The Nativity and the Infancy

The stable, the shepherds, the magi and the flight into Egypt — and the Madonna and Child that grew out of them.

The infancy cycle covers the stable, the shepherds, the three kings, the circumcision and the flight into Egypt. Out of it grew the single most repeated composition in Western art — the Madonna and Child, lifted out of the narrative and set on its own as a devotional image. That is why this group is by far the largest: it holds both the story and the icon the story produced.