Scribal Terror: The Nativity by Federico Barocci (c. 1535-1612)

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This Nativity is quite an unusual composition by Federico Barocci, an Italian master who spent most of his career in Urbino. For one thing, it's very closed-in rather than open to the night. Also, it is one of the few nativities I have seen that does not center the baby Jesus. Instead His little head is wedged into a corner underneath the neck of the ox. It is the beauty, vulnerability, and perfect baby-ness of His face, framed first by pure, radiant white (compared to the duller white of the sacking material on Mary's right) and next by the darkness of the shadowed ox that draws the eye to Him even though the magnificently clothed and illuminated Mary is closer to the center of the canvas. Barocci, by the way, is one of the few Renaissance painters I know who has clearly and demonstrably spent time looking at a human baby. He presents the holy family draped in rich fabrics for the same reason he has them bathed in light -- to emphasize the paradox of the manger birth, and thus of the incarnation. The painting is oil on canvas and resides in the Prado. Via

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I imagine he was also Catholic and the Virgin Padme Amidala... uhh.. I mean.. "Mary".. does play a very central role...However, just like many other Renaissance artists he makes the understandable error of forgetting to include the baby Leia.. No problem though.. He was born about 360 years too early to have been exposed to the NEW new testiment (King Lucas Edition) .. plus Leia wasn't much of a character anyway and the buns on her head were very unattractive.. I can totally understand why they'd hide her in the background with the farm animals.. She's kinda like Meg on Family Guy if ya know what I mean..

Posted by: RanXerox | December 22, 2006 at 05:09 PM