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A young woman and an older man kneel to either side of a nude baby outside of a barn-like structure in this vertical painting. The people and three winged angels overhead all have pale skin except the older man, who has a more tan complexion. To our right, the woman kneels with her hands crossed over her chest, facing our left in profile. She looks down with dark eyes, and has a long, straight nose, flushed cheeks, and pink lips. Her wavy, chestnut-brown hair is mostly covered by a voluminous white veil that drapes across her shoulders. She wears an azure-blue cloak over a rose-pink, long-sleeved dress, which puddles under her knees. To our left, the man kneels with his hands held up near his face in prayer. He has dark eyes and a short, stubby nose. He is balding with a fringe of curly gray hair, and he has a full, graying beard. He wears a coral-red robe wrapped in a mustard-yellow cloak. The edges of white cuffs are visible at his wrists. One sandaled foot peeks out from under his robe as he kneels on the other knee. A walking stick lies across one arm, braced in his lap. Glimmering gold rings create halos around the man and woman's heads. Between them and on a white cloth in a woven basket, the baby has a pudgy face and body as he lifts his hands toward the woman. One foot is also raised, chubby knee bent. The infant has dark eyes and blond curly hair. Clusters of three lines emanate from the top of his head and to the sides over each ear. A wooden container and a white sack sit on the dirt ground, next to the basket. Beyond the group is a wooden structure with a thatched, overhanging roof. Two white birds sit along a branch tucked in the supports holding up the roof, and a ladder leans against the side of the barn. A crucifux hangs from a deeply shadowed wall behind the man, along the left edge of the painting. Three, winged, childlike angels gather around a piece of sheet music at the top center of the painting. They all have dark blond hair but different colored wings, in coral pink, forest green, or golden yellow. Below, trees and grassy hills lead back to hazy blue mountains along the horizon in the deep distance. A person and white sheep dot the hillside near the structure. The sky above deepens from ice blue at the horizon to aquamarine blue across the top edge. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed a plank of wood near the lower right corner: “L. Lotus 1523.”

Lorenzo Lotto

The Nativity, 1523

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 18

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 46 x 35.9 cm (18 1/8 x 14 1/8 in.)

framed: 62.6 x 53.2 x 10.2 cm (24 5/8 x 20 15/16 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1939.1.288

Artists / Makers

Lorenzo Lotto (artist) Venetian, c. 1480 - 1556/1557

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower right: L. Lotus. / 1523

Provenance

Count Morlani, Bergamo. Luigi Bonomi, Milan. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2249.

Associated Names

Bonomi, Luigi
Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Morlani, Count

Exhibition History

1938: Special Exhibition of Venetian Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Seattle Art Museum; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama, August-October 1938, no catalogue.

1938: Venetian Paintings of the 15th & 16th Centuries, M. Knoedler and Company, New York, April 1938, no. 10, repro.

1997: Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1997-1999, no. 20, repro.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 115, no. 399.

1941: Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 178.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 247, repro. 138.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 98, repro.

1955: Berenson, Bernard. Lotto. Milan, 1955: 80, fig. 138.

1956: Berenson, Bernard. Lorenzo Lotto. New York, 1956: 55-56, pl. 138.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 158, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 303, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 78.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 68, repro.

1968: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 161-162, fig. 390.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 202, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:280-281; 2:pl. 190.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 191, no. 220, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 235, repro.

1997: Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1997-1999: no. 20.

1998: Colalucci, Francesco. Bergamo Negli Anni di Lotto: Pittura, Guerra e Società. Bergamo, 1998: 179-181, repro.

2001: Wilson, Carolyn C. St. Joseph in Italian Renaissance Society and Art: New Directions and Interpretations. Philadelphia, 2001: 199 n. 36.

2013: Acres, Alfred. Renaissance Invention and the Haunted Infancy. London and Turnhout, 2013: 127, 128, fig. 98.

2021: Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. Lorenzo Lotto: Catalogo generale dei dipinti. Milan, 2021: 204, cat. I.50, repro.