14TH-CENTURY VENETIAN SCHOOL (C. 1360) The Birth of Mary Tempera on panel 43.5 x 31 cm These three women in procession are bringing various gifts to support the young new mother, who is still confined to bed on the right. Like the Magi laden with gifts, they foreshadow the Nativity of Christ. But here the scene is set in a more opulent interior than the stable of Christ’s birth, and the protagonists are those of the previous generation, Anne and Joachim, parents of the newborn Virgin, depicted in her cradle in the foreground. Standing behind his wife, Joachim—the sole male figure—is recognisable by his halo. Beside the swaddled baby, in defiance of all rules of perspective, a wet nurse, reduced to the size of a child, watches over the infant. For here, in the purest Byzantine tradition, the painter does not seek to create an illusionistic space but, quite the contrary, to evoke an unreal, divine space in which the figures are arranged hierarchically. Thus, in this space that is at once both interior and exterior, architectural niches unfold against a gold background and punctuate the composition according to the figures. Thus, a red arch opening onto an apse overhangs Saint Anne’s bed. The scene depicted here shows an Annunciation that evokes the Virgin’s destiny. Fourteenth-century Venetian artists were greatly influenced by the numerous cultural exchanges with the Byzantine Empire, when painters and iconographic models circulated frequently. In addition to the enrichment of the colour palette, it is above all the introduction of new motifs that nourished their art. Here, the style and gestures of the figures, as well as their costumes, owe a debt to Byzantium; but, even more so, it is the composition of the space, with its architectural backgrounds, that was directly influenced by the art of the Palaiologos dynasty, which was in vogue in the major Byzantine centres, from Thessaloniki to Constantinople. The iconography of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary has its origins in apocryphal accounts such as the Protoevangelium of James, the Infancy Gospels, and the writings of the Church Fathers. These provide extensive details on the birth of Mary, the story of which is depicted in Marian cycles frequently portrayed mainly in the East but also in the West, the finest example of which is the cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, painted by Giotto at the very beginning of the 14th century.