The artist is known by his nickname, Il Cerano, from his native village in northern Italy. After serving his apprenticeship in Rome, he worked for the rest of his career in Milan, at a time when the current style of Mannerist painting was gradually being replaced by the Baroque. The immediacy of the figures in this painting, brought right to the forefront of the picture plane, was a typical Mannerist device, as was the intricate interlocking construction of the composition. Cerano has however infused what could otherwise have been an exercise in formal pattern-making with his own deeply felt religious conviction, and has produced a moving account of the family's hurried journey from prosecution. The characters in the drama – Mary tenderly shielding Jesus within the curve of her body, Joseph with his strong sunburnt arm reining back the donkey's head as it stops to drink, the attendant angel holding up an apple to the baby – reveal Cerano's command of sculptural form and his sensitive use of colour.