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The tempera paintings representing the Nativity and Christ Tied to the Column and Pietà (inv. no. 69/129) were probably part of the same set dedicated to the Passion, executed at the beginning of the 15th century for a convent in Toledo. Its function was probably that of the principal image of a chapel, or even a drape covering an altarpiece or painting, used during specific religious feasts.

In the Nativity, the painter has reinforced the figures of the devout Mary kneeling before the crib and of the Child stroking the mule's muzzle, while the figure of St Joseph, sitting to a side, balances the composition. The neutral blue background, today rather washed out, offset the figures painted in a post-Giottesque style. The painting can be situated within the school of painters from Toledo gathered around the documented presence of Italian artists between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Starnina, Simone di Francesco, Nicolao d'Antonio and Esteve Rovira, from Cyprus, are the known and documented artists who trained a group of local painters in Toledo, among whom was this Master of Horcajo, the author of the altarpiece of Horcajo de los Caballeros (today in the Conciliar Seminary of Cuenca).

The iconography of the two paintings, which refer to apparent opposites and contrast the tenderness and love of the mother with her sorrow for her dead son, was frequent in 14th century Christian Europe within the spiritualist trends of the devotio moderna. In addition, it is highly likely that these images allude to the importance of the liturgical representations of the Passion of Christ documented in Toledo from a very early date. (Matilde Miquel Juan)

Selected bibliography

• Lasterra, Crisanto de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo descriptivo : sección de arte antiguo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1969. p. 60, n° cat. 128. (Con el título La Natividad, y atribuido a HORCAJO, Maestro de).
• Villanueva Edo, A. "Medicina e Historia en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Gaceta médica de Bilbao, n° 7-8. 1978. pp. 629, 632-633, 651-657, il.
• La Navidad en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bizkaiko Aurrezki Kutxa, 1980. p. 12, lám. 4.
• Tesoros del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : pintura, 1400-1939 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, El Viso, 1989. pp. 30-31, n° cat. 1.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 15.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 15.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 15.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 17, n° cat. 6.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 17, n° cat. 6.
• Miquel Juan, Matilde. "Pintura, devoción y piedad en Toledo a principios del siglo XV = Painting, devotion and piety in Toledo in the early 15th century = Pintura, debozioa eta pietatea XV. mendearen hasierako Toledon", Buletina = Boletín = Bulletin, n° 7. 2013. pp. 49-87, 239-253.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 17.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 17.
• Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 196-197, n° cat. 108.