The nativity
Artist - Anonymous Painter of Syuniq
Gospel, XIV - XV centures.

Plate 36. The Nativity.
The main written source used by medieval painters for this composition was the Gospel. As time went on, this scene acquired great variety of interpretations due to some motifs from folk-traditions and apocryphal sources. The Nativity by Grigor Tatevatsi (plate 15) is iconographically simple. It is a story told by the Evangelist Luke, connected with the subject of the adoration of the Magi from apocryphal sources. The miniature (plate 36) by the Anonymous Painter of Syuniq is based on a more complex iconography; it shows women bathing Christ. In the Anonymous Painter's miniature, there is a red apple in Mary's hand, the symbolic meaning of which was explained by means of local traditions in the foreword of this album.