The Nativity
c. 1500
16th Century
23 x 14 1/4 in. (58.4 x 36.2 cm)
Jan Provost,
Flemish,
(1465–1529)
Object Type:
PAINTINGS
Creation Place:
Europe
Medium and Support:
Oil on panel
Accession Number:
72-P-104
Gallery Label:
Provost was, along with his mentors, Gerard David and Quentin Massys, an influential Northern Renaissance painter. The artist portrays the infant Christ lying on a bed of straw in a lowly stable with his parents, Mary and Joseph, kneeling before him. Surprising is the inclusion of a Cistercian monk in the right hand foreground. Tonsured and dressed in the cowled, white habit of this order, the figure may be the twelfth-century St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order. The figure’s inclusion points to a Cistercian source for the painting’s commission.
Current Location:
Art Museum : 15-16 C Gallery
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