Picture in Focus: The Flight into Egypt by Lyuba Yatskiv

December 1, 2024

Picture in Focus: The Flight into Egypt by Lyuba Yatskiv

There was no question what my choice of a subject would be this year for the Advent and Christmas seasons, given the bitter and defamatory debate over "illegal aliens" during the election campaign. Beginning this Sunday and into the first weeks of 2025, I will be posting images from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection of the Flight into Egypt, the sad postlude to the Birth in Bethlehem, when Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream to flee with Mary and the Christ child into Egypt to escape the murderous plans of the tyrant, King Herod. For me, the Holy Family on the road is an historic archetype of the countess multitudes of parents and children over the centuries, forced by circumstances to seek a safer and better life in foreign lands. The series begins with an icon on the theme by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Artist Lyuba Yatskiv, capturing all the drama and pathos of the Gospel narrative in a beautifully contained way. We see Joseph, Mary, and the Baby Jesus, seemingly, propelled foward along two diagonal lines inscribed in Cyrillic script with two partial texts from the story of the flight in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew about the angelic warning to Joseph and the weeping of mothers whose sons are murdered in the Slaughter of the Innocents. The figures are united in a round dance of expressive hand and body gestures. A striking departure from traditional depictions of the scene is the central figure of the mature and authoritative Christ Child. Pray for Peace in Ukraine and Gaza this holiday season. (John Kohan)