Oil on canvas, 186cm by 237cm.
The painting was purchased by John, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700), on one of his four Grand Tours and is listed in the 1688 Burghley Inventory which records: ‘The North dineing roome…a Night peice ye Nativity done by Sgr Liberi.’
The artist was the son of the painter Pietro Liberi (1605-1687), with whom he trained and whose style he closely copied, producing cabinet paintings of mythological, allegorical and religious subjects.
They both worked mainly in Venice and the Veneto.
