# Birth of the Virgin [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [RENI, Guido]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Fresco ## Commentary On the inner façade above the door the multifigured scene of Mary's birth is painted. It is a visual and iconographic counterpart to the altarpiece, the Annunciation, an oil painting by Reni. The picture is structured into foreground, middle distance, and background. The dominant impression is one of bustling familiarity in the women's chamber. The influence of <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/d/durer/2/12/5virgin/04\_life.html'\)" href="/html/d/durer/2/12/5virgin/04\_life.html">Dürer's woodcut</a> is apparent inn the layout of the picture and the design of St Anne's bed in the background. However, borrowings from <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/g/ghirland/domenico/6tornab/61tornab/2birth.html'\)" href="/html/g/ghirland/domenico/6tornab/61tornab/2birth.html">Ghirlandaio's Mary cycle</a> are also apparent. The size of the individual figures lends the event a certain solemnity; the women exhibit an ideal monumentality that is indebted to Raphael. ## Related artworks - [Adam]() - [Angel of the Annunciation]() - [Annunciation to Joachim]() - [Atalanta and Hippomenes]() - [Atalanta and Hippomenes]() - [Aurora]() - [Aurora]() - [Baptism of Christ]() - [Birth of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Cleopatra]() - [Cleopatra with the Asp]() - [Crucifixion of St Peter]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()