The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

A study for The Rest on the Flight into Egypt executed in three versions by Barocci, A. Emiliani, Federico Barocci, Bologna, 1985, I, pp. 77-85. The first version, now lost, is probably that executed for Duke Guidolbaldo and sent to Lucretia d'Este around the time of her wedding on 2 January 1577. It was still in her possession at her death in 1598 and was inherited by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandi in whose family it stayed until the late 18th Century. It passed afterwards to England but its whereabouts have been unknown since the mid 19th Century. The second version (A. Emiliani, op. cit., no. 132) was probably done for Count Antonio Brancaleoni and is now in the Church of Santo Stefano in Piobbico. It was engraved by Cornelis Cort in 1575. The last autograph version (A. Emiliani, op. cit., no. 133) was sent by Barocci to Simonetto Anastagi to Perugia on 2 October 1573 and is now in the Pinacoteca Vaticano.
This is the only known full compositional study for this picture known, although many detail studies are extant in Florence, Vienna and Amsterdam, A. Emiliani, op. cit., nos. 136-52. A pen study for the Virgin is in Edinburgh (inv. D.821) and a first sketch for the subject with Joseph on the right and the Infant on the Virgin's lap looking to the right is in the Uffizi, A. Emiliani, op. cit., nos. 134-5.