The Mystical Nativity, tempera on canvas painting by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1500
The Greek inscription at the top translates as: "This picture, at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy, I Alessandro, in the half-time after the time, painted, according to the eleventh [chapter] of Saint John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, during the release of the devil for three-and-a-half years; then he shall be bound in the twelfth [chapter] and we shall see [him buried] as in this picture". Botticelli believed himself to be living during the Tribulation, possibly due to the upheavals in Europe at the time, and was predicting Christ's Millennium as stated in Biblical text.
Size: 3798px × 5500px
Location: National Gallery, London
Photo credit: © ICP / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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