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A man, woman, and four winged angels gather and kneel around a nude infant lying on the ground under a stone arched opening set in front of a landscape in this vertical painting. All of the people have pale white or lightly tanned skin. To our left, the woman wears gold-edged, royal-blue robes and has long, curly brown hair. The baby lies on the hem of her robe, his body facing her. An older, balding and bearded man kneels to the right, leaning on a walking stick. He wears a red garment under a green robe, and he holds a hat in his hands as he gazes at the baby. About a third the size of the man and woman, two of the angels kneel between the man and woman and another pair kneel to our left of the woman, seeming close to us. The angels wear colorful gold, pink, red, or yellow robes and all have long wavy blond hair. Their hands touch in prayer and all look down toward the baby. The people are sheltered in front of a crumbling stone wall under a wooden structure. To our left, a cow and donkey are penned in a stable. Two pairs of men stand near or lean on the other side of the rock wall that encloses the scene. A landscape with green rolling hills and a distant town with towers and buildings fills the background beneath a clear blue sky. A triangular structure made of wood beams is framed within the carved archway, which seems to separate us from the space of the painting. The face of the arch looks like it is carved with a nude man atop a column to the left and a similar woman to the right, and with miniature scenes stacked on tiny platforms curving upward to the apex of the arch.

Petrus Christus

The Nativity, c. 1450

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 39

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

painted surface: 127.6 x 94.9 cm (50 1/4 x 37 3/8 in.)
overall (panel): 130 x 97 cm (51 3/16 x 38 3/16 in.)

framed: 149.2 x 118.4 cm (58 3/4 x 46 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.40

Artists / Makers

Petrus Christus (artist) Netherlandish, active 1444 - 1475/1476

Image Use

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

Overview

The Nativity, one of Petrus Christus' most important devotional paintings, emphasizes the sacrificial nature of Christ's coming and shows the scene as part of a chain of events in the story of the Fall and Redemption of humankind. In the foreground, a sculpted archway displays scenes of the Fall as described in Genesis. Below Adam and Eve, Atlas-like figures symbolize humanity burdened by Original Sin. The artist's depiction of the scene is like an act from a mystery or Passion play, the figures clothed in simple Flemish costume and provided with a landscape backdrop of what, at first, appears to be a Netherlandish town. However, with its two domed buildings, it would be understood as Jerusalem, the scene of the events of Christ's Passion.

Christus depicted not only the historical moment of Jesus' birth but also the enactment of the first Mass, an image deriving in part from the revelation of Saint Bridget, which had become the conventional visualization of the Nativity by the early fifteenth century. The angels wear eucharistic vestments of the subministers of the Mass, though none wears the chasuble worn by the principal celebrant, suggesting that Christ himself is here both priest and sacrifice.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Early Netherlandish Painting, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/early-netherlandish-painting.pdf

Provenance

Señora O. Yturbe, Madrid.[1] (Franz M. Zatzenstein, Berlin and later London); [2] sold 1930 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] The picture seems never to have belonged to the Duchess of Parcent, as claimed in Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America, New York, 1941: no. 177; see letter of April 1982 from her daughter, the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, in NGA curatorial files.

[2] Zatzenstein was the founder of the Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin.

[3] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files. See also Duveen Brothers Records, Getty Research Institute, Series II, Folder 17 (Copies NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
The Matthiesen Gallery
Yturbe, O., Señora
Zatzenstein, Franz M.

Exhibition History

1994: Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, no. 17, repro.

2017: Monochrome: Painting in Black and White, National Gallery, London; Museum Kunstpalast, Dusselddorf, 2017-1018, no. 6, repro.

Technical Summary

There are overpainted losses along the three vertical joins of the panel and along several vertical cracks, as well as scattered small overpainted losses along the fine fracture crackle pattern and where abrasion has occurred along the raised edges of cupped paint. The only larger area of loss is in Joseph's left shoulder. The Virgin's robe has been almost completely overpainted. The robe may have been overpainted to mask the effect of somewhat more extensive losses along the crackle pattern; such losses are evident in sections of the original robe still visible between strands of the Virgin's hair. In spite of these small areas of loss and the overpainting of the Virgin's robe, the paint layers are generally in good condition, as is the support. The varnish has yellowed unevenly and is marked throughout by tiny gray matte spots. Infrared reflectography reveals what appears to be a brush underdrawing for the main figural group. The contours of the figures and of drapery folds are defined by a long contour line which is sometimes repeated. Widely spaced parallel hatching strokes indicate areas of shadow. The wings of the two angels to the left of the Virgin were painted over the underdrawn design of the Virgin's robe; the presumed underdrawing elsewhere in her robe is obscured by overpaint. No underdrawing was made visible in the background or architecture.

Infrared reflectography reveals what appears to be a brush underdrawing for the main figural group. The contours of the figures and of drapery folds are defined by a long contour line which is sometimes repeated. Widely spaced parallel hatching strokes indicate areas of shadow. The wings of the two angels to the left of the Virgin were painted over the underdrawn design of the Virgin's robe; the presumed underdrawing elsewhere in her robe is obscured by overpaint. No underdrawing was made visible in the background or architecture.

Bibliography

1924: Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols. 1924-1937. Leiden, 1937: 14:78-79, pl. Nachtrag 3. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1967: 2:104, 110, pl. 102.)

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1932: Baldass, Ludwig. "Die Entwicklung des Dirk Bouts. Eine Stilgeschichtliche Untersuchung." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien N. F. 6 (1932): 114

1937: Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: repro. opposite p. 33.

1937: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "The Mellon Gift to the Nation." Art News 35 (9 January 1937): 10, repro. 11.

1937: Schöne, Wolfgang, "Über einige altniederländische Bilder, vor allem in Spanien." Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen) 58 (1937): 159.

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