Lorenzo LottoItalian, 1480–1556The Nativity
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
The Nativity or the Adoration of the Christ Child is an oil-on-panel painting executed in 1523 by the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto and signed on the painted pieces of wood at the bottom right "L. Lotus / 1523". It is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
The painting was produced for private devotion. X-ray examination has shown that the left side was reworked by Lotto himself.
The subject is more correctly called the Adoration of the Christ Child as only the baby Jesus and his two parents are shown, rather than the fuller cast of most examples of the Nativity of Jesus in art, but the museum has chosen to use The Nativity. The Adoration of the Christ Child was a common subject from the late Middle Ages on, influenced by devotional writers. There is an anachronistic crucifix on the wall at left, a rather unusual feature.
Read on
By the 20th century it was in Count Morlani's private collection in Bergamo. He sold it to Bononi in Milan, where it was acquired by Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi. In 1937 Samuel H. Kress acquired it and took it to New York, giving it to its present owner two years later.
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1939.1.288
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- National Gallery of Art
- Image: National Gallery of Art — Museum open access
Meanwhile, in the life of Lorenzo Lotto
The whole life1521–1523
Completes five more altarpieces
After the Martinengo Altarpiece Lotto decorated the churches of San Bernardino and Sant'Alessandro in Colonna with frescoes and distemper paintings, and in 1521–1523 he completed five more altarpieces, among them the altarpiece for the church of Santo Spirito in Bergamo (1521).
1523
A trip to the Marche for commissions
On a brief stay in the Marche Lotto obtained several commissions for altarpieces, which he later painted in Venice.
1525
Back in Venice, and a quarrel with Fra Damiano
In Venice Lotto first lodged at the Dominican monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo but was forced to leave after a few months following a conflict with the intarsia artist Fra Damiano da Bergamo; to cope with his commissions he set up a workshop. Other accounts extend his Bergamo period to 1526.
