# The Nativity

**Giorgio Ghisi** (Italian, 1520–1582)  
1553  
engraving  
Overall: 67.5 x 45.6 cm (26 9/16 x 17 15/16 in.); Part 1: 32.9 x 45 cm (12 15/16 x 17 11/16 in.); Part 2: 34 x 45.6 cm (13 3/8 x 17 15/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1986.233. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.233).

## About this work

The inscriptions praise Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, emphasizing the great joys and inevitable sorrows that she is to endure in witnessing her son's life and death. After spending about five years in Rome, Ghisi left Italy around 1550 for Antwerp, the major commercial center in the Netherlands. There he worked with Hieronymus Cock (about 1510–1570), founder of the largest and best-known print publishing establishment in northern Europe, called The Four Winds. This print reproduces a painting of similar size by the artist Agnolo Bronzino (1513–1572), painted in the late 1530s for Filippo d'Averardo Salviati of Florence. Making a print based on a work belonging to a private individual was an unusual practice during the 16th century.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Giorgio Ghisi made this in 1553, aged 33. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Engraving.** Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

### [Giorgio Ghisi](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/giorgio-ghisi)

Italian, 1520–1582

Ghisi was a Mantuan engraver who worked in Antwerp for the publisher Hieronymus Cock, engraving large plates after Raphael’s Vatican frescoes, and later in France. His refined, silvery technique, built from fine, regular lines and flicks, carried Italian compositions to collectors across Europe. In his later years he returned to Mantua, where he served the Gonzaga court.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Italy
- The artist was 33
- Real size: about 27 × 18 in (68 × 46 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 16th century
- Movement: [Renaissance](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/renaissance)
- Colour: grey
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/738.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/738/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-nativity-cma-153271).