3. Italian Painting (13-18th c.)

In the course of his long and prolific life, Giovanni di Paolo painted numerous altarpieces, many of which survive in a fragmented state. This large panel, too, was originally the central part of a triptych-altarpiece. The side panels originally showed Saint Ansanus and Saint Victor (?), two patron saints of Siena (today Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon). The central panel represents the Nativity as inspired by a vision of the 14-century Swedish mystic, Saint Bridget: the kneeling Virgin adores the Child laid on the edge of her mantle. The exclusion of the old, sleeping Joseph from the scene refers to the divine conception of the Savior, in which he, the lawful husband of Mary, had no role. The picture is one of the outstanding works of the latest phase of Giovanni di Paolo’s art. The angular, heavy figures and the schematic modeling indicate the late style; the elderly, approximately seventy-year old master nonetheless relates the Christmas story with an unbroken enthusiasm for story telling. Ragged, simple shepherds guard the sheep grazing in the steeply rising landscape. On hearing the messenger angel, one sheep raises his head, looking for the source of the voice. The scene is crowned by the blessing figure of God the Father above, whom – to avoid the problem of foreshortening – the painter has shown with head fallen to the side and in a symmetrically fluttering cloak that is precisely adapted to the space defined by the frame.