The Nativity
In the stone ruins of a building, a woman, Mary, kneels with her hands in prayer over a thin-limbed baby lying in front of her in this vertical painting. There is a man behind Mary, to our left, two more in a field to our right, and a winged angel in the upper right corner. They all have pale skin. Mary’s unbound blond hair falls over her shoulders. She wears a celestial-blue dress, and her teal-blue cloak is edged with gold. Her body is angled to our right, and she looks down her straight nose at the baby near her knees. The nude baby has blond curls and a chubby tummy and cheeks. An ox and an ass look down at the baby from behind a stone trough to our right. The man behind Mary wears a forest-green cap and scarf over a tomato-red robe. One hand rests on a staff, and he looks up at the angel in the top right corner. An owl looks down at the man from atop the stone ruins, near the top left corner. Two men recline and about a dozen white sheep lie on low hills in the near distance to our right. One of those men sleeps and the other holds up both hands as he looks into the sky. The angel in the top right corner emerges from a petal-pink and pale yellow halo against a star-strewn blue sky. The angel wears rose pink and has dark pink wings. A scroll held across both arms reads, “GLO” and “INECELSIS DEO.”
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- Juan de Flandes
- Date
- c. 1508/1519
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- painted surface: 110.5 x 79.3 cm (43 1/2 x 31 1/4 in.) overall (panel): 111.8 x 80.6 cm (44 x 31 3/4 in.) framed: 129.8 x 98.7 x 10.7 cm (51 1/8 x 38 7/8 x 4 3/16 in.)
- Department
- CNE-R
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Palette
-
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- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Samuel H. Kress Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
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Bible Story Both · 99%
The catalog title identifies the subject as The Nativity, and the image depicts Mary, the infant, an angel, and the ox and ass associated with the biblical scene.
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Deities and Holy Figures Both · 98%
Mary, the infant, and the angel are visibly presented as sacred figures within the catalog-identified Nativity subject.
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Animals Visual · 99%
An ox and an ass occupy the foreground; sheep and an owl are also visible elsewhere in the composition.
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Landscapes Visual · 93%
The ruined building opens onto a rural setting with trees, low hills, sky, distant figures, and sheep.
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Text Visual · 98%
The angel holds a long scroll with clearly visible lettering, including portions of the devotional phrase associated with “GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO.”
Styles and Movements
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Northern Renaissance Interpretive · 75%
The artist, early sixteenth-century date, devotional subject, precise naturalistic detail, and treatment of sacred figures are consistent with Northern Renaissance painting; the supplied catalog does not provide a formal style classification.
Visual Qualities
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Highly Detailed Visual · 96%
The painting uses fine rendering and smooth modeling for faces, hair, textiles, masonry, carved architectural ornament, vegetation, and animals.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies the medium as oil on panel.
Time Periods
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16th Century Art Metadata · 97%
The National Gallery of Art dates the work to c. 1508/1519, placing it in the sixteenth century.
Source & rights
Juan de Flandes. The Nativity. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
High-resolution sources
- IIIF image service ↗ 21,994 × 30,555 · National Gallery Of Art · Available