In this night scene, the Virgin is seated on the ground, holding Christ affectionately in her arms. He looks up and places his head tenderly against her cheek. Although the subject of the painting at first appears to be the ‘Madonna of Humility’, the canvas has been cut on all sides, and close inspection suggests that it may be a fragment of a ‘Rest on the Flight to Egypt’.

The Holy Family fled to Egypt because Joseph had been warned in a dream that Herod wanted to kill the Christ Child. Representations of the ‘Rest on the Flight’ typically include Joseph, who may be identifiable here amid the orange drapery in the background of the painting at the left. A complete composition with Saint Joseph would resemble the closely-related drawing in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.