Studies for a Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Studies for a Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Rutilio Manetti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this robust drawing for his painting now in the Gamäldegalerie of Kassel, Germany, Manetti portrayed the Madonna as a humble down-to-earth mother, giving her infant son something to drink. Although he came under the spell of Caravaggio's dramatic realism, Manetti was at first the pupil of Francesco Vanni (1563-1610), whose fantastically delicate, airborne Virgin Mary is seen at right. Listed by Claus Virch in his catalogue of the Baker collection with a tentative attribution to Annibale Carracci, the drawing was recognized by Philip Pouncey in 1965 as Manetti's study for a painting, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, now in the Gamäldegalerie (repr. Rutilio Manetti 1571-1639, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, 1978, p. 81). Another study for this subject, in oil paint on paper, is preserved in the Louvre, it comes from the collection of Pierre-Jean Mariette, who recognized it as the work of Manetti (Inv. 1285).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Studies for a Rest on the Flight into EgyptStudies for a Rest on the Flight into EgyptStudies for a Rest on the Flight into EgyptStudies for a Rest on the Flight into EgyptStudies for a Rest on the Flight into Egypt

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.