Flight into Egypt
Walter Ritchie, 1919–1997
Brick relief sculpture

‘Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.’

For how many Christmases have we heard those words, fulfilling a prediction by the prophet Hosea. But we know so little about the holy family’s escape to Egypt that we tend to gloss over it. Not this Christmas. We have all seen the queues of people at the Rafah border crossing, desperate to reach Egypt and relative safety. Suddenly it is all too real.

British artist Walter Ritchie was the last apprentice to sculptor Eric Gill. He worked in wood, marble, steel, stone, silver and gold, but his preferred medium was the humble house brick. He undertook mostly public commissions, as he wanted his work to be accessible to everyone. In his ‘Flight into Egypt’, Ritchie shows Joseph and Mary struggling against a howling wind, graphically conveying the difficulty and danger they face. Their hair is streaming out, their cloaks billowing; the mule must be dragged forward. Only the baby is cradled safely.

Christmas can be a happy, family time, but perhaps we should not forget that Mary and Joseph faced terrifying conditions under an invading force. Jesus’ first, vulnerable years were precarious and fraught with danger. If he had not survived, there would be no Christmas.

Art in focus is curated by Meryl Doney