The Nativity

Giuseppe Fiocco recognised the hand of the Udinese artist Pellegrino da San Daniele in this picture in 1942 (according to a label on the reverse). The angular features of the head of Saint Joseph are reminiscent of the type of Northern art that would have been known to the artist through the prints of engravers such as Schngauer, and are closely comparable to Pellegrino's Holy Family in the Muse des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg (see M. Lucco, 'Un'Aggiunta a Pellegrino da San Daniele', Paragone, XXVII, no. 317-9, July-September 1976, pp. 63-68, fig. 59). Furthermore, the diminutive scale of the head of the Christ Child is characteristic of the artist's depictions of the Christ Child. The extensive, sparsely vegetated, landscape and the stylised treatment of the drapery are comparable to those in the series of four Saints in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (nos. 37.508 A-D; ibid., figs. 56 a-b, 57 a-b).