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Nativity

Nativity

Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
149.8 × 126.6 cm
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.l.: J Quinn
Accession Number
98-2
Department
Australian Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented by the artist under the terms of the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship, 1901
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Gallery location
Not on display
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Relationships and Interactions Religion and Mythology
Subjects (specific)
Adoration of the Magi (New Testament narrative) births Blessed Virgin Mary (Christian character) infants Jesus Christ (Christian character) Nativity of Christ (New Testament narrative) nursing (mammal feeding) stables (animal housing)
Frame
Original, by P. Havard, Paris

Frame

This is Quinn’s travelling scholarship picture from 1901. The frame, like the French frame on Aby Altson’s The Golden Age (similarly framed in Paris and also a travelling scholarship picture (6-2), is intended to travel in sections and be easily re-assembled for display. The reduced form of the frame, amounting to a large torus with a simple articulation of the sight edge, is one that occurs regularly in the ledger of Melbourne framemaker John Thallon, in entries for works by, among others, Frederick McCubbin.

Framemaker
P. Havard

123 Boulevard du Montparnasse, Paris
Date
(1901)
Materials

The frame uses a large-format cast plaster torus of imbricated laurel leaves, attached to a wooden chassis with nails and cross-banded at the centres and corners. The torus section is cast from a complex mould with deep undercut leaf forms. The surface is gilded throughout with gold leaf, the large inner and outer cavetto burnished, the remainder matte. The leaves appear to be gilded without a bole, the remainder of the surface uses a red bole. The frame is in four sections, held together at the corners with a dovetail, tapered spline and tie-bolts.

Condition

The surface is original throughout, with some losses in the cast ornament.

Dimensions
185.5 x 160.2 x 14.0 cm; sight 148.5 x 123.5 cm