La Nativité mystique

Angels dance in a ring beneath an open golden heaven, while below, small devils flee into the earth. Above it all, Botticelli wrote in Greek that he painted this in the troubles of Italy.

The story behind the painting

The Mystical Nativity, a modern name, was painted in oil on canvas around 1500-1501; Wikidata gives 1500. It is Botticelli's only signed work. His Greek inscription says he painted it at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy, according to the eleventh chapter of Saint John and the second woe of the Apocalypse. It came out of a Florence shaken by the preacher Girolamo Savonarola, who had won the city's trust in 1494 and was hanged and burnt on 23 May 1498. Botticelli had come under his sway, and infrared study shows the angels' ribbons once carried Savonarola's twelve privileges of the Virgin.

What to look for

At the centre the Virgin kneels before the Christ Child, both larger than the other figures, an old medieval convention Botticelli chose deliberately, since his earlier works use correct perspective. Joseph sits beside them, perhaps asleep, face hidden; an ox and an ass stand behind. On each side an angel with an olive branch shows the child to kneeling shepherds and to three men in long gowns, perhaps the Magi. At the top, twelve angels in the colours of faith, hope and charity dance beneath a golden dome. At the bottom, three angels embrace three men, while seven small devils flee, some impaled on their own weapons.

Meaning and intent

The painting is joyful, yet shadowed. The child lies on a sheet that evokes his future shroud, and the cave recalls his tomb. The kings bring no gifts but their devotion. The angels below hold scrolls proclaiming peace on earth to men of goodwill, and the scene echoes Last Judgment pictures; as art historian Jonathan Nelson puts it, it asks us to think of Christ's return as well as his birth. Some see the three embraced men as the three executed holy men, Savonarola and two lieutenants, raised up and restored to grace, painted amid persecution of his followers.

Legacy

Botticelli normally painted on wood, but this is on canvas; historians suggest that for a picture with a dangerous message, canvas could be rolled up and hidden. He worked out a detailed design on paper before transferring it, and the dancing angels echo his own Three Graces in Primavera. Today the painting hangs in the National Gallery in London, where its strange mixture of celebration and apocalyptic warning continues to puzzle and move visitors. It should not be confused with Filippo Lippi's Mystical Nativity, or Adoration in the Forest, in Berlin.

Le saviez-vous ?

Botticelli's only signed work, with a Greek inscription.
Dated c. 1500-1501 (Wikidata: 1500).
Oil on canvas, 109 x 75 cm (Wikidata), National Gallery, London.
Infrared shows the ribbons once bore Savonarola's twelve privileges of the Virgin.

Wikipedia · Wikidata