Getty Museum
Nativity
Creator
Gentile da FabrianoItalian Artist · 1370–1427
All works by this person →In the fifteenth-century, Gentile da Fabriano was celebrated as the greatest Italian painter of his age. Much sought after by prominent, wealthy patrons across northern and central regions of the Italian peninsula, he was active in Venice, Brescia, Florence, Siena, Orvieto, and Rome. Hailing from the town of Fabriano in the Marches, he was probably trained in Lombardy, where his art was informed b
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1420–1422
- Medium
- Tempera and gold leaf on panel
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In this painting Gentile da Fabriano combined several different devotional and biblical subjects: the Madonna of Humility, the Nativity, and the Annunciation to the Shepherds. As the Madonna of Humility, the Virgin sits upon the ground, her hands folded as she worships the child in her lap. Though her monumental figure fills the height of the panel, she is flanked by the traditional narrative elements of the Nativity: at left, the sleeping Saint Joseph and, at right, the ox and donkey in a stable. In the distance, the shepherds receive word of Christ’s birth in a nighttime landscape. Closely observed details, such as the grasses and flowers in the foreground and the gauzy veil draped over the newborn child’s body, are evidence of Gentile’s fascination with capturing the world around him.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.