The Nativity

This Nativity at Christ Church, Oxford, shows Correggio's approach to the birth of Christ, a subject he treated with revolutionary innovation in his famous Holy Night at the Dresden Gallery. Correggio pioneered the use of the Christ Child as the sole light source, creating a nocturnal composition of unprecedented intimacy. Antonio da Correggio, working in Parma in the early sixteenth century, was among the most original and influential Italian painters of the High Renaissance. His soft atmospheric modeling (learned from Leonardo), his dynamic compositions designed for ceiling decoration (anticipating the Baroque), and his warm, sensuous approach to both sacred and mythological subjects made him a decisive figure in the transmission of Italian Renaissance painting toward the Baroque. Vasari, who never visited Parma, may have underestimated his significance; later critics, beginning with Bellori, recognized him as one of the foundational figures of the entire European painting tradition after Raphael.

The composition employs Correggio's characteristic warm light radiating from the central group. The soft sfumato and tender figure handling create an atmosphere of sacred intimacy.