Commissioned around 1508 by Don Sancho de Castilla as part of the main altarpiece for the church of San Lázaro in Palencia, Spain, the painting remained there until about 1945. Following the cessation of services at the church, the panels were dispersed. The artwork was later acquired by a New York art dealer in 1952, purchased by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1953, and finally gifted to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1961.
Created by the renowned Hispano-Flemish master Juan de Flandes (c. 1460-1519) between 1508 and 1519, ‘The Nativity’ is a masterpiece of technical mastery, of the Northern European tradition, and of devotional taste from the Iberian region. It is one of six paintings for the high altarpiece (retablo mayor) of the main chapel of the Church of San Lázaro in Palencia, in Northern Castile, commissioned by its patron, Don Sancho de Castilla. Juan de Flandes received a lot of royal patronage thanks to his position as the official court painter (pintor de corte) of Queen Isabella I of Castile until her death in 1404.
The use of color and the fact that the painted objects are so realistic, full of story detail that they appear alive, is a wonderful and complete example of the Ghent-Bruges school’s influence on Juan de Flandes’ work, with its focus on spatial illusions, light and hyper-realistic narrative detail. Flandes has departed a bit from the standard teaching in the Gospel of Luke (which describes the wrapping of the infant Jesus in swaddling clothes and his lying in a manger) on the extended blue mantle of the Virgin Mary. The compositional device is also a significant and compelling theological assertion, an indication that the Son of God descended onto earth as less than the poorest of men.
It is held in an old, run-down stone stable, rumbling with crumbling brick. The ruined archway is a symbol of the old world’s spiritual darkness, which the light of the new world has overcome. He uses a complex and layered landscape in the background, with concentric circles of brilliant divine light radiating from an angel whose angelic lips herald the birth to shepherds on a remote hilltop in a style similar to that of the Castilian region.
The presentation of textures, ranging from coarse straw used in the crib to the soiled breath of the ox and ass greeting their master, is a hint at Flandes’ experience as a miniaturist. Researchers using infrared reflectography have uncovered his underdrawings beneath the paint, revealing detailed, assured drawings carefully constructed and executed, allowing the artist to fine-tune his depictions of sacred subjects by frequently adjusting minor details to enhance the emotional impact, geometric balance, and atmospheric glow of his paintings.
In this work, Juan de Fandes used the slow and layered technique typical of his Flemish training which he received in Bruges. The drapery on Mary’s robe carries weight in real sense and this is presented by using light settling on raised folds and shadow gathering naturally in the creases. Her face is built from soft tonal shifts rather than hard lines, giving her a tenderness that never tips into sweetness. The stable’s stonework carries convincing signs of age, cracked and worn in specific rather than generic ways.This panel belonged to a larger devotional set painted for Queen Isabella of Castile, whom the artist served from 1496 until her death in 1504. The tiny straws by the manger and the fine feathering on the angels’ wings reflect the same careful, small scale precision his work is known for throughout that commission.
