Desco da parto (Masaccio)

This painting, also commonly known as The Berlin Tondo, is a desco da parto, or birth tray, painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Masaccio. Stylistic analysis shows similarities with his San Giovenale Triptych, an early work of the painter from 1422, and the birth tray is dated a short time after it at around 1423. With the frame around it, the tondo has a diameter of 66 cm.

Nativity
Artist	Masaccio
Year	c. 1427–1428
Medium	Tempera on wood
Dimensions	56 cm diameter (22 in)
Location	Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The upper side of the tray shows an actual birth of a child that takes place on the ground floor of a contemporary home, a palazzo of white and black marble typical for Tuscan architecture, with round arches on corinthian columns seaming the courtyard, where the banners attached to the fanfares inform us that the event takes place in Florence: a red lily on white ground. Three dames and two nuns in the arcade are just arriving, while two men on the far left bring gifts, one is holding a birth tray. For the beholder to be able to see the birth scene itself Masaccio removed a wall from the room to form a peep box like Giotto did. The mother lies exhausted in bed, four women care for her and the child already wrapped in white cloth, a coral sprig around its neck as a lucky charm.

It is considered by some art historians to be the Renaissance's first tondo - or circular work of art.^{Ref. needed} The work is 56cm in diameter and features a nativity scene on the front and a young child playing with small dog on the back.

While the birth of Jesus, and that of his mother, were very common scenes in religious art, and often used contemporary settings and costumes, actual depictions of a contemporary childbirth were very rare.[1]

Masaccio, Desco da Parto, back, c1423, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie