Triptych with the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi and the Deposition

This little altarpiece, about half a metre high, still has its movable wings, and the Galleria Sabauda describes it as the only triptych of this kind by Defendente Ferrari to survive intact. Scattered fragments of others suggest he made many. The folding type came from northern Europe, and it answered a demand for pictures for private prayer at home.

It is dated 1523. The centre shows the Adoration of the Magi. Beneath the Nativity on the left wing runs a Latin line, quem genuit adoravit, she adored the one she bore, words tied to the Franciscan devotion to the Immaculate Conception that recur on many of his Nativities. Beneath the dead Christ held over the tomb on the right are words from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, attendite et videte, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.

In 1973 the Italian state assigned the triptych to the gallery.