Nativityby an unknown Catalan master
1200-50
Wood
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
Let's start with the obvious: baby Jesus has no head. However, he makes up for this by sharing his fish bowl manger with two disembodied ox and ass heads.
Upper right we see an angel with righteous eyebrows popping out of a river. Mary lounges in a sleeping bag giving the scene a thumbs up while Joseph scratches his head, wondering "Why is the background of this painting a paper towel?"
2 comments:
It never ceases to intrigue me how much more Spanish medieval works were influenced by Muslim and Byzantine styles than the works in the parts of Europe that were much closer to the Middle East.
I'm with Heather D. on this one. The influence isn't just the artistic style. The artist was uncomfortable rendering the body of the Blessed Virgin, and so uncomfortable rendering God in Human Form that he could only paint the body, not the face. The shapes of the fields in which they're rendered owe more to halos and glories than to realistic representation.
Still, it meets all the requirements for a Nativity -- Mary, Joseph, ox, ass, angel, and Baby Jesus in something like a manger -- and does it with style, if not any kind of style we're used to.
TNH
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