# The Nativity

**Lorenzo Monaco** (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?))  
ca. 1406–10  
Tempera and gold on wood  
8 3/4 x 12 1/4 in. (22.2 x 31.1 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.1.66. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459007).

## About this work

Lorenzo Monaco painted this in about 1406–10, aged about 33. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Gold ground.** Gold leaf laid over a red clay and burnished to a mirror shine, often tooled with punches so it flickers in candlelight. Behind sacred figures it stands for heavenly light.
- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

### [Lorenzo Monaco](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/lorenzo-monaco)

Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?)

Lorenzo Monaco, “Lorenzo the Monk”, took vows at the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, a centre of manuscript illumination. As both illuminator and panel painter, he became the leading painter in Florence in the early fifteenth century, with sinuous, elongated figures, flowing drapery and intense, jewel-like colour. His altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Uffizi, shows the International Gothic style at its most refined.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was about 33
- Real size: about 8½ × 12 in (22 × 31 cm). The 11 × 14 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 15th century
- Subjects: Holy Family, Nativity
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1248.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1248/1920.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; 18 × 24 in $118
- 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-met-459007).