[Footnote 1:  It is conspicuous and elegantly treated over the door of the Lorenz Kirche at Nuremberg.]

Thus, it is related that among the children whom Herod was bent on destroying, was St. John the Baptist; but his mother Elizabeth fled with him to a desert place, and being pursued by the murderers, “the rock opened by a miracle, and close upon Elizabeth and her child;” which means, as we may presume, that they took refuge in a cavern, and were concealed within it until the danger was over.  Zacharias, refusing to betray his son, was slain “between the temple and the altar,” (Matt, xxiii. 35.) Both these legends are to be met with in the Greek pictures, and in the miniatures of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[1]

[Footnote 1:  They will be found treated at length in the artistic subjects connected with St. John the Baptist.]

From the butchery which made so many mothers childless, the divine Infant and his mother were miraculously saved; for an angel spoke to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt.”  This is the second of the four angelic visions which are recorded of Joseph.  It is not a frequent subject in early art, but is often met with in pictures of the later schools.  Joseph is asleep in his chair, the angel stands before him, and, with a significant gesture, points forward—­“arise and flee!”

There is an exquisite little composition by Titian, called a Riposo, which may possibly represent the preparation for the Flight.  Here Mary is seated under a tree nursing her Infant, while in the background is a sort of rude stable, in which Joseph is seen saddling the ass, while the ox is on the outside.

In a composition by Tiarini, we see Joseph holding the Infant, while Mary, leaning one hand on his shoulder, is about to mount the ass.

In a composition by Poussin, Mary, who has just seated herself on the ass, takes the Child from the arms of Joseph.  Two angels lead the ass, a third kneels in homage, and two others are seen above with a curtain to pitch a tent.

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I must notice here a tradition that both the ox and the ass who stood over the manger at Bethlehem, accompanied the Holy Family into Egypt.  In Albert Durer’s print, the ox and the ass walk side by side.  It is also related that the Virgin was accompanied by Salome, and Joseph by three of his sons.  This version of the story is generally rejected by the painters; but in the series by Giotto in the Arena at Padua, Salome and the three youths attend on Mary and Joseph; and I remember another instance, a little picture by Lorenzo Monaco, in which Salome, who had vowed to attend on Christ and his mother as long as she lived, is seen following the ass, veiled, and supporting her steps with a staff.