Nativity of the Virgin (Altdorfer)

The Nativity of the Virgin is an oil-on-panel painting by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer, dating to c. 1520, which is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Nativity of the Virgin
Artist	Albrecht Altdorfer
Year	c. 1520
Medium	Oil on panel
Dimensions	140.7 cm × 130 cm (55.4 in × 51 in)
Location	Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Description

The work uses a scenic composition typical of the Danube school of the time. The subject, the birth of Mary, is shown in a secondary location in the lower part of the painting. It includes St. Anne's bed, the midwives with the daughter. St. Joachim, having been out for provisions, returns with a bundle slung from his staff across his shoulder.^[1]

The predominant part of the work is the church background, where angels fly to form a large circle: in the middle is a young angel with a thurible for incense.

The edifice, symbolizing the analogy between Mary and the Catholic church (a subject later abolished by the Protestant Reformation), is organized in a complicated and original fashion: the ambulatory and the column galleries are Romanesque, the ogival windows are Gothic, the vaults and the shell-shaped niches are in Renaissance style. This attention to architectural elements was typical of Altdorfer's work in the period he spent at the court of Maximilian I.