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A man, woman, and baby sit in a stable with farm animals

A light-skinned woman in a blue robe kneels, a gold halo on her head. Reclining in front of her is a naked light-skinned baby, also wearing a halo. On the right is a light-skinned man with a halo and yellow robe seated with his back to the woman and child. Surrounding the figures is a stable with wooden posts and a thatched roof. Behind a short partition in the stable are a brown cow and a gray donkey. In the background is a grassy meadow with sheep and shepherds and a blue sky with a winged figure floating in it.

Gallery Text

Although it is difficult to reconstruct the altarpiece to which this panel belonged, it was certainly part of a narrative predella that included the depictions of the Adoration of the Magi, Christ Teaching in the Temple, and perhaps a Crucifixion. The artist sets the scene of the holy family in the manger against an animated landscape, presented in dizzying perspective. In the sky above, an angel appears to the shepherds. The delicacy in the handling of paint and attention to detail show Giovanni di Paolo’s talents as a painter of illuminated manuscripts, in addition to large-scale works. The artist reveals the poetry of the scene through such gestures as the Virgin’s flowing mantel, which spills onto the ground to form a blanket for the Christ child, Joseph’s resigned expression, and the peaceful harmony of the ox and the ass, symbolic presences that allude to the old and new orders.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.112
People
Giovanni di Paolo, Italian (c. 1398/99 - 1482)
Title
The Nativity
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1455-1460
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Tuscany, Siena
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230462

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2500, European Art, 13th–16th century, Art and Image in Europe
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Tempera on panel
Dimensions
sight: 26 x 23.5 cm (10 1/4 x 9 1/4 in.)
frame: 26.7 x 23.5 cm (10 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.112
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 94-95, no. 74, repr. p. 95
  • Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 89
  • Andrea Kirsh, "Worlds Below: An Investigation of Infrared Reflectography" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, April 1973), Unpublished, pp. 1-25 passim
  • David Kolch, "Reconstruction System for Panel Painting Supports: A Review and Evaluation of Treatments in the Fogg Museum Laboratory, 1927-1952" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies , August 1977), Unpublished, pp. 1-60 passim
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 37 color plate; pp. 109, 304, repr. b/w cat. no. 569
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), p. 23, repr. as fig. 6
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), p. 12, fig. 7
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), repr. in color p. 26, as fig. 7

Exhibition History

  • Re-View: S422-423 Western Art of the Middle Ages & Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 2500 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu