“When they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.’” — Matthew 2:13
These words describe the beginning of a journey that for millennia has inspired writers, travellers, and artists across the world. These have sought to convey its meaning in a way that they believed would best reach their audiences, whether through literature, history, or art.
The earliest documentation of the Holy Family’s journey into Egypt came through homilies and sermons produced by patriarchs and bishops of the Coptic Orthodox Church, most notably Pope Theophilus who served as the 23rd patriarch of Alexandria in the fourth century CE. These writings, known as mimars, remain among the Church’s most important literary and spiritual sources, preserving accounts of miracles and significant events associated with the journey.
Another essential source is the Coptic Synaxarium, a book containing the lives of saints which dedicates a chapter to the 24th day of Bashans, the ninth month of the Coptic calendar corresponding to 1 June in the international calendar and commemorating the Holy Family’s entry into Egypt.
In modern times, numerous authors have revisited the journey. Among them is The Journey of Goodness: The Holy Family in Egypt by novelist and critic Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Sherif, published by the National Centre for Translation, which offers a beautifully documented literary narrative following the author’s visits to the various sites of the journey.
Equally significant is The Journey of the Holy Family in the Land of Egypt by academic Isaac Ibrahim Agban, published by the Egyptian-Russian Foundation for Culture and Science, which presents a historical study based on manuscripts and papyri.
Recent contributions also include The Holy Family’s Journey by Karim Al-Refaai, a work exploring the historical background and major stations associated with the family’s passage through Egypt. Another remarkable work is that of traveller Amr Selim, who retraced the route from northern to southern Egypt on his bicycle, documenting the places, stories, and oral traditions connected to this sacred path.
Yet beyond these publications lies another unique contribution and one that bridges literature and visual art and academic research and artistic criticism. Depicting the Journey of the Holy Family to Egypt in Coptic, Eastern, and Western Art by Evelyn George Indrawis, who holds a doctorate in Coptic Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, approaches the journey through the study of icons, paintings, and murals created by artists across different eras and cultures.
Through this exploration, the journey emerges not merely as a religious event belonging to Egypt’s Copts or even to Christians worldwide, but as a universal human story embraced by people from diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds. The book highlights how artists have interpreted the journey through their own social, geographical, and political perspectives, demonstrating the power of art to influence the conscience of peoples.
At a time when illiteracy was widespread in many societies, art was a visual language through which religious stories could be understood with simplicity and emotional depth. Icons, murals, and paintings transformed sacred narratives into living images that reached directly into the hearts of ordinary people, preserving the memory of the Holy Family’s journey across generations and civilisations.
The book is divided into two parts. The first explores the relevant artistic styles of Coptic, Eastern, and Western art, while the second explores the various artistic depictions of the Holy Family’s journey to Egypt within Coptic, Eastern, and Western traditions.
The book is uniquely structured, with half in Arabic and the other half in English, making the work accessible to both Arabic-speaking and international readers. Separating the two sections is a rich visual collection of paintings and icons analysed by Indrawis throughout her study, offering readers a direct encounter with the works discussed.
ORIGINS: In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Indrawis explained that the person who encouraged her to study the subject of the Holy Family’s journey was Ramez Wadih Boutros, a researcher at the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology (IFAO) in Cairo.
The institute organised a conference dedicated to the Holy Family’s journey attended by distinguished Egyptian and international scholars in 1999. She was invited to participate in the conference after completing her fine arts degree and while pursuing postgraduate studies in the Faculty of Archaeology in order to obtain a diploma in Egyptian archaeology.
The experience marked the beginning of her writings on the Holy Family’s journey. Boutros helped her with her research, she said, explaining that her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts had been mostly practical with a limited focus on academic research.
Her serious academic work on the subject began in 2002, when she devoted two full chapters of her doctoral dissertation to the Holy Family’s journey in Egypt, prompting her to continue developing and expanding her research on the topic.
Indrawis explained that many people misunderstand the importance of religious icons in the Coptic tradition. Her academic research, particularly her Masters thesis in 2004, led her to offer a detailed account of such icons, notably those depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary, the saints, or angels. Such depictions dating from the fifth to the seventh centuries CE appear in murals at monasteries such as the Monastery of Anba Jeremiah in Saqqara, the Monastery of Anba Apollo at Bawit, and the cells of the Kellia (Qelleiqla) a fourth-century monastic community located in the Nitrian desert in Beheira governorate. During the early beginnings of monasticism in Egypt, the monks used to pray in front of these sacred murals.
For Indrawis, these murals must be understood as “wall icons”. Wooden icons, meanwhile, acquire their sanctity through special prayers and consecration with holy oil. It is not the material that defines an icon, whether wood or plaster, but rather its sacred subject matter and spiritual significance. Cultural and economic transformations over time are also clearly reflected in iconography, whether in manuscript illustrations or mural paintings.
