Published in Mirabilia 1

Keywords: Keywords: Apocryphal Gospels, Art, Canonical Gospels, Flight to Egypt, Iconography, Legends..

Christian art depicts scenes on the life cycles of Virgin Mary and Jesus that, even though they are familiar to our eyes, entail an iconographic content that does not strictly reflect the accounts of the Canonical Gospels. These scenes, although conceived in the Church's own bosom, are based on legends, apocryphal stories and oral traditions. Within this context we will consider works produced from the 5th to the 15th century and will analyze the way in which the Apocryphal Gospels and some orally transmitted traditional legends have conditioned the iconography of the Holy Family's Flight to Egypt.