Nativity of the Virgin (Altdorfer)

Nativity of the Virgin (Altdorfer)
Nativity of the Virgin
Artist Albrecht Altdorfer
Year c. 1520
Type Oil on panel
Dimensions 140.7 cm × 130 cm (55.4 in × 51 in)
Location Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Nativity of the Virgin is a painting by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer, dating to c. 1520, which is currently housed in the Alte Pinakothek of Munich, Germany.

Description

The work uses a scenic composition typical of the Danube school of the time. The subject, the birth of Mary, is shown in a secondary location of the lower part of the painting. It includes St. Anne's bed, the midwives with the daughter and St. Joachim riding a stair with something in his hand.

The predominant part of the work is the church background, where a row angel flies to form a large circle: in the middle is a young angel with a thurible for the incense.

The edifice, symbolizing the analogy between Mary and the Catholic church (a subject later abolished by the Protestant Reformation), is organized in a complicated and original fasgion: the ambulatory and the column galleries are Romanesque, the ogival windows are Gothic, the vaults and the shell-shaped niches are in Renaissance style. This attention to architectural elements was typical of Altdorfer's work in the period he spent at the court of Maximilian I.

Sources

  • Zuffi, Stefano (2005) (in Italian). Il Cinquecento. Milan: Electa. 

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