Full title | The Nativity |
---|---|
Artist | Girolamo Romanino |
Artist dates | about 1484 - about 1560 |
Group | High Altarpiece, S. Alessandro, Brescia |
Date made | about 1524 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 265 x 117.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1857 |
Inventory number | NG297.1 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This is the central panel of Romanino’s high altarpiece for S. Alessandro in Brescia. The high altar was the responsibility of the Confraternity of Corpus Christi – a lay brotherhood which venerated the body of Christ – so this depiction of Christ was of central importance. It would have been placed directly above the tabernacle in which the Eucharist was kept.
The church was dedicated to Saint Alexander, whose relics were kept there, and to the Virgin Mary, mother of God, so she also has a prominent position. Her mantle is embroidered with gold fleur-de-lis ornaments, the symbol of Saint Alexander.
Mary and her husband Joseph kneel in adoration before the infant Christ. The scene is watched by the ox and donkey and by a throng of rejoicing baby angels. Two of them hold an inscribed scroll, suggesting the annunciation of Christ’s birth to the shepherds, who appear in the middle distance among their sheep.
This painting of the Nativity is the central panel of Romanino’s high altarpiece for S. Alessandro in Brescia. The church of S. Alessandro belonged to the Servite Order, who were otherwise known as the Order of Servants of Our Lady. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, mother of God, so she has a prominent position in this altarpiece.
The high altar was the responsibility of the Confraternity of Corpus Christi – a lay brotherhood which venerated the body of Christ – so the depiction of Christ before and after death is of central importance in this altarpiece, which would have been placed directly above the tabernacle in which the Eucharist was kept. There would originally have been a crowning panel above the Nativity showing the dead Christ supported by the Virgin and Saint John.
Mary and Joseph kneel in adoration before the infant Christ. He lies naked on a cloth-covered basket in the stable where he was born. They are watched by the ox and donkey traditionally included in scenes of the Nativity, and by a throng of rejoicing baby angels who cavort in the clouds in the upper part of the panel. Two of them hold an inscribed scroll, suggesting the annunciation of Christ’s birth to the shepherds, who appear lying on the ground in the middle distance among their sheep.
Much of the paint in the clouds was applied with fingers and palm, the impressions of which are clearly visible. Many features of the landscape in the Nativity are painted wet in wet and the impasto (thickly applied paint) in many areas shows Romanino to have been a bold experimenter with oil paint.
The blue of the Saint Joseph’s robe and the Virgin’s mantle has darkened due to the deterioration of the pigment smalt. Her mantle is embroidered with widely spaced ornaments in gold thread, incorporating a central fleur-de-lis. The fleur-de-lis is the symbol of Saint Alexander, after whom the church was named because his relics were kept there. Although embroidered mantles like this appear in fourteenth-century paintings and may have been worn then as part of fashionable dress, by the sixteenth century they were usually only worn as part of ecclesiastical dress. Several of Romanino’s works, both altarpieces and smaller paintings, depict the Virgin wearing an embroidered mantle of this type. They can also be found in the work of other painters of the period, for example the mantle embroidered with strawberry plants worn by the Virgin in Lorenzo di Sanseverino’s altarpiece The Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena.
An altarpiece of the Adoration of the Shepherds attributed to Francesco Prata in S. Michele a Bedulita, north east of Bergamo, repeats the holy family, the animals and four of the angels from Romanino’s central Nativity panel. It is likely that Prata made tracings or measured drawings of Romanino’s work. He may have made the copy at the insistence of a patron, which suggests the high esteem in which Romanino’s altarpiece was held. Prata’s Adoration is not dated but another Nativity by Callisto Piazza, also derived from Romanino’s composition, is inscribed 1524.
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High Altarpiece, S. Alessandro, Brescia
Romanino made this painting for the high altar of Sant' Alessandro in Brescia. It may have been commissioned by the Confraternity of Corpus Christi – a lay brotherhood which venerated the body of Christ – who were responsible for the high altar.
The central panel shows the Nativity, with Mary and Joseph kneeling before the infant Christ. On either side, panels depict Saint Alexander (lower left) and Saint Jerome (lower right). Above them are Saint Gaudioso (upper left) and Saint Filippo Benizzi (upper right.)
The painting originally had a crowning panel of the dead Saviour supported by the Virgin and Saint John. It also had large canvas shutters to protect it – The Annunciation was painted on the outside of the shutters, and on the inside was The Adoration of the Magi. The elaborate frame of the altarpiece, made by the woodcarver Stefano Lamberti, which would have formed a fundamental part of it, is now missing.
Romanino made this painting for the high altar of S. Alessandro in Brescia, which served as a parish church although it was attached to a Servite convent. It may have been commissioned by the Confraternity of Corpus Christi – a lay brotherhood which venerated the body of Christ – who were then responsible for the high altar. On the altar was a wooden tabernacle which must have been directly below Christ in the painting. The Eucharist (the bread and wine believed by Catholics to transform into the body and blood of Christ) would have been kept in the tabernacle.
There was almost always more than one saint or mystery to be venerated in a high altarpiece, and this type of multi-panel painting, known as a polyptych, was well suited to the purpose. However by the 1520s, when this picture was painted, ‘unified’ altarpieces with all the figures on a single panel or canvas were more common in the artistic centres of Florence and Venice, and this format was a little old-fashioned. However it was still popular in the provinces – one of the other two high altarpieces made by Romanino for Brescia was a polyptych.
The central panel shows the Nativity, with Mary and Joseph kneeling before the infant Christ. The presence of the angels with a scroll suggests the annunciation of Christ’s birth to the shepherds, who appear in the landscape to the right. On either side, panels depict Saint Alexander (lower left) and paintings:ng297_3|[] (lower right). Above them are Saint Gaudioso (upper left) and Saint Filippo Benizzi (upper right). Romanino blends and layers his long expressive brushstrokes in the clouds and landscape to create a very distinctive, painterly style, which brings the surface of his canvas alive with movement.
The painting originally had a crowning panel, which was described in 1700 as depicting three half-length figures of ‘the dead Saviour supported by the Virgin and Saint John.’ It is very likely to be the panel by Romanino of that subject, which was photographed in a private collection in Florence but is now untraced. The altarpiece also originally had large canvas shutters to protect it – The Annunciation was painted in glue size on the outside of the shutters, and on the inside was The Adoration of the Magi. These may be the two damaged glue size paintings of these subjects by Romanino now in SS. Nazaro and Celso in Brescia.
The altarpiece was probably completed in 1525. The main panel must have been painted at least in part by 1524 as Romanino’s associate Callisto Piazza painted a polyptych showing the Nativity with Saints (private collection) which was influenced by it and dated to that year.
The frame, which would have formed a fundamental part of this altarpiece, is now missing. It was usual at the time for the frame to be commissioned to the patron’s specifications before the painting. The work on the frame for Romanino’s altarpiece was begun by the woodcarver Stefano Lamberti almost a decade before the painting. Lamberti was one of the most celebrated woodcarvers of his day and was almost certainly a more celebrated artist than Romanino. Lamberti’s elaborate altarpiece frames have freestanding columns with every surface carved with brittle, pierced, applied ornament of fantastic variety, involving grotesques, tendrils, trophies and geometric tracery. The frame design for this altarpiece is unknown, but it is likely that the central panel of the Nativity was displayed lower than the flanking panels so that the horizon continued across all three paintings.





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