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Painted with royal blue, scarlet red, mint and olive green, and tones of soft brown on vellum, a woman lies next to a baby in a boxy manger as angels and monks look on in this illuminated manuscript. The woman is separated from the angels by a rocky, roof-like structure, and the monks are in a row of arches below. They all have pale skin. The woman, Mary, wears a voluminous blue robe over a vivid red dress. Her head is covered by the robe, and she has a gold halo. She reclines in a cocoon-like oval crisscrossed with medium brown lines on a lighter brown background. A baby wrapped tightly in strips of cloth lies in a gold-colored boxy manger on the far side of the woman. The woman rests one hand on the edge of his gold halo, which has a blue cross, and an ox and ass look at the child from the far side of the manger. A bearded man and two women are shown much smaller in scale to the left and right of Mary. The man has white hair, a halo, and wears a light blue robe. He sits with one leg tucked under his body in the lower right corner of this scene. He rests his head in one hand as he turns to look up at Mary over his shoulder. To the left, two women, also with halos and wearing light blue or red, pour water onto the nude baby, who is propped upright in a large urn to the left. The child holds up one hand with the first two fingers raised as blue rivulets curl down his face and body. Above, eight angels wearing robes in white, dark yellow, or light blue, and all with halos, hold their hands together facing in toward the center of the composition. Their wings are mint green lined with dark blue or red. Four green trees, two to each side, have teardrop-shaped canopies lined with seven birds to the left and eight birds to the right. Four monks stand and two monks kneel in six arches below the main scene. The monks have their hair cut into rings around their heads and wear black cloaks over white robes. All hold their hands up and look up at Mary. The background in all three registers is lapis blue painted with swirls and dots in paler blue or white. Red banners separate the angels from the rocky roof and the monks from Mary. Gold-colored, Latin text on the banners reads as follows. Top left: “GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO.” Top right: “ETM TERRA PAX HOIB BONE VO.” Bottom left: “ORA PRO NOBIS QVIA VIERSA NCTAES.” And bottom right: “ORA PRO NOBIX SCA DEI GENITRIX.” Traces of writing and music is visible on the other side of the sheet.

Master of Imola

The Nativity with Six Dominican Monks, 1265/1274

Not on View

series Title

Leaf from a Choir Book (Gradual)

Medium

miniature on vellum

Dimensions

overall: 46.8 x 36 cm (18 7/16 x 14 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Rosenwald Collection

Catalogue Raisonné

NGA Miniatures 1975, no. 3

Accession Number

1946.21.12

Artists / Makers

Master of Imola (artist) Italian, active 1265 - 1280

Italian 13th Century (artist)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Exhibition History

1946: New Acquisitions in the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946.

1949: Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, organized by the Waters Art Gallery at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1949, no. 37, repro.

1953: Mediaeval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, Los Angeles County Museum, 1953, no. 32?, repro.

1953: Medieval and Renaissance Music Manuscripts, Toledo Museum of Art, OH, 1953, no. 37, repro.

1956: Masterpieces of Graphic Art from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1956, no cat.

1957: Illuminated Manuscript Pages from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1957-1958, no cat.

1963: Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, 1963.

1963: Pages from Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the early XVIth centuries, University of California Art Gallery, Berkeley, 1963, no. 9, repro.

1965: Italian panels & manuscripts from the thirteenth & fourteenth centuries in honor of Richard Offner, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, 1965, no. 89, repro.

1969: Prints and Illuminations for the Christmas Season, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, no cat.

1971: A Selection of X-Xv Century Medieval Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, 1971, no. 13.

1972: Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, TX, 1972.

1975: Medieval and Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1975, no. 3, repro.

2009: Heaven on Earth: Manuscript Illuminations from the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 2009.

Bibliography

1975: National Gallery of Art. Medieval and Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1975: no. 3.

1997: Richler, Martha. National Gallery of Art, Washington: A World of Art. London, 1997: 16, color fig. 6.