Nativity of the Virgin, The

Painting

-

Purdue University Galleries

Name/Title

Nativity of the Virgin, The

Entry/Object ID

2005.02.070

Description

Flat Partially painted wood panel backed in yellow velvet covered by silver riza with red, blue, white, and green enamel décor added to the top. The central image features a woman reclining on a bed with painted face and hands and riza body. A man kneels at her feet in front of a basin with a small figure in his lap, although their painted faces are distorted. Looking through the middle window if a felame figure, and a haloed male figure peers through the far right window. Decorative elements of three building tops are engraved into the riza.

Type of Painting

Panel

Collection

Betsy Scheuring Icon Collection

Acquisition

Accession

2005.02

Source or Donor

Betsy Scheuring

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

Gift of Betsy Scheuring

Made/Created

Date made

1850 - 1900

Place

* Untyped Place

Kostroma, Russia

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Makers Mark

Location

Bottom center of riza, just above the caption

Transcription

АГ? , 84 kokoshnik mark

Language

Cyrillic

Translation

AH

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Icon

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Symbol, Religious

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Religious Objects

Nomenclature Class

Ceremonial Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Dimensions

Height

8-5/8 in

Width

6-7/8 in

Depth

1 in

Exhibition

Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection (2006)

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

A commonly represented episode in the life of the Virgin, this scene depicts her birth in a private house, with buildings of ancient Jerusalem visible in the background. As St. Ann, mother of the Virgin, reclines fully dressed on the bed of her accouchement, she gazes at the newborn child who is given her first bath at a basin. Joachim, the Virgin’s father, looks on from a window, and a young servant brings a cup. The columns and hanging curtains indicate an interior setting. The iconography of this scene is standard, and the figures’ drapery is modeled in a very fluid manner on the surface of the riza.