The Art of the Nativity: From Ancient Rome to the Renaissance

Event information

November 16, 2024
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Location
The Frick Art Museum Auditorium
Cost:
$10 members; $15 non-members; $5 students
Description:

Join Kahren Jones Arbitman, Ph.D., for this one-hour lecture exploring depictions of the nativity throughout history.


This lecture is the first in a two-part series. Click here to find information about the other lecture.

The Art of the Nativity: From Ancient Rome to the Renaissance

Nativity scenes depicting the events surrounding Christ’s birth have been envisioned in different ways by artists across the centuries. The results, sometimes profound, sometimes ridiculous, can raise a lot of questions for modern viewers. Why, for example, in Netherlandish paintings do artists place a skinny Christ-child on the ground with only a few bits of straw for comfort? Why is the nativity sometimes shown in a stable and other times in a cave? And why is Joseph always shown as older and unhappy?

a renaissance nativity painting by giovanni paolo

Giovanni di Paolo, Italian, circa 1398, Nativity, circa 1450, tempera on panel, 17 3/4 x 23 3/4 in. Frick Art & Historical Center.
 

Join Kahren Jones Arbitman, Ph.D., for this one-hour lecture, the first in a two-part series, which will answer these questions while exploring some of western art’s greatest masterpieces. Each is a stand-alone lecture – you do not need to hear one to appreciate the other.

Dr. Arbitman received both an MA and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pittsburgh with a specialization in seventeenth-century Dutch art, more specifically, Rembrandt. After serving as the first curator-in-charge of The Frick Art Museum in 1985, she went on to become the director of the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University and the Executive Director of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Florida.

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