Getty Museum
Initial H: The Nativity
Creator
Master of GeronaItalian Illuminator · 1300–present
All works by this person →The anonymous Master of Gerona, who derives his name from his work on the illuminations in a Bible now in Gerona, Spain, was deeply influenced by Byzantine icon painting. In particular, like many of his Italian contemporaries, he was interested in the convincing depiction of three-dimensional objects in space, one of the innovative trends that led to the later Italian Renaissance style. The Master
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- late 13th century
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
The *H* on the left side of the page introduces the chant *Hodie nobis celorum rex* (This day unto us the king of heaven), the first elaborate chant for the predawn service on Christmas. The representation of the Nativity within the enlarged initial heralds the theme of the chant, the celebration of Jesus' birth. The Virgin Mary, depicted in a traditional reclining pose, and Saint Joseph, seated to the right, seem lost in contemplation of the swaddled Christ Child in a sarcophagus-like crib, a reference to his future sacrifice. Jesus directs his gaze above, where the star followed by the Magi appears as a comet whose tail leads back to the baby. Apocryphal texts described the rocky, cavelike setting and stable animals whose heads appear behind the manger. The massive, draped figures and the relatively deep, three-dimensional space are characteristic of contemporary Byzantine art.
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.