In her research, Indrawis also drew upon the murals of Cappadocia in Anatolia, where mural art predominated, while Armenian artistic traditions are represented mainly through illuminated manuscripts. This explains why she deliberately chose to focus on the journey of the Holy Family rather than restricting her study to icons alone, since this allowed her to discuss the representation of the journey across media including wood panels, murals, and manuscripts.
Although the story of the Holy Family’s journey is universally known, Indrawis highlights the striking geographical, social, and economic differences reflected in artistic depictions of it from region to region. Each culture has portrayed the Holy Family according to its own visual identity: Ethiopians painted them with darker skin tones; Japanese artists gave them elongated eyes; while European painters depicted them with distinctly Western features.
Indrawis said that cultural identity itself is not fixed even within a single country, as artistic traditions evolve across historical periods. Ethiopian art, for example, developed diverse artistic schools from the 15th and 16th centuries onwards, including the “moon-faced” style before later incorporating Italian influences. Even within the same nation, artistic schools could differ radically from one another, Coptic art, she noted, underwent significant stylistic transformations across different historical eras, a development explored in her book.
ARTISTIC SCHOOLS: Indrawis highlights distinctive characteristics in depicting the Holy Family’s journey to Egypt in Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Cappadocian, and Byzantine art, as well as in Western artistic traditions.
The journey has long been one of the most prominent themes in Christian art, particularly within Coptic, Eastern, and Western iconography, with each artistic school reflecting its own vision of this sacred event according to its cultural, social, and religious background.
In Coptic art, icons of the journey possess distinctive features. The Virgin Mary is typically portrayed seated frontally on a donkey carrying the Christ child, while Joseph follows behind as an elderly man leaning on his staff, in accordance with Gospel tradition. Coptic artists skillfully conveyed the direction of the journey through the movement of figures within the composition: movement towards the left symbolised the family’s arrival in Egypt, while movement towards the right represented the return to Palestine. Natural backgrounds also played an important symbolic role; palm trees signified the Egyptian landscape, whereas olive trees evoked the Levant.
But Coptic artists did not merely reproduce religious texts literally but rather gave the scene a clear human spirit. The child Jesus appears being carried on the lap of the Virgin Mary during the journey to Egypt, for example, while Joseph carries him on his shoulders on the journey of return, in a scene that reflects the image of a father carrying his tired child during travel, a scene still familiar in daily life today.
Ethiopian art is unique when compared to other Eastern art forms. The Virgin Mary is often depicted riding a white donkey or a horse-like animal, with her legs positioned on either side of the mount, unlike in Coptic art, which was influenced by Egyptian customs in the way women sit on animals, often with their legs on one side.
In some icons, Ethiopian artists portray the Virgin Mary as being larger than Joseph, perhaps to express her spiritual significance, or perhaps influenced by Italian models, as noted by the 20th-century Polish scholar Stanislaw Chojnacki. In some works, the Virgin appears to be suffused with a tender maternal spirit, perhaps inspired by Greek art, while in others she is depicted as an Ethiopian woman carrying her child on her back in the traditional manner common in Ethiopian society, still wearing the Virgin Mary’s clothing and the symbol of the cross on her forehead.
Ethiopian artists also emphasise the theme of returning to Palestine by depicting pine-like trees that are characteristic of the Levantine environment.
In Armenian art, the treatment of the journey differs notably. The Holy Family is often portrayed walking on foot during the return journey, while the Virgin carries the Christ child on her back in a manner rooted in local folk traditions. Her facial features and garments reflect Ottoman and Turkish influences, with red robes and veil-like head coverings, while Mongol artistic influence appears in the rendering of slanted eyes.
Interestingly, halos appear above the heads of the Christ child and Joseph but are absent from the Virgin herself, a choice that would make her appear as an ordinary woman were it not for the explanatory inscriptions accompanying the icon.
Cappadocian mural art similarly presents the Virgin seated frontally on a horse- or mule-like animal, crowned with a distinctive halo decorated with pearl-like circles. In some scenes, the Christ child appears nestled within the Virgin’s reddish-brown cloak as though seated upon a heavenly throne, while other images emphasise the tenderness with which she embraces him. These works often focus on the return journey to Palestine.
Byzantine art expands the narrative further by including scenes related to the journey itself, such as Joseph’s dream and the angel’s command to flee into Egypt. Joseph is depicted sleeping within an oval frame symbolising rest, while the angel hovers above him. In other scenes, the Virgin sits upon the animal holding a handkerchief as Joseph carries the Christ child on his shoulder, followed by one of his sons carrying the family’s belongings. Byzantine art shares with Cappadocian art a preference for depicting the return journey, where the Christ child appears somewhat older.
