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Nativita della Vergine Siena
Artist: Domenico Beccafumi
Year: 1540-1543
Current location: Pinacoteca Nazionale
Original location: Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION
In a noble room of a sixteenth-century palace, with a rich coffered ceiling, Saint Anne, lying in the bed typically surrounded by chests and surmounted by a canopy, has just given birth to Mary, who is about to be washed by the maid in the foreground. Unlike the traditional arrangement of the bed with the long side parallel to the plane of the painting, Beccafumi sought something more original and virtuosic by using a glimpse from the feet of the mother, which allowed him to have more space available in the rest of the panel. Other women are in fact busy in the room and paying homage to the new mother, while Joachim waits in a room that can be glimpsed behind, through a door. Here is the fireplace, judging by the light and the servant who is drying a sheet in which the little girl will be wrapped, a forerunner of today's diapers. A little dog is crossing the door, while on the left, in the shadow, a child can be seen hugging something.
Nativita della Vergine