The J. Paul Getty Museum

Object Description

This illuminated leaf shows a painting of the Nativity of Christ.  Three separate episodes connected to the story are set within a frame of colorful interlacing designs. As a trio of angels beholds the scene from the upper right, the heavens emit a ray of blue light toward the Christ child, who is held by the reclining Virgin Mary. Joseph rests his hand on his face next to a shepherd, who plays a flute for two small animals, while the ox and ass watch from above. At the right, the three magi offer their gifts. The painting’s dynamic shapes and vibrant colors form an interlocking composition of unusually great energy and vitality.

The leaf was once part of the illustrated prefatory cycle of a Gospel book that was made in 1615 in Isfahan, Persia, and illustrated by the famous Armenian artist, Mesrop of Khizan, and that now belongs to the Getty. The manuscript’s prefatory images were removed over fifty years before it came to the Getty Museum. This leaf was acquired later, and its connection to the manuscript is affirmed by photographs taken before the book was dismembered. The museum holds a second leaf from the same manuscript, this one with an image of the Baptism of Christ.