Nativity of the Madonna, Second half of the 17th century

Emilian painter from the second half of the 17th century, ancient frame.

In an interior illuminated by a flame in the distance, an excitedly moving cherub raises a reddish curtain, thus revealing the main scene of the painting: the nativity of the Virgin Mary. Two young maids, placed on the left side of the scene, with a complicit exchange of glances, one is about to pour water into a vase with classical accents - although these are rendered with synthetic brushstrokes - the other is about to hold Mary as a child. In the background, on the right, a light source, caused by a fire beyond a threshold, partially illuminates the jamb of a door and only partially reveals the sketchy face of the female figure in the background, also intent on tidy up the environment. Even more distant, last in the compositional space, high priests  they talk under a tent and appear to be strangers to the focus of the scene.                                                                                                                                                                                The work is created with quick touches of color and presents references to Caravaggio, due to the distribution of light and the sobriety of the place. However, the observation of the clothes of the two handmaids in the foreground, their physical strength and the compositional structure would seem to point towards what was happening in the Emilian area in the late 17th century. It is therefore possible to assign the painting to an unknown Emilian exponent influenced by the stylistic features of a current that, several years ago, Ferdinando Bologna defined as "Romanized classicism".