1475
paint
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
The Nativity is a 1475 paint by German 15th Century, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This image shows a hand-colored metalcut of a nativity scene. In the foreground, a man and woman kneel beside a baby in a manger. Above them, two angels float in the air, one holding a banner. The background has a simple stable, a town, and a cow peeking in. The colors are mostly gold, green, and red-brown, with a lot of gold leaf patterns around the edges. The way the figures are outlined and filled with flat colors suggests this was made using metalcut printing. The artist used bright colors to make the scene stand out, even though the details are simple. Look up technique: chiaroscuro next to see how light and shadow create depth in other Renaissance works.
This 15th-century German artist carved vivid religious scenes into metal and wood, then hand-painted them in bright, symbolic colors.
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