The Nativity
1490. Oil on panel.Not on display
The Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph kneel in prayer beside the newborn Jesus. They are accompanied by three angels who arrange the Child´s swaddling clothes. Three Shepherds look in from outside the ruins of the doorway. An ox and a mule occupy the background. The idyllic landscape and the architecture typical of northern European cities, as well as the composition, bluish-grey color scheme and hieratic figures clothed in robes with stiff folds, recall the Spanish-Flemish style in which Rodrigo was trained, and which his brother, Francisco, absorbed from him. This work is a companion to The Adoration of the Magi (P2835), which is also in the Prado Museum collection. They probably come from the main altarpiece in the church of Santa María de Alicante.
