The Arrival in Bethlehem

Master of the Brussels Calling of Saint Matthew

ca. 1540–50 · Oil on wood · European Paintings

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.

Artist

Master of the Brussels Calling of Saint Matthew

Date

ca. 1540–50

Medium

Oil on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1916