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The Nativity

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Mary and Joseph kneel before the baby Jesus, who sleeps wrapped in a woven basket of sticks and straw. Joseph, the elderly carpenter, touches his rough fingers together in prayer. He holds a stick like those from which the basket is made, and two knives in a sheath lie in his lap. Mary presses her hands over her heart.

The stable is made of thatch over crude timber supports and the baby’s blanket is ragged and patched. Perhaps Joseph has cut the sticks with his knife and woven the simple wicker basket himself. A long swaddling cloth with a cord tie, in which the baby will be tightly bound, has been hung up to dry. The fresh cuts on the ends of the sticks are perilously sharp for a baby’s bed and, together with the knives and shroud-like swaddling cloth, hint at the pain of Christ’s Passion (his torture and crucifixion) that lies ahead.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Nativity

Date

about 1590

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 95.3 x W 118 cm

Accession number

NG3647

Acquisition method

Presented by Sir Henry Howorth through The Art Fund, in memory of Lady Howorth, 1922

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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