Adoration of the Shepherds, Giorgione, oil on panel, 36 x 43 inches (91 x 110 cm), in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, DC.
The briliant Venetian painter Giorgione, who was likely Titian’s teacher, studied for a time with Giovanni Bellini. You can see the influence, and fascination with landscape, evident in Bellini’s Saint Francis in Ecstasy (top image from my post on Bellini).
As in that painting, Giorgione provides a monumental rock face within which is a cave. As in Bellini’s painting, and similar paintings of the time, almost everything, has a symbolic meaning, particularly plants. The trees and shrubs are botanically identifiable, and are prominent components of the composition. The plant on the rock above the cave entrance is of particular interest, given its position above the holy family. I’m not sure, but I think it may be mistletoe, which has significance in relation to Mary.
The landscape is detailed and extends back past a town to the mountains beyond. Like many Renaissance landscapes, the distance is shifted into blues by atmospheric perspective, but even the farthest reaches of the middleground is not.
Giorgione sets his scene in the day, in contrast to many paintings of the subject, in which the event is persented at night, allowing for the supernatural glow of light from the child. In this case it is the cherubs hovering the scene that emit an unearthly light.
Here, the infant is uncharacteristically placed on the ground, half on swaddling and half on Mary’s robe (undoubtedly painted with true lapis lazuli based Ultramarine Blue). There is a beautiful harmony to the colors and values of the figures and their attire, with delicate handling and subtle value relationships.
One of the most beautiful depictions of this often painted scene in the history of art.
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