Can anyone tell me who the figures in Domenico Beccafumi's "Birth of th

Question:I'm not trying to cheat, it's just I'm studying this painting in art and being atheist, I have no clue as to who the people are. I have very little religious knowldge, but I'm guessing that the baby is Mary, right?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm not trying to cheat, it's just I'm studying this painting in art and being atheist, I have no clue as to who the people are. I have very little religious knowldge, but I'm guessing that the baby is Mary, right?

It actually wouldn't help you if you had conventional Christian knowledge for this one, because the stories about the birth of the Virgin are found in the Apocrypha, not the New Testament, so this is what you need to research:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Mary
Anyway the mother is Anna or St Anne, and I presume there is a midwife, the father is given as Joachim in the Apocrypha so he may be somewhere in the background. Bear in mind too that Beccafumi was a 'mannerist' painter so some of the figures may be fantastical or allegorical.
Sorry can't be of more help.