The Nativity 1485

Antoniazzo Romano painted this Nativity panel sometime in the late 15th century, likely in Rome. Here we see the holy family framed by a rocky outcrop, a traditional scene made fresh by its setting in the Roman countryside. The Italian peninsula in the 1400s was a place of both strong religious conservatism and humanist innovation. While the Catholic church maintained significant social control and remained the primary patron of the arts, artists and intellectuals were looking to classical antiquity for inspiration. Notice how the artist merges the traditional biblical scene with a verdant Italian landscape, complete with shepherds and a distant hilltop town. We can see this painting as a product of its time, an expression of both religious devotion and a renewed interest in the natural world. To understand this work better, we could research the patronage networks of the Roman art world in the late 1400s, and learn more about the religious and intellectual climate that shaped its production.