The birth of a baby. Oil painting after (?) Lambert Sustris.

One of many pictures in the Wellcome Library showing childbirth, this composition exists in many versions, attesting its popularity. The identification of the subject as the birth of the Baptist is traditional but probably false, as his father Zachariah is not shown. The absence of haloes also seems to rule out the birth of the Virgin as the subject. The mother is being offered a bowl of gruel to build up her strength while the baby is being bathed and the swaddling clothes are warmed before the fire