Flight into Egypt was a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, created in Paris about 1899 and displayed at the Carnegie Institute that year, along with Judas.

Further, its characters, were rendered indistinctly in the twilight, enough that it was difficult to pin them down as being from a particular race or ethnic group; people could imagine their own in the painting.

The movement in literature arose in the 1860s and at the end of the 19th century, Symbolist painting was one of the main artistic manifestations.

"[9] Besides his use of color symbolism, Tanner used impressionist methods, not filling in the details on the people, leaving it up to the viewer's imagination.

[10] Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus, themselves symbols as the Holy Family are not portrayed in an elevated and idealized manner but as "normal folk", "generalized and demysticized" people with whom anyone could identify.