Flemish school; last third of the XVI century.

Flemish school; last third of the XVI century.
"Nativity".
Oil on panel.
Measurements: 67,5 x 50 cm; 80 x 63,5 cm (frame).
The Flemish school of the late sixteenth century is distinguished by its high artistic quality, the result of a synthesis between the late Gothic tradition and Italian Renaissance innovation, adapted with a refined sense of detail and a deep spiritual sensitivity. Artists such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his successors laid the foundations of a painting rich in symbolism, technical detail and compositional complexity. Within this context, the Nativity emerges as a central theme, not only for its religious importance, but for its ability to condense the devotional and narrative ideal of the time. The representations of the birth of Christ in the Flemish school stand out for their everyday setting, the humanization of the characters and the masterful use of light to evoke the divine, which gives these scenes an emotional intensity and an intimate realism that transcends the merely liturgical, connecting the sacred with the viewer's visual experience.
The Nativity of Christ was one of the most significant and reiterated themes in 16th century Italian painting, deeply rooted in the Western Christian tradition and linked to the cult of the Incarnation, the central dogma of Catholicism. Its representation is rooted in the Gospel accounts, mainly in the texts of St. Luke and St. Matthew, as well as in the pious visions spread by the apocrypha and medieval devotional literature, such as the work of St. Bonaventure or the writings of St. Bridget of Sweden. During the Renaissance, the theme acquired a new visual dimension as it was reinterpreted with humanist sensibility: the scene of the Savior's birth became not only an exercise in faith, but also an opportunity to explore the beauty of the human body, the emotional depth of motherhood and the harmony of the natural environment.