Nativity of the Virgin (Altdorfer)

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Nativity of the Virgin
Artist	Albrecht Altdorfer
Year	c. 1520
Medium	Oil on panel
Dimensions	140.7 cm × 130 cm (55.4 in × 51 in)
Location	Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Nativity of the Virgin is an oil-on-panel painting by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer, dating to c. 1520, which is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

The work uses a scenic composition typical of the Danube school of the time. The subject, the birth of Mary, is shown in a secondary location in the lower part of the painting. It includes St. Anne's bed, the midwives with the daughter. St. Joachim, having been out for provisions, returns with a bundle slung from his staff across his shoulder.^[1]

The predominant part of the work is the church background, where angels fly to form a large circle: in the middle is a young angel with a thurible for incense.

The edifice, symbolizing the analogy between Mary and the Catholic church (a subject later abolished by the Protestant Reformation), is organized in a complicated and original fashion: the ambulatory and the column galleries are Romanesque, the ogival windows are Gothic, the vaults and the shell-shaped niches are in Renaissance style. This attention to architectural elements was typical of Altdorfer's work in the period he spent at the court of Maximilian I.

• Zuffi, Stefano (2005). Il Cinquecento (in Italian). Milan: Electa. ISBN 9788837034689.