The Nativity 1490

Gerard David painted 'The Nativity' sometime in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century in Bruges, now part of Belgium. Works such as this were often commissioned by wealthy patrons, to demonstrate piety, or perhaps to improve their social standing. Notice how the setting of the holy birth is distinctly Northern European. The artist paints a familiar brick building rather than a middle-eastern cave. In the background is a well-kept Flemish town. This helps to show how the divine is manifested in the everyday. In paintings like this, artists and their patrons were reflecting a changing society in which the traditional social order of feudalism was giving way to something new. Commerce and trade were expanding, cities were growing, and a new merchant class was rising. The political and economic institutions of the middle ages were being challenged by this new reality. To understand this work fully, it is helpful to investigate both religious history and the economic structures of the time. By looking at the painting through this lens, we can better understand its role in society.