The Nativity
(c. 1435), tempera, wood, 71 x 37 cm
NG S 1180, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana
The panel, which is set in a wine-red frame, is the inner side of the right wing of a small altar. On the reverse side, which is coated with a dark colour, there are traces of the destroyed original colour and of the bright field of the halo of a saint. Iconographically this portrayal is a recasting of the Evangelists’ chronicles of the birth of Christ, which synthesises the Silesian-Czech scheme of the early 15th century, but without its plastic accents and lyricism. In front of what was once a gold background but is now washed out down to the priming, stands quite complicated architecture of a stable, designed to heighten the impression of depth. The Virgin Mary is kneeling in front of the Child, from whom rays emanate. Behind her Saint Joseph, with a cowl over his head, stares at the viewer. Typical of a dating around 1435 is the Virgin’s loose mantle with its train spread over the ground, the miniature ox and donkey are a remnant of the old idealistic principle. Characteristic of the painter’s conservatism is that he did not yet enhance the motif with contextual elements, which came into the scene of the Nativity either from Christmas pageants or from the visions of Saint Brigitta (for example, Joseph is quite passive).
E.C.
Preservation: Good. Considerably damaged in the past.
Restored: 1960, ZSV, Ljubljana.
Provenance: Purchased by the Narodni muzej from Maks Herman in Maribor, who surmised that it could come from some Styrian monastery, perhaps Saint Lambrecht; 1934 transferred to the Narodna galerija, old Inv. No. 67.
Exhibitions: 1960, Ljubljana, No. 56; 1983, Ljubljana, No. 48; 1995, Ljubljana, No. 187.
Lit.: Cankar 1936, pp. 1–9, Fig. 25 (painter in the Czech manner, ca. 1380); Stele 1935, pp. 45, 47; Mikuž 1941, p. 172 with Fig. (perhaps Czech, ca. 1380); Cevc 1960, p. 29, Cat. No. 56, Fig. 28 (Austrian, ca. 1440); Stele 1969, p. 248 (first half 15C); Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, pp. 130–131, Cat. and Fig. No. 48 (text E. Cevc); Gotik 1995, pp. 324–325, Cat. and Fig. No. 187 (text K. Leitner – Styrian, first half 15C, in the tradition of the Upper Mura valley school).