Birth II

The painting Nativity IIfrom the series New Content of Old Mastersdraws on motifs by the Master of the Vyšší Brod Altar. The monumental canvas is filled with a rugged landscape reminiscent of a pile of boxes, rocks, or fragmented architecture. Its surfaces are covered in layers of ornaments and muted green, blue, brown, and golden tones. Scattered among them are animals: goats, sheep, a donkey, and an ox. Some look out of the frame, others huddle together or appear to be waiting for something. The birth itself remains unseen. The sacred story unfolds in absence, in the empty center between its interspecies witnesses. Perhaps the old painting has fallen apart; perhaps it is only just reassembling, looking for a place where something new might be born.