Full title | The Adoration of the Shepherds |
---|---|
Artist | Ercole de' Roberti |
Artist dates | active 1479; died 1496 |
Group | The Este Diptych |
Date made | about 1490 |
Medium and support | Tempera on wood |
Dimensions | 17.8 x 13.5 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1894 |
Inventory number | NG1411.1 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This small panel is painted in fine detail, resembling a precious painted miniature or illuminated manuscript. It formed the left side of a diptych (a work of two parts) joined with a central hinge; the other side showed The Dead Christ. Joseph, the Virgin Mary and a shepherd in torn clothes pray before the infant Christ. He lies naked in a manger in front of an elaborate wooden structure that looks more like a temple or church than a stable. Although it is made of humble materials, its design reflects the ideas of the eminent local architect, Alberti, whose church architecture incorporated features of ancient Roman architecture. This cultural reference would not have been lost upon the diptych’s owner Eleonora of Aragon, Duchess of Ferrara. Eleonora focused her prayer upon the body of Christ and its place in the Mass, when Catholics believed that the bread and wine of the Eucharist became Christ’s body and blood. The focus here upon Christ’s naked body was appropriate for her private prayer.
This is the left hand panel of a diptych, a painting made up of two panels, joined with a hinge so that it could be opened and closed like a book. The right-hand panel shows the The Dead Christ. It was made for the Duchess of ferrara, Eleonora of Aragon.
The Virgin Mary and Joseph kneel to worship the Christ Child, who lies naked in a manger. Next to Mary, a shepherd in ragged, torn clothes follows suit bending his knee in prayer. In the landscape beyond we see what called him to the stable: three small, shadow-like figures look up at an angelic figure surrounded by light. This is the annunciation to the shepherds (Luke 2: 8-20) when the angel of the Lord appeared and told them to visit Christ who had just been born at Bethlehem. The stable looks like a temple or church, but its materials are humble: a structure of wooden beams is filled in with flexible young branches, woven together to create a lattice for the walls and for the manger which is being used as a crib. An ass leans his neck out to grasp for straw from the manger where the infant Christ lies; an ox with a golden coat turns his back on the Child, his imposing hindquarters dominating the middle of the scene.
Ercole has chosen to show the annunciation and adoration of the shepherds rather than that of the wise men which occurs in the Gospel of Matthew. He has taken care to paint the figures in simple clothes: Mary’s halo is modest, a faint series of sketchy gilded semi-circles, and the shepherd’s hose is torn at the knees and sags around his ankle. The grandeur of the stable’s architecture, with its classical style triangular pediments and supporting columns fixed in stone bases, is based on the ideas of the fifteenth-century architect Alberti. Alberti’s designs for churches, derived from ancient temples, were current at the time in the nearby city of Mantua. The contrast of cheap and rustic materials and grand architectural design is a reminder of the significance of the Christ Child’s birth in this rural setting and poor family. The message reflects Christ’s teachings on the importance and spiritual power of humility. The shepherd’s ragged clothing and the basket-weave style walls also feature in an Adoration scene by Mantegna painted for the Este family several decades earlier (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); it seems that the grand dukes and duchesses enjoyed such quaint details. The unpretentious simplicity of the painted scene would have contrasted with the exterior of the diptych, which was covered with velvet and gilded silver ornament fitting for a ducal family.
Christ’s body is not swaddled or covered but displayed stretched out and naked. This emphasis on his flesh reflects the Duchess’s particular devotion to the Corpus Christi (‘the body of Christ’) and refers to the institution of the Eucharist, the rite at which Christians remember and give thanks for the death and resurrection of Christ by eating bread and drinking wine; Catholics believe these miraculously transform into his body and blood. Christ’s naked body in this scene which celebrates his birth is mirrored in the diptych’s other panel, which focuses upon his body after his death. The point is reinforced by the angle of the crib, which matches that of the tomb. When the diptych was folded together, they would have met in the middle.
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The Adoration of the Shepherds
The Este Diptych
The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Dead Christ were originally joined with hinges to form a diptych – an object made up of two painted panels – that could open and close, creating a visual prayer book. It probably belonged to Eleonora of Aragon, Duchess of Ferrara. An inventory of her possessions records just such a work, covered in cherry-red velvet; traces of red velvet remain on the back of these two pictures. The images portray the beginning and end of Christ’s life but the focus is on his body.
Eleonora was particularly devoted to the Corpus Christi (‘the body of Christ’). She played a prominent role in the annual feast that celebrated the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, when Christ instructed his disciples to drink wine and eat bread in commemoration of his blood and body. She was closely connected to a religious group that focused their prayer upon the Corpus Christi and was buried in their church in Ferrara.
The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Dead Christ were originally joined together by a central hinge to create a diptych. It is very likely that this diptych was made for Eleonora of Aragon, duchess of the northern Italian city of Ferrara. Ercole de‘ Roberti was the official court painter at Ferrara and at the time that this work was made he was busy painting murals for the Castello Vecchio in Ferrara. A list of Eleonora’s possessions, drawn up in 1493, records that she owned a diptych showing the birth and death of Christ which could be opened and closed like a book. Traces of red velvet remain on the back of the panels, and according to the inventory the diptych was covered with cherry-red velvet as well as gilded silver ornaments, now lost.
The diptych was a precious object as well as an object for religious contemplation. Its external beauty would have made it a suitable object for a duchess to take with her when travelling or to keep open on a table in her private room. The small scale of the panels, the size of a paperback book, reflect the fashion in courtly circles for miniature painting – highly valued for the skill required to paint detail on such a small scale.
The images within the diptych reflected Eleonora’s religious concerns. Jesus is shown at the very beginning of his life on one side and after his death on the other. In both scenes he is naked and the focus of the images is his body. Eleonora’s personal prayer centred on the Corpus Christi (’the body of Christ' in Latin) which was the celebration of Jesus’s institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. This was when he asked his disciples to remember him after his death by eating bread and drinking wine: his body and his blood. In Catholic tradition the bread and wine consumed at the Eucharist transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Eleonora was closely connected to a religious group, the confraternity of the Corpus Christi, and she was buried in their church in Ferrara. She also took a high-profile role at the annual procession that celebrated the Corpus Christi. Eleonora owned many pictures that depicted Christ’s life and Passion and her private collection included works by Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini and Ercole.


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