The Mystical Nativity is a painting in oil on canvas executed c. 1500–1501 by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery in London.

[3] The Greek inscription at the top translates as: 'This picture, at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy, I, Alessandro, in the half-time after the time, painted, according to the eleventh [chapter] of Saint John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, during the release of the devil for three and a half years; then he shall be bound in the twelfth [chapter] and we shall see [him buried] as in this picture'.

[4] Botticelli believed himself to be living during the Great Tribulation, possibly due to the upheavals in Europe at the time, and was predicting Christ's millennium as stated in the Book of Revelation.

The painting uses the medieval convention of showing the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus larger both than other figures, and their surroundings; this was certainly done deliberately for effect, as earlier works by Botticelli use correct graphical perspective.

On either side of the main group an angel with an olive branch in their outstretched hand shows the child to two shepherds and three men in long gowns, perhaps the biblical Magi.

[7][8] The Mystical Nativity depicts a scene of joy and celebration, of earthly and heavenly delight, with angels dancing at the top of the painting.

And there are dark premonitions – the helpless child rests on a sheet that evokes the shroud in which his body will one day be wrapped, while the cave in which the scene is set calls to mind his tomb.

According to art historian Jonathan Nelson, "in echoing this kind of painting the Mystical Nativity is asking us to think not only of Christ's birth but of his return".

In 1494 a huge French army invaded Italy and 10,000 troops entered Florence so that the Florentines feared the King of France meant to sack the city.

In their gratitude and relief the Florentines increasingly saw the friar as a prophet and his preaching attracted huge crowds to Florence Cathedral.

His beliefs were made real as groups of evangelical youths went on to the streets to encourage people to part with their luxuries, their lewd pictures, and books, their vanities, combs, mirrors.

[10] For years Savonarola held Florence in his hand but his hard line charismatic rule made him powerful political enemies.

He drew on many sources – the dancing angels echo his own three graces of Primavera, the scurrying devil was inspired by a German woodcut.

X-rays show that very little of the original design changed – only an angel's wing was adjusted and trees added over the roof of the stable.

From the moment Botticelli's art is shown in Manchester there's a real change in opinion about his work and certainly by the late 1870s, 1880s Botticelli becomes a real cult figure – somebody the artists who aspire to be on the cutting edge of the art world are looking to...Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones both adapted elements of it for their own work.