Keywords: Byzantine - Nativity - Walters 71305.jpg Set against the silhouette of a mountain the Virgin rests beside the manger with the swaddled Christ Child Three angels emerge from behind the mountain one of whom announces the birth of Christ to the standing shepherd on the left In the foreground the infant receives his first bath while the seated Joseph watches the scene The motif of Christ receiving his first bath is characteristic of Byzantine images of the Nativity and rarely appears in western European art century 10 Medieval ivory cm 13 5 12 3 1 accession number 71 305 24998 Count Girolamo Possenti Fabriano before 1876 by purchase Sale Florence April 1 1880 no 24 Count Gregoire Stroganoff Grigorii Sergeevich Stroganov Rome before 1900 by purchase his cat 115 2 Henri Daguerre Paris by purchase Henry Walters city Baltimore Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters 1930 Early Christian and Byzantine Art Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore 1947 place of origin Constantinople present-day Istanbul Turkey Walters Art Museum license Byzantine ivory in the Walters Art Museum Decorative and applied arts of Byzantine Empire Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review Stroganoff collection of Western art |