CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
(b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar)

Nativity

1515-20
Oil and tempera on limewood, 32 x 25 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

The essential features of this composition, particularly the structure of the setting in the extreme foreground, were borrowed from an engraving by Martin Schongauer, perhaps the most quoted of all representations of the Nativity.