Who painted The Birth of Christ?

Sandro Botticelli painted The Birth of Christ in 1500.

What Bible passage does The Birth of Christ depict?

The Birth of Christ depicts the biblical scene from Luke 2:1-12.

Where is The Birth of Christ located?

The Birth of Christ is housed at The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London.

The Birth of Christ by Sandro Botticelli

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The Mystical Nativity is a painting dated c. 1500–1501 by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery in London. Botticelli built up the image using oil on canvas. It is his only signed work and has an unusual iconography for a painting of the Nativity.

The Greek inscription at the top translates as: 'This picture, at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy, I, Alessandro, in the half-time after the time, painted, according to the eleventh [chapter] of Saint John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, during the release of the devil for three and a half years; then he shall be bound in the twelfth [chapter] and we shall see [him buried] as in this picture'. Botticelli believed himself to be living during the Great Tribulation, possibly due to the upheavals in Europe at the time, and was predicting Christ's millennium as stated in the Book of Revelation.

Details

Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Created: 1500
Medium: tempera on canvas
Dimension: 75cm × 109cm
Passage: Luke 2:1-12
Housed at: The National Gallery Trafalgar Square, London

Found in: Luke, Luke 2, 15th century, The Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:1-12

1 Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.

2 This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

3 All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city.

4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David;

5 to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant.

6 While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth.

7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.

9 Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.

11 For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

12 This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.”

Luke 2:1-12 · World English Bible

The artist

Sandro Botticelli

1445 - 1510

Florence, Italy

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterize less than a hundred years later in his Vita of Botticelli as a "golden age". Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.