Nativity, and Two Evangelists, and Angel of the Annunciation (triptych, left wing) (recto)

This triptych wing by Bernardo Daddi, dated 1338, depicts the Nativity along with two Evangelists and the Angel of the Annunciation on its recto side. Daddi was a leading Florentine painter who adapted Giotto's innovations into smaller, portable devotional formats suited to private worship. Now in the Courtauld Gallery, London, the triptych exemplifies the growing demand among wealthy Florentine merchants and clerics for personal altarpieces that could be opened for prayer and closed for travel.

Egg tempera and gold on a hinged wooden panel designed to fold shut. The Nativity scene shows Daddi's characteristic sweetness of expression and careful spatial arrangement, with the narrative compressed into a compact format typical of portable devotional triptychs.