When you hear the name Sandro Botticelli, you might be more likely to think of the Birth of Venus than the Birth of Jesus. But since it’s Christmas, now is a better time than ever to call attention to a lesser-known and somewhat ominous Botticelli painting depicting the latter. “Mystic Nativity” (1500), now held at the National Gallery in London, is the only work Botticelli ever signed. It re-emerged in the 1800s after centuries of obscurity, revealing a complex composition rife with symbolism.
A cursory glance depicts an ordinary Christmas image. The Virgin Mary and Joseph dote over infant Jesus in his manger beneath the roof of an open-air wooden hut with their ox and donkey. Twelve angels circle above at the opening of the dome of heaven, and shepherds and the three kings eagerly observe and offer their prayers to the young family.
But Botticelli’s painted inscription above the floating angels yields a cryptic, foreboding message in Biblical Greek: “I, Sandro, made this picture at the conclusion of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy in the half time after the time according to the 11th chapter of Saint John in the second woe of the Apocalypse during the loosing of the devil for three and a half years then he will be chained in the 12th chapter and we shall see […] as in this picture.”
The “troubles of Italy” likely acknowledge the upheaval of Florence during the spiritual and de facto reign of Girolamo Savonarola, a fanatical preacher who aimed to morally reform the city with a global reputation for artistic output and lavish lifestyles. Savonarola condemned secular art and literature, decried the city as a corrupt and vice-ridden place bloated with material wealth, and, after warning of a great scourge approaching, saved the Florentines by convincing the French king and military to de-occupy and recede during the Italian War of 1494–98. He became regarded as prophetic, and thousands of Florentines would flock to listen to him preach. In one sermon, he purported that Florence could become the new Jerusalem if its civilians would part with and burn their luxuries, opulent fineries, and pagan or secular iconographies.
Under Savonarola’s influence, Botticelli reoriented his practice from decorative to devout, which in turn inspired “Mystic Nativity.” Scholars discovered that the 12 angels at the base of the composition each hold a ribbon that was once inscribed with the 12 privileges or virtues of the Virgin Mary, sourced from a separate sermon Savonarola delivered about a vision he once experienced.
The painting itself is rife with subtle premonitions: The sheet infant Jesus rests on evokes the shroud he would be wrapped in after his crucifixion, the mark of the cross is depicted on the hump of the donkey’s back, and the wooden hut he was born in sits in front of a cave where he would eventually be laid to rest in before his resurrection. Also noteworthy is Botticelli’s decision to include three angels embracing mortal men in the foreground — a motif usually relegated to renditions of the Last Judgment in accordance with the Second Coming of Christ.
Another unusual aspect is that the three kings welcome Jesus empty-handed, rather than with gold, frankincense, and myrrh — perhaps influenced by Savonarola’s sermon, though it could be argued that the ultimate gifts are their prayers and devotion. Throughout the lower half of the painting, seven miniature devils flee into the fissures and crevices in their return to the underworld, with some impaling themselves on their own spears.
Botticelli died in 1510, a decade after he created the painting, and both the work and the artist faded into obscurity despite his prominence and high regard during the Italian Renaissance. “Mystic Nativity” was snapped up at a low price by an English collector and Caribbean plantation owner named William Young Ottley in Rome during the 18th century. He brought the piece back to his home for private display in central London until his death, and the painting was auctioned off for less than £80 to another collector who loaned the work to the city of Manchester for the largest art show in the United Kingdom in 1857, where it was at last seen by millions and reignited a fervor for Botticelli.
The National Gallery in London bought “Mystic Nativity” for £1,500 in 1878. The museum holds 14 of Botticelli’s paintings in its collections, and “Mystic Nativity” is on display alongside four other Botticelli works in a gallery devoted to Florentine art under the Medici family.
