Provenance

Arcadio Torres Martín

Spanish

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In the stone ruins of a building, a woman, Mary, kneels with her hands in prayer over a thin-limbed baby lying in front of her in this vertical painting. There is a man behind Mary, to our left, two more in a field to our right, and a winged angel in the upper right corner. They all have pale skin. Mary’s unbound blond hair falls over her shoulders. She wears a celestial-blue dress, and her teal-blue cloak is edged with gold. Her body is angled to our right, and she looks down her straight nose at the baby near her knees. The nude baby has blond curls and a chubby tummy and cheeks. An ox and an ass look down at the baby from behind a stone trough to our right. The man behind Mary wears a forest-green cap and scarf over a tomato-red robe. One hand rests on a staff, and he looks up at the angel in the top right corner. An owl looks down at the man from atop the stone ruins, near the top left corner. Two men recline and about a dozen white sheep lie on low hills in the near distance to our right. One of those men sleeps and the other holds up both hands as he looks into the sky. The angel in the top right corner emerges from a petal-pink and pale yellow halo against a star-strewn blue sky. The angel wears rose pink and has dark pink wings. A scroll held across both arms reads, “GLO” and “INECELSIS DEO.”  
Juan de Flandes, The Nativity, c. 1508/1519, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.23

The Nativity

Juan de Flandes · c. 1508/1519 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.23

A young woman sits wearing a voluminous, long, royal-blue dress to our right and a winged angel wearing a white robe stands looking at her with one arm raised to our left in this vertical painting. The people nearly fill this composition and both have pale, ivory-white skin. In the lower right quadrant of the painting, the woman’s body faces us, and she looks up and to our left with dark eyes. She has an oval-shaped face with a long, delicate nose and her small, pink lips are closed. Her wavy, light brown hair falls over her shoulders and down nearly to her waist. Her blue garment is edged with gold. Her cloak is fastened at the neck with a gold chain, from which hangs an amethyst-purple stone set into a pendant with pearls. The cuffs of her blue robe are lined with fur over crimson-red sleeves beneath. The blue robe puddles on the floor around her and the corners of two pillows—one gold and one scarlet red, each with a fat tassel—behind her suggest she sits on the cushions. She holds a thick book with red and black text and gold edges open in her lap, resting on a silvery blue cloth with tassels at the front corners. A white dove hovers with wings outstretched over her head, and is surrounded by a white halo deepening in several concentric rings to aquamarine blue. Along the left edge of the painting, the angel’s body is angled to our right and the head tips toward the woman. The angel’s right hand, on our left, is raised high overhead. In the other hand is a long gold staff, almost as tall as the angel. The angel’s blond hair falls in ringlets to the shoulders, and the nose and mouth are delicate. The flowing white robe is cinched at the waist, and it has a wide collar like lapels, with a round purple stone fastened like a brooch at the throat. A jeweled head piece has a dark stone set in gold at the center flanked by a row of alternating white and pink flowers to either side. The wings are rose pink along the top edge, pale turquoise along the center, and icy blue along the bottom. A bright emerald-green cloth hangs on the cream-white wall behind the angel, and brick shows through what appears to be lost plaster over the woman’s head to our right. The door of a cabinet behind the woman is ajar and a rounded urn holding tall, white lilies sits on the surface above.
Juan de Flandes, The Annunciation, c. 1508/1519, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.22

The Annunciation

Juan de Flandes · c. 1508/1519 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.22