The Nativity
Fra Bartolommeo·1504–7
Historical Context
Fra Bartolommeo painted this Nativity between 1504 and 1507, during his return to painting after a period of religious crisis following Savonarola's execution. Fra Bartolommeo was a Dominican friar and one of the leading painters of the High Renaissance in Florence, whose monumental, balanced compositions influenced Raphael. This Nativity reflects his synthesis of religious devotion with the classicizing grandeur of the new century.
Technical Analysis
Fra Bartolommeo's oil on panel demonstrates his characteristically broad, monumental figure style and the atmospheric sfumato he developed independently of Leonardo. The warm palette and the balanced, pyramidal composition show the mature High Renaissance approach to religious painting.
Provenance
Sold through the Monastery of San Marco, Florence, to Domenico Perini, April 16, 1507; sent by Domenico Perini to France and possibly sold to Louis XII, King of France, along with a Noli me tangere now in the Louvre, according to a list of all Fra Bartolommeo’s pictures compiled in 1516; Bedemeau de Buxerolles, Poitou. Tabarly collection, Blois, Pierre Landry, Paris, by 1955; his heirs, sold, Christie’s, London, 11 July 2001, no. 68 to Haboldt and Company, Paris; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2005.
