At the time of the birth of Christ, newly-born babies were washed and wrapped in swaddling clothes, the status of the child being indicated by the splendour and expense of the cloth. Poor people used broad strips of common cloth to swathe the child. Although swaddling clothes are often shown as being of one colour, in this triptych Daddi shows the Christ Child in red and white striped swaddling, a possible reminder to the viewer of the strips of cloth from which it is composed and thus the Holy Family's poverty. The red stripes can also be seen to prefigure the blood shed at Christ's crucifixion, and the white strips as a symbol of his purity. Other striped examples include the red and white swaddling in Taddeo Gaddi's Adoration of the Magi (fig.1), and the blue and white swaddling in the Madonna and Child attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti (fig.2).
Swaddling clothes are also viewed as an attribute of the Incarnation, for they envelop the Christ Child as a symbol of his humanity. In real life the baby's arms were swathed in the cloth to prevent the infant from injuring itself. However, in the triptych, only the lower part of the infant is swaddled, allowing the Christ Child to bless the magus with his hand.
