecture, Vol. 2, Part 1 ; and the pulpit of San Michele 

 at GroppoU, for which see The Builder, Dec. 10, 1881. Allen (p. 297) in- 

 stances the font at Walton-on-the-Hill, near Liverpool, and one at Clonard 

 Abbey in Ireland. 



2 Rohault de Fleury, UEvangile (Tours, 1874) 1. 76. 



3 Storia delVArte Ital. 3. 175, 207, 235, 277, 291, 385, 653, 687 ; cf. 3. 73, 

 204, 242, 243, 275, 316, 692. 



* See p. 144. ^ Cf. Allen, Early Christ. Symbolism, p. 221. 



6 Angles, L'Abbaye de Moissac, pp. 37, 41 ; cf. pp. 33, 34, 35 ; Viollet-le-Duc 

 7. 391. Angles (p. 38) attributes to the Languedocian school of Moissac 

 and Toulouse, in connection with the Burgundian school of Vezelay and 

 Autun, an influence on the portals of St. Denis and Chartres (west front). 

 This seems not improbable, in view of the fact that the 12th century stained 

 glass of the middle lancet of the west front of Chartres has, according to 

 Bulteau (Ilonographie 3. 212), the same scenes as those enumerated above. 

 Avith the addition of the Nativity, the Awakening of the Shepherds, the 

 Massacre of the Innocents, and the Return to Nazareth. 



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