Bible in art · Luke

The Nativity

Dürer · c. 1502–3
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Dürer made the woodcuts of the Life of the Virgin in Nuremberg around 1501–05 and sold them as single sheets; in 1511 he published the series as a book.

The birth takes place in a broken-down stone house with a roof of bare rafters. Mary kneels before the child, whom little angels surround in a basket; shepherds look in at the door, one with bagpipes, and through a window the angel appears to another shepherd in the hills.

From the text

The angel of the Lord appears to shepherds in the fields (Luke 2:8–9)
The shepherds “found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16)

The artist’s own

The stable as a ruin of Dürer’s Germany
Angels flying above and a star in the corner — the star belongs to Matthew’s story of the Magi
A shepherd with bagpipes

Details

The child

The baby lies in a basket, small angels crowded round him.

The shepherds

Shepherds at the door; one carries bagpipes.

In the fields

Through a window, a tiny angel above a shepherd on a hill.

Joseph

An old man in a hooded cloak comes round the wall.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1959.99.10) · Woodcut · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

Luke 2:8–20And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord! And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. After they had seen the Child, they spread the message they had received about Him. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, which was just as the angel had told them.

See it at the museum’s site