Birth of the Child (detail)
Author: Unknown
Date: 15th century
Material: Polychromed wood
Dimensions (cm):
Provenance: Guimarães, Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira
Inventory No.: Without number
Reproduction of an image depicting the Birth of the Child Jesus, included in the painting that decorates the beams of the ceiling of the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira.
On the roof beams of the church there are paintings, which may be coeval with the reform of the temple ordered by Dom João I, after the victory at the Battle of Aljubarrota. Painted with tempera, several scenes and decoration with religious representations, hunting episodes, war, dances, bestiaries, heraldry, etc. are kept there. They are considered to be the oldest testimony of painting on wood in the history of Portuguese art.