This webpage links to infants’ cradles from artwork and from extant examples.
Re-creations of medieval cradles have been produced by Geoffrey Bourrette (another photo) and House Brandenburg.
See also the Crib of the Infant Jesus.
- Marginal drawings of Henry III (fol. 90r) and Prince Edmund (fol. 138r) as babies in cradles, Historia Anglorum (Brit. Lib. Royal 14 C VII), 1250-1259
- Zodiac: the lion, Georgius Zothorus’ Liber astrologiae (BNF Latin 7330, fol. 16v), second quarter of the 13th century
- Bathsheba gives birth to a son, The Maciejowski Bible (PML M.638, fol. 42v), c. 1250
- Birth of the Virgin, Psalter (BNF Smith-Lesouëf 21, fol. 13v), end of the 13th century
- Doll-cradle, 14th century
- Fol. 190r, the Maastricht Hours (Brit. Lib. Stowe 17), 1st quarter of the 14th century
- The birth of Thomas Becket (fol. 290r) and Nicholas of Myra (fol. 314v), the Queen Mary Psalter (British Library MS Royal 2 B VII, fol. 290), c. 1310-1320
- The fable of the excessively pious man and the mongoose (here and here), Kalila va Dimna (BNF Latin 8504, fol. 110v), 1313
- A mother ape holds her baby next to a cradle, psalter (Douce 6, fol. 87v), c. 1320-1330
- Miracles of St. Louis, from the Life of St. Louis (BNF Fr. 5716), c. 1330-1340:
Jehennet de Fresnay (fol. 436),
Mabilete de Fontenay (fol. 534),
Jehennet (fol. 573), and
Amile de Saint-Mathieu (fol. 595)
- The birth of Alexander, Romance of Alexander (Bodley 264, fol. 2v), c. 1338-44
- St. Ambroise and the bees, The Golden Legend (BNF Fr. 241, fol. 98), 1348
- Testing the legitimacy of a child, Concordantiae caritatis (Lilienfeld Stiftsbibliothek 151, fol. 126v), c. 1349-1351
- A woman carries a child in a cradle on her shoulders, Voeux du paon (PML G.24, fol. 10r), c. 1350
- Virgin and Child with Cradle, ivory carved in Upper Rhineland c. 1350-1400
- Clerics and concubines point at an infant in a cradle, Omne Bonum (British Library Royal 6 E VI, fol. 296v), c. 1360-1375
- Anne rocks Mary's cradle in a book of hours (The Hague, KB, 76 F 21, fol. 13r), c. 1400-1410
- Nativity, book of hours (Canon. Liturg. 75, fol. 62r), beginning of the 15th century
- The infant Hercules strangles the serpents sent by Juno, Consolation de philosophie (Toulouse 822, fol. 69r), first half of the 15th century
- The Birth of Mary (ÖNB 1844, fol. 252r), 1409
- A lily in a cradle, marking the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin in a small illustrated physician’s almanac (Brit. Lib. Harley 2332, fol. 9v), 1411-1412
- Detail from The Nativity, fresco at the Church of St. Bartholomew at Senicno pri Golniku, Slovenia, 15th century
- Detail from The Nativity on an altarpiece at the Cloister of St. Klara at Freising, c. 1430-1435
- An inn in the Decameron (BNF Arsenal 5070, fol. 337r), 1432
- The Birth of Mary, Speculum Humanae Salvationis (BNE B. 19, fol. 6v), c. 1420-1440
- An infant sleeps in a cradle, The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (PML M.917, fol. 53r), c. 1440
- The miracle of St. Ambrosius by Fra Filippo Lippi, c. 1441-1447
- A mother in bed with seven children in a cradle, the Talbot Shrewsbury book (British Library Royal 15 E VI, fol. 273r), 1444-1445
- The Flood, The City of God (BNF Fr. 28, fol. 66v), third quarter of the 15th century
- The Birth of Mary, Breviary of Ulrich von Sonnenberg (ÖNB 2585, fol. 342r), c. 1450-1475
- The Birth of Mary in an antiphonary (ÖNB Mus. Hs. 15490, fol. 64r), c. 1455-1465
- Hercules strangles the serpents, History of Troy (BNF Fr. 59, fol. 102v), second half of the 15th century
- Melusine nurses Thierry and Raimonnet, Melusine (BNF Fr. 24383, fol. 30), second half of the 15th century
- St. Zosimas, Speculum historiale (BNF Fr. 51, fol. 197v), 1463
- Moses' infancy, Weltchronik (ÖNB 2823, fol. 83r), 1463
- Detail from The Birth of Mary, the Schottenaltar, c. 1469-1480
