The Nativity (1553): Art, History and Details

The Nativity (1553) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582); Hieronymus Cock; Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572).

The work and its context

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

The inscriptions praise Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, emphasizing the great joys and inevitable sorrows that she is to endure in witnessing her son's life and death. After spending about five years in Rome, Ghisi left Italy around 1550 for Antwerp, the major commercial center in the Netherlands. There he worked with Hieronymus Cock (about 1510–1570), founder of the largest and best-known print publishing establishment in northern Europe, called The Four Winds. This print reproduces a painting of similar size by the artist Agnolo Bronzino (1513–1572), painted in the late 1530s for Filippo d'Averardo Salviati of Florence. Making a print based on a work belonging to a private individual was an unusual practice during the 16th century.

Object facts

• Title: The Nativity
• Date: 1553
• Creator attribution: Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582); Hieronymus Cock; Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Overall: 67.5 x 45.6 cm (26 9/16 x 17 15/16 in.); Part 1: 32.9 x 45 cm (12 15/16 x 17 11/16 in.); Part 2: 34 x 45.6 cm (13 3/8 x 17 15/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1986.233

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.