Artist: Anton Raphael Mengs

Created: 1773–1774

In the Gospel of Matthew, the apostle relates: “And when [the wise men] were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” (Matt. 2:13.)

In 1773 Mengs was granted the privilege of hanging his portrait in the Florence gallery of artists’ portraits founded by Giorgio Vasari in the mid-16th century. Allegedly, he chose the spot himself: having been celebrated as “the new Raphael”, he promptly placed his portrait beneath the one of the great Italian painter. In 1745 Mengs had become Saxon court painter in Dresden but spent a great deal of his time in Rome. There, along with Winckelmann, he became one of the founders of Classicism and in the view of his admirers helped to supersede the decadent Baroque. In 1773/74 he returned to Madrid, where he had been appointed court painter to Charles III in 1760. The present painting depicting Joseph’s dream was probably created during Mengs’s Florentine period and came directly into the possession of the grand duke Pietro Leopoldo. In Rome Mengs had renewed his study of the works of Michelangelo, and Joseph’s posture is clearly adopted from the master’s Jerome in the Sistine Chapel.

 The Dream of St. Joseph Read more here

Escape By Night, by Rose Datoc Dall, depicts the nighttime flight into Egypt of Joseph, Mary & the Boy Jesus, as recounted in the New Testament. 

The Holy family fled into Egypt after Joseph was warned in a dream by an angel that King Herod sought the life of the Boy Savior (Matthew 2: 13-15).

Prints can be purchased here

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid.”

Matthew 1:20

St. Joseph never saw an angel the way Mary did, clear as day, with her waking eyes. He never saw the burning bush or heard the thunderous voice of God, “I am that I am.” St. Joseph only heard God in the quietest of ways. He dreamed of angels. He heard God while he slept. 

There are “four dreams” of St. Joseph: In the first he learns the miraculous nature of Mary’s pregnancy and is told ‘not to be afraid’ to take her as his wife. In the second, he is warned to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt. While in Egypt, he has a third dream where he learns that it is safe to return to Israel. Finally, he dreams a fourth dream: he is again warned of danger and travels to Galilee instead of back to Judea...read more here

by Rembrandt van Rijn (1647) oil on canvas

Having been notified that a new ‘King of the Jews’ had been born, King Herod ordered the slaying of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem. In order to save the Christ Child, an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him to flee with his family to Egypt. This subject occupies only a small place in Rembrandt’s painting. The artist chose to place more emphasis on the mesmerizing atmosphere of a hilly landscape at night, illuminated by multiple light sources. The painting is one of nine painted landscapes by Rembrandt and the only by night.

 by Sebastian Martinez

Ca. 1650. Oil on canvas.

Museum: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. 

Saint Joseph grasps Jesus’s arm to prevent him from taking fruit from the basket. This action is loaded with meaning, given the sacrificial and Eucharistic significance of both the Child’s violet tunic and the grapes and pomegranates that predominate in the fruit basket. The painter, who is now getting better known, worked in Jaen and at Court in Madrid in the mid-seventeenth century.

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Luca GIORDANO (Naples, 1634 - Naples, 1705)

This work is the companion piece to the Adoration of the Shepherds. It is probably one of a series of seventeen Scenes from the Life of the Virgin listed in an 18th-century inventory of the queen’s chamber in the royal palace in Madrid. Other works from the series are held in various Spanish museums and collections.

Before the shadowed face or illumined ear, however, the first thing the eye registers in the painting is the lily. According to tradition, St. Joseph was chosen as the spouse of the Virgin because his rod, unique among those collected from among the eligible bridegrooms, bloomed with lilies. This was interpreted as a sign of St. Joseph’s purity and consequently of his divine election. The lily is also associated with Our Lady, “the purest of lilies, that flowers among thorns” in the words of the Flos Carmeli, the sequence for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In Gwyneth’s painting, Joseph wields the lily-flowering rod with both hands, like a knight wielding a sword or an acolyte processing with a candle. The lily is at once an emblem of virility rooted in purity and of splendor crowning humility. 

Read more about this beautiful painting HERE