{
"data": {
"id": 135311,
"accession_number": "1958.320",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Nativity, c. 1485\u201390. Gerard David (Netherlandish, 1450/60\u20131523). Oil on wood panel; framed: 102.5 x 76 x 7.5 cm (40 3/8 x 29 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.); unframed: 85.2 x 59.7 cm (33 9/16 x 23 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1958.320",
"current_location": "112 Northern Renaissance",
"title": "The Nativity",
"creation_date": "c. 1485\u201390",
"creation_date_earliest": 1485,
"creation_date_latest": 1490,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Flanders, Bruges"
],
"technique": "oil on wood panel",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Medieval Art",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 102.5 x 76 x 7.5 cm (40 3/8 x 29 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 85.2 x 59.7 cm (33 9/16 x 23 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 1.025,
"height_inch": 40,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.76,
"width_inch": 29,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"depth": 0.075,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.9375
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.852,
"height_inch": 33,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.597,
"width_inch": 23,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 518197,
"title": "Masterpieces of Flemish Art: Van Eyck to Bosch",
"description": "Masterpieces of Flemish Art: Van Eyck to Bosch. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (co-organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1960).",
"opening_date": "1960-06-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302205,
"title": "Art and Humanism in the Renaissance",
"description": "Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-01-23T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301805,
"title": "Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century",
"description": "Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).",
"opening_date": "1973-07-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304558,
"title": "When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story",
"description": "When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 1, 1981-January 17, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1981-12-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 220481,
"title": "Gerard David and Flemish Landscape",
"description": "Gerard David and Flemish Landscape. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (June 8-August 17, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2004-06-08T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Berlin, Kunstgeschichtliche Gesellschaft, 1898: Kunstwerke des Mittelalters und der Renaissance aus Berliner Privatbesitz, cat. no. 56; Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, 1939-1940: Schilderijen, beeldhouwerken en teekeningen uit particuliere verzameling in Nederland, cat. no. 12; The Hague, 1945: Nederlandsche kunst van de XVe en XVIe eeuw, cat. no. 45; Bruges, Mus\u00e9e Communal, 1949: Gerard David, cat. no. 6; Detroit Institute of Arts, 1960: Flanders in the Fifteenth Century, cat. no. 47; CMA, 1973: Dutch Art and Life in the 17th Century, no cat.; CMA, 1981: When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story, no cat.",
"opening_date": "1939-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (6/8/2004 - 8/17/2004): \"Gerard David and Flemish Landscape\", fig. 16, p. 45.",
"opening_date": "2004-06-08T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Possibly from a Russian coll.; Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin, 1898; (Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin sale, December 4, 1917, no. 78); Walter von Pannwitz, Berlin; Frau C. von Pannwitz, Hartekamp near Haarlem (1917); (Rosenberg & Stiebel, NY)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The nativity was one of the most frequently depicted subjects in western art. The event marks the entrance of Christ into the world and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. In the distance an angel announces the birth of Christ to the shepherds tending their flocks. One shepherd is already at the stable adoring the Christ child. In the background, the cityscape represents Jerusalem, where Christ would be crucified, represented here as a northern medieval city. Only Matthew and Luke describe Christ\u2019s nativity in the Gospels, which led medieval writers and artists to amplify the event. Some scholars have suggested that the head of Joseph is a donor portrait. Gerard David was born in Oudewater, now located in Utrecht. He spent his mature career in Bruges, where he was a member of the painters\u2019 guild. Upon the death of Hans Memling in 1494, David became Bruges\u2019s leading painter of devotional panels. He was also a manuscript illuminator.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60465109"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1958.320-the-nativity"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cRare 16th Century Painting Arrives at the Cleveland Museum of Art,\u201d December 1, 1958, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr0298"
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"'The Nativity' by Gerard David.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 45, no. 10 (December 1958): 227-236.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cover, p. 226; Mentioned: p. 227",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142305"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 69",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n93"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 69",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n93"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings Before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 151-153; Reproduced: P. 150-151, figs. 53, 53a, Pl. XXVI",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 78",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n98"
},
{
"citation": "Real, William A. \"Exploring New Applications for Infrared Reflectography.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 8 (1985): 390-412.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 398, fig. 6a, 6b, 6c, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b; Mentioned: P. 399-401",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159923"
},
{
"citation": "Scillia, Diane G. \u201cGerard David\u2019s \u2018St. Elizabeth of Hungary\u2019 in the \u2018Hours of Isabella the Catholic.\u2019\u201d Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 7 (2002): 50\u201367.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 55-56, fig. 9",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/20079719"
},
{
"citation": "Urbach, Susan. Early Netherlandish Paintings. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 124, fig. 9.12",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gertsman, Elina. \"Inciting Despair.\" In Emotions, Communities, and Difference in Medieval Europe: Essays in Honor of Barbara H. Rosenwein, Maureen C. Miller, and Edward Wheatley, 121-138. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Fig. 8.4",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.320",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
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"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.320/1958.320_print.jpg",
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"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Lucia Smith Nash Gallery",
"athena_id": 135311,
"creators": [
{
"id": 2526,
"description": "Gerard David (Netherlandish, 1450/60\u20131523)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Born in Oudewater (near Gouda), David probably trained in Haarlem. Admitted (as a foreigner) to the painters' guild in 1484, he was active there until his death in 1523. He was also inscribed in the painters' guild in Antwerp, 1515.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1450",
"death_year": "1523",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1958-06-21T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1485,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1485\u201390",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-06-12 11:24:19.057000"
}
}