The Flight into Egypt

Both Gaudi and Arcargeli in the catalogue of the exhibition in 1948 (op. cit.) suggest a date after 1725 for the present painting. Merriman (op. cit.) points out that the kneeling peasant recalls several figures in the martyrdom series in San Paolo d'Aragon, documented to 1728-9. Similarly the fussy brushwork in the rendering of the foliage and straw is found in paintings such as A Pastoral Scene with Two Shepherdesses in the Roberto Longhi collection, Florence, and Jupiter among the Corybantes, London, both dated circa 1730.