The Nativity

Jacques Daret's The Nativity, dated around 1434 and now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, is the fourth surviving panel from the Saint Vaast Altarpiece, completing the known portion of the cycle. The Nativity was the most essential scene in any altarpiece program devoted to the Infancy of Christ, and Daret's version shows his characteristic blend of Campin's physical realism with a certain formal restraint that distinguishes him from Rogier van der Weyden, his more gifted fellow pupil. The four Saint Vaast panels together are among the most important surviving documents of the Flemish painting tradition in its formative decades.

Daret renders the stable setting with attention to the natural textures of wood, hay, and stone in the manner absorbed from Campin's workshop. The figures of Mary, Joseph, and the infant Christ are solid and three-dimensional. The composition uses the traditional arrangement but grounds it in a naturalistic setting that departs from the gold-ground convention.