Giotto's Flight into Egypt

     Previous to Giotto's naturalist paintings religious art was constructed in the Byzantine style, which incorporated two-dimentional figures with excessive use of color and pattern. Giotto's work, such as the  1304 fresco, Flight to Egypt, differed from the previous Byzantine style by incorporating three dimensional figures, drawn to scale, and more representative of the human figure. The Flight to Egypt, is based on the biblical passage Matthew 2:13-2:15, 19-20, in which an angel tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to avoid the Slaughter of Innocents by King Herod.

     Similar to the included 14th century Byzantine fresco painting of Procession, from the Church of the Peribleptos in Mistra, Greece, the Flight From Egypt, incorporates vibrant use of color and the distinctive golden hallows around the head of the holy family and

their accompanying angel. This demonstrates how Giotto's fresco and painting style represents a transition from the contemporary Byzantine style into the naturalist movement which would last for the remainder of the millennia.

http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/flightIntoEgypt.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fwbz/hd_fwbz.htm