The Nativity (Ford Nativity)

ca. between 1420 and 1430

Donatello Italian, ca. 1386 - 1466

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

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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 (Ford Nativity)

Artwork Date ca. between 1420 and 1430

Artist Donatello

Life Dates ca. 1386 - 1466

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. Italian

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

Medium Terracotta with traces of polychromy (vermillion, malachite, azurite, lead and white) and gilding

Dimensions Unframed: 18 1/2 × 14 × 3 1/4 inches (47 × 35.6 × 8.3 cm) Framed: 32 1/2 × 19 × 3 1/4 inches (82.6 × 48.3 × 8.3 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Bequest of Eleanor Clay Ford

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. F76.92

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

1925, Luigi Grassi (Florence, Italy)

Mrs. Eleanor Clay Ford

1976-present, bequest 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

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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.

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Published References

Bode, W. von. Ghibertis Versuch, seine Tonbildwerke zu glasierern, Jarbuch der Koniglich-Preussischen Kunstammlungen 42 (1921): pp. 51- 54.

Valentiner, W.R. Italian Gothic and Early Gothic Sculptures. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1938, no. 23 (ill.).

Ragghianti, C. La mostra di scultura italiana antica a Detroit. Critica d'Arte 3 (August-December 1938): p. 173 (fig. 22).

Valentiner, W.R. Donatello and Ghiberti. Art Quarterly 3 (Spring 1940): p. 196.

Richardson, E.P. A note on the attribution of a relief of the "Nativity." The Art Quarterly 15 (1952): pp. 67-72.

Pope-Hennessy, J. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, assisted by R. Lightbown, 3 vols. London, 1964, pp. 58-59.

Bellosi, L. "Ipotesi sull'origine delle terracotte quattrocentesche." Jacopo della Quercia. 1977, pp. 165-166.

Martini in Florence. 1978, pp. 211-212

Impruneta, Italy, la civilta del cotto: Arte della terracotta nell'area Fiorentina dal XV al XX secolo. Exh. cat. 1980, p. 75, no. 39.

Pope-Hennessy, J. The Sixth Century of Ghiberti, in the Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture. New York, 1980, pp. 65-68.

Selected Renaissance Work of Art from the Permanent Collection. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1982, p. 4.

Bellosi, L. La "porta magna" di Jacopo della Quercia, La Basilica di San Petronio I. Milan, 1983, pp. 198-200.

Darr, A.P. Luca della Robbia: Madonna and Child with Six Angels. Italian Renaissance Sculpture in the time of Donatello. Detroit, 1985, pp. 104-106, (pl. 2).

Kokole, S. Contributions to the study of Renaissance Elements in the Sculptural Oeuvre of Giorgio da Sebenico, Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino 21. 1985, p. 121 (fig. 53).

Italian Renaissance Sculpture in the Time of Donatello. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts and Kimbell Art Museum. Detroit and Fort Worth, 1985, pp. 104-106, p. 49 (pl. 2).

Avery, C. "Donatello Celebrations: A major exhibition at Detroit, Fort Worth and Florence." Apollo 123, no. 287 (January 1986): p. 15 (pl. III).

Neri Lusanna, E. and L. Faedo. Il Museo Bardini: a Firenze 2. Milan, 1986, p. 244.

Bellosi, L. Donatello e il recupero della scultura in terracotta, Donatello-Studien. Munich, 1989, pp. 136, 140.

Bellosi, L. La rinascita della scultura in terracotta nel Quattrocento, Niccolo dell'Arca Seminario di Studi, Atti del Convegno [proceedings], eds. G. Agostino and L. Ciammitti. May 26-27, 1989, p. 4.

Donatello e i Suoi. Exh. cat., Cento Mostre di Firenze. Florence, cat. no. 20, pp. 128-131.

Gentilini, G. I Della Robbia: La scultura inventriata nel Rimascimento, 2 vols. Florence, 1992, p. 27.

Bellosi, L. and G. Gentilini. Una nuova Madonna in Terracotta del Giovance Donatello. Pantheon 56 (1996): pp. 20, 26, no. 12.

Bellosi, L. and G. Gentilini. Una nuova Madonna in Terracotta del Giovance Donatello. Exh. cat., Antichi Maestri, Pittori gallery. Turin, 1998, pp. 16, 22, no. 13.

A.P. Darr, P. Barnet, A. Bostrom, C. Avery, et al. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2002, 2 vols., I, cat. 51.

Franci, A. "Giuliano di Nofri Scultore Fiorentino." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florence 45, no. 3 (2001): pp. 431-468 (fig. 28).

Paolozzi Strozzi, Beatrice and Marc Bormand, eds. The Springtime of the Renaissance: Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400–60. Exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi/Musée du Louvre. Florence, 2013, pp. 430–432 (ill.).

Strehlke, Carl Brandon. Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2019, pp. 22, 61, 84, 86-87, cat. 4B (ill.).

Caglioti, Francesco, Laura Cavazzini, Aldo Galli, and Neville Rowley. “Reconsidering the Young Donatello,” Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 57 (2015): pp. 23, 29 (ill. fig. 20), 42.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

circle of Donatello, The Nativity (Ford Nativity), ca. between 1420 and 1430, terracotta with traces of polychromy (vermillion, malachite, azurite, lead and white) and gilding. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Eleanor Clay Ford, F76.92.