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The Arrival in Bethlehem

ca. 1540–50
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 640
This painting is unfinished. The wood support is therefore still visible. It is made of Baltic oak, which was imported to Antwerp, where the artist—a skilled landscape painter whose name is no longer known—worked. As was standard practice at the time, the wood panel was first prepared with a whitish ground, likely of chalk. An extensive preparatory drawing, or underdrawing, remains visible. Some areas are already finished with a high level of detail, for example with individual leaves completing certain trees. In other areas only initial, thin paint layers in less saturated colors, or “half-tones,” have been added.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Arrival in Bethlehem
  • Artist: Master of the Brussels Calling of Saint Matthew (Netherlandish, Antwerp, active second quarter 16th century)
  • Date: ca. 1540–50
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 26 1/2 x 36 7/8 in. (67.3 x 93.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1916
  • Object Number: 16.69
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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