The Nativity (da Fabriano)

The Gospel of Luke places Christ's birth in a stable at night (Luke 2:1-20). Gentile da Fabriano sets it in a deep blue dark scattered with stars: the Virgin kneels over the naked Child, who lies on the ground and radiates his own golden light across the straw and his mother's face, while Joseph dozes, the ox and ass lean from the cave, and on the far hill an angel breaks the sky open to startled shepherds. From the predella of his Adoration of the Magi, it is among the earliest paintings lit entirely by light from within the scene - here, the glow of the newborn himself.