Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Mola)

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt is an oil painting on copper by the Italian Baroque master Pier Francesco Mola (1612–1666), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The scene is based not on any incident in the Bible itself, but on a body of tales or legends that had grown up in the early Middle Ages around the Bible story of the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt for refuge on being warned that Herod the Great was seeking to kill the Christ Child.

Mola shows the Virgin Mary reaching over to pick up the infant Jesus, with elderly Saint Joseph reclined nearby.

In the background, an angel leads a donkey to take a drink from the water hole formed by the spring created by Jesus.

The painting was part of the Wrightsman Fund's 1993 gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and as of January 2011, is on public view.

One of Mola's other versions of this subject, Dulwich Picture Gallery , London