The iconography of this Nativity is found very frequently in the late Middle Ages: in a stable, its roof partly destroyed, Mary is seen kneeling, hands together, before the baby Jesus. She is surrounded by Joseph, holding a candle, the flame of which he is protecting with one hand, and by a donkey and an ox.
This bas-relief also offers a decorative vocabulary of Italian inspiration: the clumsy perspective, the pilastered palace architecture replete with ornate columns and rinceaux, the cherubs resembling putti, the bust of a soldier in profile on a medallion… all these elements evoke the renewed interest in Antiquity which characterises the Renaissance.
This panel is likely to have originally adorned a monumental altarpiece shutter.
City of Paris municipal collection's website
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Extern databases
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