Birth of the Virgin
by GIAMBONO, Michele, Mosaic
The scene of the Birth of the Virgin is on the left side of the barrel vault. This subject matter had been very rarely represented in Venetian art up until Giambono’s time, thus the artist turned to the most extensive and best-known Virgin cycle in Venetian territory, Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. In the background and to the left, the same patient servant waits outside the birthing chamber, which has been modernized with balconies, porches, and Gothic tracery that relate both to contemporary architecture and to the complex architecture of late-fourteenth-century Paduan frescoes.