Sleeping Magi

Recently I bought a small work of art by my friend Bryan Ecceshall. It is

‘Sleeping Magi and Angel (after a sculpture in Autun Cathedral)’

Ink and Acrylic on Paper

250mm x 175mm

 

 Sleeping Magi with Angel by Bryan Eccleshall.

 

It's based on a postcard found in a secondhand book on the frescoes of Piero della Francesca. The postcard was addressed to a medieval historian [link]. By coincidence, at the time Bryan bought the book, I was admiring the frescoes of Piero della Francesca in Arezzo.

 

By another coincidence, I recognised the image of the Sleeping Magi very well. Not from Autun Cathedral, but from Saint Ours in Loches. It's not a very common image so I was quite intrigued to learn of the one in Autun.

 

A fresco by Piero della Francesca in Arezzo.

 

The scene refers to the story of the angel coming to the Magi in a dream to tell them to return home by a different route, because there was danger if they returned the way they had come. At the same time the angel warns the Holy Family to flee to Egypt to escape Herod.