The Nativity

17th or 18th century

Pierre-Louis Cretey French, 1645 - 1721

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Title The Nativity

Artwork Date 17th or 18th century

Artist Pierre-Louis Cretey

Life Dates 1645 - 1721

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 22 7/8 × 29 1/2 inches (58.1 × 74.9 cm) Framed: 30 3/8 × 37 1/4 × 2 7/8 inches (77.2 × 94.6 × 7.3 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Gift of James E. Scripps

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 89.15

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

Hans Stanley, Lord of British Admiralty. collection of James E. Scripps [1835-1906] (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1889-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Catalogue of the Scripps Collection of Old Masters. DMA. Detroit, 1889, p. 58, no. 69 [as by Luca Giordano].

"The Scripps Old Masters," The Collector 2, no. 13 (May 1, 1891): pp. 149-152, p. 150 [as by Luca Giordano].

Scripps, James E. Handbook of the Paintings Ancient and Modern, Belonging to the Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1895, pp. 32-33, no. 59 [as by Luca Giordano].

Handbook of Paintings by the Old Masters. DMA. Detroit, 1910, p. 42, no. 59 [as by Luca Giordano].

Burroughs, C. Catalogue of paintings, sculpture and contemporary arts and crafts. DIA. Detroit, 1920, p. 27, no. 15.

Italian Painting of the Sei- and Settecento. Wadsworth Atheneum. Hartford, CT, 1930, cat. 1.

Heil, W. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, cat. 6, (repr.) [as Antonio Balestra].

Richardson, E. P., ed. DIA Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, 2nd ed., p. 8, no. 6.

Christmas Story in Art. Exh. cat., Fort Wayne Art Museum. Fort Wayne, IN, November 29 - December 28, 1953.

Paintings in the DIA: a checklist of the paintings acquired before June 1965. DIA. Detroit, 1965, p. 10.

Fredericksen, B. & F. Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. 1972, p. 14.

France In The Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings In American Collections. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago. Paris, New York, Chicago, January 29 - November 28, 1982, p. 351, no. 10, (repr. only) [reattributed to Pierre-Louis Cretey].

Chomer, G., L. Galacteros-de Boissier, and P. Rosenberg. "Pierre-Louis Cretey: le plus grand peintre lyonnais se son siecle?," Revue de l'Art, vol. 82 (1988): pp. 19-38, esp. p. 29, (fig. 25), [with attribution to Pierre-Louis Cretey].

Louis Cretey, Un visionnaire entre Lyon et Rome. Exh. cat., Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Lyon, 2010-2011, p. 92, no. 10. [exh. org. by Pierre Rosenberg and Aude Henry-Gobet].

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