The Life of Christ: The Nativity (c. 1480–90): Art, History and Details

The Life of Christ: The Nativity (c. 1480–90) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450–1491).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Martin Schongauer was among the first artists to work extensively in engraving to create series on the life of Christ and the saints. Here, he portrayed the Virgin, clothed in elaborate drapery, gazing upon her newborn son in a simple setting. To produce this work, Schongauer carved directly into a copper plate, creating depth and tonal variation using a system of crosshatching and parallel lines. His technical skill was admired by a young Albrecht Dürer, who later depicted the same subject.

Object facts

• Title: The Life of Christ: The Nativity
• Date: c. 1480–90
• Creator attribution: Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450–1491)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1978.85

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund by exchange and Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in memory of William Mathewson Milliken

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1978.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (January 1979): 3–47.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.