Virtual Nativity - Early Nativity Scenes

“While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
Luke 2.6-7

One of the earliest examples of a Nativity scene is from circa 330 AD and can be seen on the Sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus from San Giacomo in Settimiana, Rome.

It depicts the infant wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a trough close to the ground, surrounded by an ox, an ass, two shepherds, and a tree. The scene contains several of the main components offered in a modern Nativity. In early depictions Mary is not present, only later becoming part of the Nativity scene as Christian attitudes developed her status as the human bearer of God.

The Master of Vyšší Brod (also known as the Master of Hohenfurth, from the German name for the town of Vyšší Brod) was an anonymous Bohemian painter. It seems likely that he was from Prague originally.  His name was derived from an altarpiece for the Cistercian convent of Vyšší Brod. 

In about 1350, this anonymous painter depicted ‘The Infancy of Christ’. It was originally an altar piece but may still be seen in the Convent of St Agnes, a branch of the National Gallery in Prague.