UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish
(active around 1500-1510 in Bruges)

Nativity

1500-05
Oil on oak panel with integrated frame, diameter 27,7 cm
Sint-Janshospitaal, Damme

This little work is a copy of Memling's Nativity in Cologne (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) turned into a tondo. Both the composition and the colour scheme correspond. Joseph is wearing a red cape and Mary a dark blue one (which has now almost turned black) with a white garment underneath. This suggests that the prototype was still to be seen in or around Bruges. A few smaller details have been altered: the donkey is turning towards its manger on the right and the Virgin has a round aureole and a dark border to the neckline of her garment. Both these last details point to the early sixteenth century.