Giotto's Nativity

May 26

One of the most famous paintings of the Nativity is located in Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Veneto, Italy. The artist Giotto shows Mary lying on a pallet after giving birth, receiving her newborn son from an unidentified woman. The artist gave the best view of the event to the ox and ass because as animals they carry no sin.

The image is one of the first depicting the nativity taking place inside a cave-stable hybrid, rather than just a cave or a standard stable, and it reflects the changing notions of its era. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the site was traditionally a cave, but in the Western Church, it was usually in a more traditional stable setting. In the 14th century, artists began depicting the scene is a sort of hybrid location, merging the stable with a cave.