The apocryphal gospels recount that, while in Egypt, the Holy Family had two encounters with robbers and befriended the good thief, even visiting him at his farm. Few artists depicted this highly unusual subject. Mining various sources, including the Apocrypha, Domenico Tiepolo devoted some thirty of his large drawings of biblical subjects (a series that includes more than 250 drawing in all) to events that transpired during the Flight into Egypt. --Exhibition Label, from "Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings"
Signed at lower left, in pen and brown ink, "Dom.o[o in superscript above period] Tiepolo f."
Watermark: letters "AM" below bow and arrow. Probably papermaker Andrea Maffizzoli, Toscolano.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, IV, 146, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Jacob Bean. Drawings from New York collections. III: The eighteenth century in Italy. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971, no. 255.