Nativity

Cranach painted this in Wittenberg, the small Saxon town where he was court painter to the electors and ran a busy workshop. It was also the town where, within a few years, Martin Luther would set off the Reformation, and Cranach knew him well, later standing as godfather to one of Luther's children. The picture itself is an old, tender idea. Night has fallen over the stable, and the only real light comes from the newborn Christ, so that his tiny body lights the faces of Mary and the winged angels gathered close around him. Joseph stands to one side holding a candle that the newborn child has already outshone.