Nativity Scene

By the middle of the 1500s both Dossi brothers, court painters to the Este dukes of Ferrara, were dead, Dosso around 1542 and Battista in 1548. Small devotional pictures in their manner went on being made, and this arched panel, only 44 centimetres tall, seems to be one of them. The Child lies on the bare ground on a white sheet. Mary kneels with her hands joined, Joseph raises a hand, a donkey leans in, and the ox is seen from behind beside the wooden shed. Above, a white cloud carries a group of little angels. Most critics once gave the panel to Battista himself. In 1968 the art historian Felton Gibbons proposed instead that it copies his work and was made by his son Evangelista, known as Dossazzo. Later research noted its rougher handling, and the gallery cautiously follows that idea.