The Nativity of the Virgin

This painting presents the birth of the Virgin as a domestic tableau. Behind the parted red curtain of her bed, Mary’s mother, Anna, rests after giving birth. Her husband, Joachim, sits outside the bedchamber; his is no ordinary child, and he appears lost in thought, unaware of his companion. The infant Mary stands on sturdy legs supported and admired by two serving women, as another pours water from a pitcher so Anna can wash her hands. A fourth woman enters through the doorway, bringing a roasted chicken to the new mother. She looks out of the picture directly, drawing us into the scene. The emphasis on the human and the familiar—that chicken is almost in the center of the painting—made the Virgin and her family approachable to viewers and brought sacred events into the sphere of their own experience.

This and two other small paintings by Andrea di Bartolo at the National Gallery of Art, _Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple_and _The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple_, were all part of one altarpiece. They depict scenes from the childhood of the Virgin, and must have been joined originally by many other panels—now lost—illustrating episodes from Mary’s life. Because the surviving panels share vertical wood grain, scholars have theorized that they were probably all connected, one on top of another. We do not know what was featured on the center panel; it might have been an Annunciation, Mary’s coronation as Queen of Heaven, or another subject (see The Nativity of the Virgin).