Taken together, these artistic traditions reveal strong similarities between Coptic and Eastern Christian art despite subtle differences in composition, colour, costume, backgrounds, and movement. They also demonstrate the profound influence of culture, society, inherited traditions, and religious texts in shaping the artistic vision of each school.
Western art has approached the Holy Family’s journey quite differently from its Eastern counterparts. Western artists have focused less on the movement of travel itself and more on scenes of rest during the journey. In Italian art, the Virgin often appears seated beneath a tree sheltering Jesus in her arms, while Joseph stands nearby as an elderly man speaking to them, and in some works, St Francis appears as an honorary devotional figure.
Other Italian paintings portray the journey as a majestic procession through lush European landscapes, with the Virgin carrying the sleeping child beneath her cloak while Joseph bends forward to guide the animal as depicted in a famous painting by the 16th-century painter Tintoretto. Western artists have devoted significant attention to aesthetics, perspective, and visual harmony, even when historical or geographical accuracy is sacrificed.
German art has placed even greater emphasis on the idea of “rest”, particularly in the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), where the Virgin appears with distinctly German features and long red hair, holding the Christ child amid groups of angels while darkness surrounds the scene to evoke secrecy and concealment during the journey. The landscapes themselves resemble European forests far more than the landscapes of the East.
Overall, Western art diverges from Eastern traditions in composition, clothing, landscape, and narrative direction, yet both traditions share a commitment to emphasising the human and emotional dimensions of the Holy Family’s journey. These works collectively affirm the powerful influence of environment, culture, and religious heritage on artistic interpretations of the sacred narrative across centuries.
Indrawis said that early Byzantine art was characterised by vitality, full facial forms, and expressive humanity, as seen in the famous icons of St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai. However, this artistic spirit gradually changed following the Iconoclastic Period in the Byzantine Empire in the eighth and ninth centuries CE, as Byzantine art became increasingly influenced by the teachings of Basil the Great (c. 329-379 CE), a fourth-century Christian bishop, theologian, and monastic founder, which encouraged detachment from bodily and emotional concerns in pursuit of divine contemplation.
As a result, Byzantine art evolved towards greater idealism and abstraction, distancing itself from naturalistic movement and physical depth.
Western art, by contrast, reflected the influence of local European environments in its depictions of the Holy Family’s journey. Palm trees, so central to Coptic representations of Egypt, largely disappeared from Western compositions. Italian and German artists instead focused on scenes of rest on the flight into Egypt, often inspired by apocryphal texts recounting miracles associated with the journey, including the miracle of the bending palm tree before the Virgin Mary.
With the rise of Mannerism in European art in the 16th century, artistic treatments of the human body changed dramatically. Artists elongated figures and exaggerated bodily movement as demonstrations of technical mastery and innovation, resulting in portrayals of the Virgin and Joseph that often exceeded natural proportions.
TRANSFORMATIONS: Christian tradition attributes the first icon of the Virgin Mary to St Luke the Evangelist, who is believed to have established the earliest visual model for her representation in Christian art, particularly in terms of clothing and appearance and including the veil and tunic associated with the era of the Virgin Mary and preserved in most Eastern icons.
Coptic icons, moreover, developed a highly distinctive visual language resembling a symbolic code through which details and meanings could be understood. Palm trees consistently symbolised the Egyptian landscape, while the Virgin’s garments, especially the tunic and maphorion (veil or mantle), adhered closely to traditional forms, with covered hair and distinctly Egyptian facial features.
Coptic artists also preserved the dignity and modesty of the Virgin’s seated posture, unlike some Western depictions shaped by more naturalistic European conventions.
Indrawis argues that the transformations seen in icons throughout history should not be understood as “evolution” in the conventional sense, but rather as an “artistic sequence” reflecting changes in culture, civilisation, and intellectual life across different historical periods.
Art, she concludes, remains a mirror of society, culture, and the human spirit. She also notes that monks and artists in earlier centuries rarely signed their icons out of humility and asceticism, leading modern scholars to study artistic styles associated with particular monasteries or schools rather than individual artists themselves.
Regarding the sacred nature of the icon, Indrawis explains that Western art, particularly during the Renaissance, increasingly emphasised anatomical beauty and technical mastery, as seen in the works of the Italian master Michelangelo, sometimes allowing artistic brilliance to overshadow spiritual meaning. The Coptic artist, however, remained primarily concerned with conveying spiritual messages, religious instruction, and the atmosphere of holiness within the work itself.
Despite modern artistic transformations, some contemporary icon schools in Greece and Russia, and even some Italian ateliers, are witnessing a clear return to a commitment to spirituality and the traditional Byzantine iconographic style, including the prayers and rituals accompanying the process of painting the icon, confirming the continuity of the sacred dimension of this form of art throughout the ages.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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