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A mosaic in the Chiesa delle Martorana in Palermo, Sicily, figures the Nativity, as described in the apocryphal Evangels, as taking place in a cave near Bethlehem. In the upper portion of the mosaic, with the angels, are two male figures, presumably St. John the Baptist and Simeon, who was not to die until he had seen the Christ. The Virgin is shown holding the child in the crib or manger, by which stand a horse and cow. St. Joseph is seen below, and, as was often the case, a subsequent scene is depicted showing the bathing of the child. The child in the crib has the binder arranged crosswise, as is seen in most representations dating from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, evidently the fashion of those days. The child on the nurse's lap could have a congenital dislocation of the hip with the position in outward rotation

One of Italy's architects and sculptors, Giovanni Pisano (about 1250 to 1330), who left a marked impress on that country's ecclesiastical buildings, did a number of church sculptures, including the famous pulpit in the cathedral at Pisa. It figures the birth of Jesus and the annunciation to the shepherds. The longer one looks at it, the more it intrigues the imagination. It contains, as do so many works of the period, two infants. One of these lies swaddled in the manger, and the two animals are regarding their visitor with mild surprise. The other child is about to be bathed in a stone basin of antique mold into which water is being poured from a finely wrought urn. The woman who is acting as nurse holds the infant on her right arm, while with her left hand she tests the temperature of the water.