FERRARI, Defendente
(b. ca. 1485, Chivasso, d. after 1540)

Nativity in Nocturnal Light

1510
Mixed technique on panel, 37 x 27 cm
Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Turin

Defendente Ferrari is one of the most highly esteemed Piedmontese painter of the Renaissance. His style is that of a student and collaborator of Giovanni Martino Spanzotti (active 1480-c. 1523). The moment shown in the nocturnal Nativity scene is when Joseph returns breathless with a midwife to the hut, and sees that Jesus has already been born.