The Nativity
Netherlandish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1410-1473 1445 Wood, 130 x 97 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington The painter, a follower of Jan van Eyck, here illustrates the Biblical theme in terms of contemporary life in his native city of Bruges. Joseph, for example, is shown as a Flemish peasant who, realizing he is on holy ground, has removed his wooden clogs. Under the influence of Rogier van der Weyden, Christus has framed the scene with a sculptured archway, typical of late Gothic churches in Flanders. These simulated sculpture groups, depicting the stories in Genesis of man and his sin, illustrate the historical reason for the subject of the painting, the coming of Christ as the Redeemer. , Artist: CHRISTUS, Petrus , The Nativity , 1451-1500 , Flemish , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 63975
The Nativity
Spanish Early Renaissance Painter, ca.1400-1452 1440s Panel Collection Lippmann, Berlin Borrass?was succeeded as central figure of the Barcelona school by Bernat Martorell, a painter in whom scrupulous attention to detail is combined with touches of poetry. In spite of the limitations of his empirical and conventional perspective, he was able to convey an impression of depth and space, and to give life to every element of his composition. Artist:MARTORELL, Bernat Title: The Nativity (detail), 1401-1450, Spanish , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 64693
1400 Tempera on walnut, 41 x 29,5 cm Galerie mittelalterlicher ?sterreichischer Kunst, Vienna The artist of this painting is referred to as Master of Salzburg. In this picture the scene of the Nativity is represented according to an apocryphal story of the Gospel: the Virgin is reclining on her bed while two midwives are on the point of giving a bath to the Infant. The woman in green is taking the Child from His mother, while the other is taking care that the bathwater is at right temperature. The bath puts an emphasis on the human aspect of the divine Child and is a hint to baptism. Joseph is seated on the right-hand side deep in thought. He holds his staff with his left hand, and is supporting his head with his right hand. The ox and the ass at the manger in the back seem to warm the straw and the small cambric kerchief with their breath. In addition to some stylistic resemblances the painting is reminiscent in other respects too of the Trebon Master's picture of the same scene. In both pictures the composition is divided by the building of the stable, with the difference that here the supports of the stable look like the frame of the scene represented, and divide the surface into two parts and not into three. In both pictures the supporting pole, emphatically placed in the foreground, separates Joseph, who views the events from the back and plays a role similar to the spectator's. In this picture too we can see birds on the roof of the stable, but they are shaped more firmly and realistically (as are the figures) than in the work of the Master of Trebon. In spite of the simplicity of the presentation and the somewhat rugged shaping of the figures with their rather large heads the susceptibility of the International Gothic style to elegance and decorative patterns evinces itself in this painting too. The elegance can be seen in the buoyant lines of the draperies, and in the Virgin's mantle, which clings to her body as if it were wet; the decorativeness in the way in which the painter has used the opportunities inherent in the rustic surroundings, and brought into harmony the pattern of the thatched roof, the mat and the fence, which are made of similar materials, and there is an additional harmonious touch in the plaited hair of one of the midwives. As in a great many other pictures of the period the ground is exceedingly steep here; compared to the figures in the foreground the stable seems to be high, on the other hand the beam underneath the roof touches the animals' heads. Although the white piece of cloth between the two midwives-in all probability a napkin, another symbol of the human nature of Jesus-looks as though it were hovering, in fact it lies on the ground. All this is not surprising, since these forms do not convey space, they are meant, first and foremost, to fill up the surface of the picture. Artist: UNKNOWN MASTER, Austrian , The Nativity , 1351-1400 , Austrian , painting , religious
Painting ID:: 65253
The Nativity
Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1484-1562 oil on panel
Dimensions Height: 265 cm (104.3 in). Width: 117.2 cm (46.1 in).
cjr
Painting ID:: 89707
Giorgio Vasari Date c. 1546(1546)
Medium oil on canvas
ttd The Nativity 1511-74
Italian painter, architect, and writer. Though he was a prolific painter in the Mannerist style, he is more highly regarded as an architect (he designed the Uffizi Palace, now the Uffizi Gallery), but even his architecture is overshadowed by his writings. His Lives of the Most Eminent Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550) offers biographies of early to late Renaissance artists. His style is eminently readable and his material is well researched, though when facts were scarce he did not hesitate to fill in the gaps. In his view, Giotto had revived the art of true representation after its decline in the early Middle Ages, and succeeding artists had brought that art progressively closer to the perfection achieved by Michelangelo.
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