- Ban de Benoic leaves Trebe, Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 112(1), fol. 1), c. 1470
- Somme Rural (BNF Fr. 202), 1471; family trees in fols. 9r and 15v
- July in the Book of Hours of Louis de Laval (BNF Latin 920, fol. 11), c. 1475
- Detail from The Dance of Death fresco at Metnitz, 15th century
- Apes tend a cradle, Livre des symples medichinos, autrement dit Arboriste (BNF Fr. 9136, fol. 1r), c. 1480
- Allegory of death, De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 9140, fol. 102v), 1480
- St. Augustinus and St. Ambrosius by Michael Pacher, c. 1480-1482
- The birth of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia from the Church of St. Agidius in Bardejov, Slovakia, c. 1480-1500
- The Birth of Mary by Nicolaus Alexander Mair
- Border, Antiquities of the Jews (BNF 12, fol. 199), fourth quarter of the 15th century
- The seven ages of man in the Liber de proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 218, fol. 95), fourth quarter of the 15th century
- The English leave Bayeux, The Vigils of Charles VII (BNF Fr. 5054, fol. 195v), 1484
- Detail from The Birth of Mary, c. 1490-1495
- The epileptic infant, Life and Miracles of Saint Louis (BNF Fr. 2829, fol. 115), end of the 15th century
- Hercules strangles the serpents, History of Troy (BNF 252, fol. 73), 15th-16th century
- Detail from The Birth of Mary from the altarpiece of the Church of St. Gumbertus at Ansbach, c. 1490-1510
- Detail from The Birth of Mary, c. 1495-1505
- Detail from The Birth of St. Nicholas from the altarpiece of the Church of St. Nicholas at Presov, Slovakia, c. 1495-1505
- The birth of Matthias Schwartz in 1497, from the Schwartz Trachtenbuch, 16th century
- Bas-de-page on fols. 72v and 141v, the Book of Hours of the Ango Family (BNF NAL 392), 1500
- A child in a cradle, book of hours (Douce 276, fol. 110b recto), beginning of the 16th century
- The Birth of Mary by Marx Reichlich, c. 1501-1505
- The Birth of the Virgin by Juan de Borgoña, 1509-1511
- Detail from St. Ambrosius by Andre Haller, c. 1510-1515
- Detail from The Birth of Mary from the altarpiece at St. Leonhard im Laventtal, 1513
- The healing of the child bitten by a sow, 1513
- Domestic life, first half of the 16th century
- The Birth of Mary from Dom Mariae Heimsuchung in Augsburg, c. 1515-1525
- Detail from The Birth of Mary from the Candlemass Church in Schönbach, c. 1515-1525
- Detail from the healing of the paralyzed woman; detail from the revival of the two dead children; from an Austrian altarpiece of the miracles of Mary, c. 1518-1522
- Detail from The Birth of Mary, c. 1520
- The Birth of Mary, from the altarpiece of the Church of St. Peter in Friesach, 1525
- A child in a cradle, book of hours (Douce 135, fol. 88r), second quarter of the 16th century
- Rural scene by Marten van Cleve, 1527
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne at the Cradle by Albrecht Altdorfer
- Perspectival Drawing of a Cradle by Peter Flötner
- Birth of St. John the Baptist, the Hours of Eleonora Ippolita Gonzaga (Douce 29, fol. 23v), c. 1530-1538
- The Holy Family, c. 1545-1555
- The fable of the excessively pious man and the mongoose, Anvâr-i Suhaylî (BNF Supplment persan 921, fol. 182v), Iran, 1547
- The Infant Christ in the Cradle, Surrounded by Saints by Andrea Schiavone
- Cradle, Italy, c. 1570
- The birth of the Antichrist, Oracula (Barocci 170, fol. 25v), 1577
- Cradle probably made in 16th century Lombardy
- Miniature (dollhouse) cradles, 17th century
- Sewing mother with two boys and a cradle by Adriaen van Gaesbeeck, c. 1645
- The Visit to the Nursery by Gabriel Metsu, 1661
- The Mother by Pieter de Hooch, c. 1661-1663
The Met also has a few 17th century cradles, including 06.960 and 10.125.672.
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