The Nativity (c. 1485–90): Art, History and Details

The Nativity (c. 1485–90) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Gerard David (Netherlandish, 1450/60–1523).

The work and its context

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

The nativity was one of the most frequently depicted subjects in western art. The event marks the entrance of Christ into the world and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. In the distance an angel announces the birth of Christ to the shepherds tending their flocks. One shepherd is already at the stable adoring the Christ child. In the background, the cityscape represents Jerusalem, where Christ would be crucified, represented here as a northern medieval city. Only Matthew and Luke describe Christ’s nativity in the Gospels, which led medieval writers and artists to amplify the event. Some scholars have suggested that the head of Joseph is a donor portrait. Gerard David was born in Oudewater, now located in Utrecht. He spent his mature career in Bruges, where he was a member of the painters’ guild. Upon the death of Hans Memling in 1494, David became Bruges’s leading painter of devotional panels. He was also a manuscript illuminator.

Object facts

• Title: The Nativity
• Date: c. 1485–90
• Creator attribution: Gerard David (Netherlandish, 1450/60–1523)
• Culture: Flanders, Bruges
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 102.5 x 76 x 7.5 cm (40 3/8 x 29 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 85.2 x 59.7 cm (33 9/16 x 23 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1958.320

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Rare 16th Century Painting Arrives at the Cleveland Museum of Art,” December 1, 1958, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Francis, Henry. "'The Nativity' by Gerard David." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 45, no. 10 (December 1958): 227-236.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.