4. Early Netherlandish painting (15-16th c.)

The small panel probably formed part of a domestic altarpiece. Its simple and clearly organized composition follows the great Netherlandish masters’ renderings of the Nativity. The figures appear in front of the palace of King David. The ruined building signifies the Old Testament that is overcome by the new era of the New Testament embodied in the Child. Jesus lies naked and abandoned on the ground, a state that refers to his future sufferings. While earlier pictures showed Mary lying in a bed, the Virgin is shown here as she was seen by St. Bridget of Sweden in her visions: kneeling in adoration before the Child, a representation that became popular in trecento meditative literature in Europe. The motif of St. Joseph holding a candle is also based on St. Bridget’s vision: it was meant to show that the birth of heavenly light outshined all light of earthly origin. The composition of the picture is a reduced version of a large work in the picture gallery of Brussels. They are not by the same hand; instead, they probably both copy a lost prototype. In its colour scheme and types of peasant figures, the work in Esztergom reflects the influence of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, a short-lived but greatly influential master active in Haarlem.