The Nativity (Basel)

Baldung's Nativity (Basel) from around 1510 is an early treatment of the Christmas subject demonstrating his formation in Dürer's workshop and his beginning development of an independent approach to the nocturnal light effects that Nativity subjects traditionally employed. The Christ Child as a source of supernatural illumination—the convention of divine light emanating from the infant himself—was a tradition going back to Hugo van der Goes's celebrated Portinari Altarpiece and gave painters an opportunity for the dramatic contrast of warm firelight against cold nocturnal darkness. Baldung's Basel Nativity reflects both this Flemish influence and his emerging engagement with the expressive possibilities of night scenes and artificial illumination that would characterize some of his most ambitious later works.

The Nativity scene demonstrates Baldung's mature command of light effects, with the Christ Child's supernatural luminosity illuminating the surrounding figures.