Anno Domini (also known as Flight into Egypt)
Anno Domini shows the moment shortly after the birth of Jesus, when his parents were forced to flee to Egypt to escape the Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod (Matthew 2:13-23). The painting was commissioned for the Lawrence Gallery in New Bond Street, London. When exhibited there in 1883, it caused a sensation and for many years people queued to view the gigantic painting for a fee.
By the late 1870s, a visit to Egypt and the Holy Land had become important for artists such as Edwin Long depicting antiquity, the Bible and the Orient. Anno Domini fits into the orientalist way of seeing Egypt from a Western perspective.
We see the contrast between the Holy Family and the culturally different pagan world of Egypt. The Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph pass traders selling shabtis (figurines placed in ancient Egyptian tombs) and Egyptians using charms to heal a sick child. In the background is a procession of worshippers carrying a statue of the goddess Isis with her child Horus.
Born in Bath and brought up in London, Edwin Longsden Long became one of the most popular and commercially successful artists of his time. He studied at James Matthew Leigh’s School of Art in London and the British Museum. A trip to Spain with painter John Phillip had a lasting effect on Long and for some 17 years his work showed a Spanish influence. In 1874 he travelled through Egypt and Syria, resulting in the painting Babylonian Marriage Market (1875). Following the work’s critical acclaim, Long specialised in well-researched depictions of the ancient world.
