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Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682)
The Birth of the Virgin, c. 1661
Oil on canvas
height: 179 cm (70.4 in); width: 349 cm (11.4 ft)
Louvre Museum
It is one of the most important works in the artistic production of Murillo, who based himself on models of daily life in Andalusia to create the painting. Apart from the presence of angels and the halo of the Virgin, there is no other clue that shows that this is a painting with a religious theme.
The figure of the Virgin Mary is at the center of the composition, supported in the arms of various women, at the same time as a source of light emanates which illuminates the whole scene, although the group of Saint Anne remains in the shadows, incorporated in the bed. Saint Joachim also appears.
The play of light that Murillo employs recalls the works of Rembrandt, which the painter may have admired in private collections.. More on this painting
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Unknown iconographer
The “Conception of the Mother of God” is shown to the left of the image
I have no further description, at this time
According to the story found in the Book of James, or Protevangelion book, Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, were childless for many years. They remained faithful to God, but their prayers for a child were unanswered. One day, when Joachim came to the temple to make an offering, he was turned away by the High Priest who chastised him for his lack of children. To hide his shame, Joachim retreated to the hill country to live among the shepherds and their flocks.
As Joachim was praying, his wife Anna was praying at the same time at their house in Jerusalem. An angel appeared to both of them and announced that Anna would have a child whose name would be known throughout the world. Anna promised to offer her child as a gift to the Lord. Joachim returned home, and in due time Anna bore a daughter, Mary.
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Birth of the Virgin, c. 1485-90
Fresco
24 feet 4 inches x 14 feet 9 inches
Cappella Maggiore,Santa Maria Novella, Florence
St Ann props herself up in her fifteenth-century platform bed, in a luxuriously panelled room topped by a continuous frieze of illusionistically "carved" chubby, churning dancing putti. Midwives in the foreground pour water from an elegant pewter jug into a pewter basic, preparing baby’s bath. The baby is a wriggling delight, held by a midwife and facing toward the still-floating Giovanna Tornabuoni, accompanied by her usual female entourage, all sumptuously dressed in high fifteenth-century Florentine style. Their presence is a reminder of the customary visits made by women of aristocratic families on the occasion of a birth. More on this Fresco
Domenico Ghirlandaio (2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494) was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of the so-called "third generation" of the Florentine Renaissance, along with Verrocchio, the Pollaiolo brothers and Sandro Botticelli. Ghirlandaio led a large and efficient workshop that included his brothers Davide Ghirlandaio and Benedetto Ghirlandaio, his brother-in-law Bastiano Mainardi from San Gimignano, and later his son Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. Many apprentices passed through Ghirlandaio's workshop, including the famous Michelangelo. Ghirlandaio's particular talent lay in his ability to posit depictions of contemporary life and portraits of contemporary people within the context of religious narratives, bringing him great popularity and many large commissions. More on Domenico Ghirlandaio
GIOTTO di Bondone, (b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze)
The Birth of the Virgin, c. 1304-06
Fresco
200 x 185 cm
Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua
The birth of the Virgin takes place in the same house as the annunciation to Anne. In the small room, somewhat too narrow for the figures, Anne sits up in bed and is handed the baby in its swaddling clothes by a nursemaid. The child appears for a second time in the idyllic scene in front of the mother's bed. As in the Annunciation scene, Giotto also shows the view of the building from outside. He does not divide interior and exterior, but connects them using the two women.
Giotto di Bondone (1266/7 – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, and Latinized as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Renaissance.
In his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, the late-16th century artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari describes Giotto as making a decisive break with the prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating "the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years."
Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, also known as the Arena Chapel, completed around 1305. This fresco cycle depicts the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance.[4] That Giotto painted the Arena Chapel and that he was chosen by the Commune of Florence in 1334 to design the new campanile (bell tower) of Florence's Cathedral are among the few certainties of his biography. Almost every other aspect of it is subject to controversy: his birthdate, his birthplace, his appearance, his apprenticeship, the order in which he created his works, whether or not he painted the famous frescoes in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, and his burial place. More Giotto di Bondone
Unknown iconographer
Two Nativities: the Theotokos (left) and Jesus Christ (right)I have no further description, at this time
Whereas Christ’s birth is shown to be in a cave, in the wilderness, the Mother of God’s birth is shown within the city walls, amid what appears to be a beautifully decorated house, because Joachim was “a man rich exceedingly”. Instead of a cave, Mary is inside Anna’s bed-chamber, which according to the protoevangelium was made into a sanctuary until the time Mary entered the Temple. Whereas Mary and the Christ-child are attended by angels in their relative solitude, around Anna is a hive of activity: the “undefiled daughters of the Hebrews” whom Anna brought into the bed-chamber to attend to her. A table by Anna shows the feast which Joachim prepared on Mary’s first birthday, to which were invited the scribes, priests and elders of Israel. More on this Icon
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