The Nativity

2026-10-12

The Nativity

Master of Pulkau (Bavarian or Austrian, active c. 1505–1520)

Date
1507–10
Origin
Austria
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
111.4 × 74.1 cm (44 5/8 × 29 3/16 in.); Framed: 120.4 × 82.6 × 3.9 cm (47 3/8 × 32 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.)
Credit
Wilson L. Mead Fund

Once thought to be by the young Albrecht Altdorfer, this painting is instead the work of a painter named after a winged altarpiece in the town of Pulkau, near the Austrian and Moravian border. Though the artist takes his name from the Pulkau altarpiece, he was probably active in Vienna. Like other loosely associated South German and Austrian artists of the early 16th century, who are now grouped together as the Danube School, the Master of Pulkau used exuberant natural forms to give a heightened emotional quality to his work. In this altarpiece wing, the swirling vegetation, excited angels, and oversized Virgin and animals direct the viewer’s attention to the vulnerable Christ Child, who is the focus of adoration.