The scene of this encounter with the robbers, near Ramla, is still pointed out to travellers, and still in evil repute as the haunt of banditti.  The crusaders visited the spot as a place of pilgrimage; and the Abbe Orsini considers the first part of the story as authenticated; but the legend concerning the good thief he admits to be doubtful. (Vie de la Ste. Vierge.)

As an artistic subject this scene has been seldom treated.  I have seen two pictures which represent it.  One is a fresco by Giovanni di San Giovanni, which, having been cut from the wail of some suppressed convent, is now in the academy at Florence.  The other is a composition by Zuccaro.

One of the most popular legends concerning the Flight into Egypt is that of the palm or date tree, which at the command of Jesus bowed down its branches to shade and refresh his mother; hence, in the scene of the Flight, a palm tree became a usual accessory.  In a picture by Antonello Mellone, the Child stretches out his little hand and lays hold of the branch:  sometimes the branch is bent down by angel hands.  Sozomenes relates, that when the Holy Family reached the term of their journey, and approached the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, a tree which grew before the gates of the city, and was regarded with great veneration as the seat of a god, bowed down its branches at the approach of the Infant Christ.  Likewise it is related (not in legends merely, but by grave religious authorities) that all the idols of the Egyptians fell with their faces to the earth.  I have seen pictures of the Flight into Egypt, in which broken idols lie by the wayside.

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In the course of the journey the Holy Travellers had to cross rivers and lakes; hence the later painters, to vary the subject, represented them as embarking in a boat, sometimes steered by an angel.  The first, as I have reason to believe, who ventured on this innovation, was Annibale Caracci.  In a picture by Poussin, the Holy Family are about to embark.  In a picture by Giordano, an angel with one knee bent, assists Mary to enter the boat.  In a pretty little picture by Teniers, the Holy Family and the ass are seen in a boat crossing a ferry by moonlight; sometimes they are crossing a bridge.

I must notice here a little picture by Adrian Vander Werff, in which the Virgin, carrying her Child, holds by the hand the old decrepit Joseph, who is helping her, or rather is helped by her, to pass a torrent on some stepping-stones.  This is quite contrary to the feeling of the old authorities, which represent Joseph as the vigilant and capable guardian of the Mother and her Child:  but it appears to have here a rather particular and touching significance; it was painted by Vander Werff for his daughter in his old age, and intended to express her filial duty and his paternal care.

The most beautiful Flight into Egypt I have ever seen, is a composition by Gaudenzio Ferrari.  The Virgin is seated and sustained on the ass with a quite peculiar elegance.  The Infant, standing on her knee, seems to point out the way; an angel leads the ass, and Joseph follows with the staff and wallet.  In the background the palm tree inclines its branches. (At Varallo, in the church of the Minorites.)