Rest on the Flight into Egypt

The important Italian painter and draftsman Pier Francesco Mola made very few prints. Only four etchings can be securely attributed to him, regrettably, given the talent he demonstrates in the medium with this intimate depiction of the Virgin Mary nursing the Christ Child on the flight into Egypt. The etching was executed at the height of Mola’s professional success in Rome, when the artist was occupied with princely and papal commissions and vast fresco projects. Sparkling and lively in execution, the small print tenderly captures an intimate moment between mother and child. It appears not to have been printed in great number. Such an endeavor, instead, must have provided Mola an escape from the demands of his public painting career.