The Nativity (1507–10): Artwork and History

The Nativity (1507–10) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Master of Pulkau (Bavarian or Austrian, active c. 1505–1520).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Once thought to be by the young Albrecht Altdorfer, this painting is instead the work of a painter named after a winged altarpiece in the town of Pulkau, near the Austrian and Moravian border. Though the artist takes his name from the Pulkau altarpiece, he was probably active in Vienna. Like other loosely associated South German and Austrian artists of the early 16th century, who are now grouped together as the Danube School, the Master of Pulkau used exuberant natural forms to give a heightened emotional quality to his work. In this altarpiece wing, the swirling vegetation, excited angels, and oversized Virgin and animals direct the viewer’s attention to the vulnerable Christ Child, who is the focus of adoration.

Object facts

• Title: The Nativity
• Date: 1507–10
• Artist attribution: Master of Pulkau (Bavarian or Austrian, active c. 1505–1520)
• Place of origin: Austria
• Medium: Oil on panel
• Dimensions: 111.4 × 74.1 cm (44 5/8 × 29 3/16 in.); Framed: 120.4 × 82.6 × 3.9 cm (47 3/8 × 32 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1933.799

Collection credit

Wilson L. Mead Fund

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.