Die Geburt Christi

Master of Messkirch depicted this Nativity scene around 1520, showing the humble birth of Christ that is the foundational event of the Christian faith. The painting is in the Collections of the princely branch of the Hohenzollern Family. The tempera-on-panel medium required a carefully gessoed surface and was painted in fine, precise layers, yielding a luminous, jewel-like surface of great durability.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.