Pictures of the Month | December 2010
Picture of the Month
December 2010
The Adoration of the Child Jesus, about 1490
Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507)
Tempera on Panel
Devotional paintings of the Virgin Mary adoring the Child were extremely popular in Florence in the latter half of the fifteenth century. It is rare, however, to see an Adoration on quite this scale and accompanied by so many saints from different periods of time. The complex iconography can be explained in part by the original location of the altarpiece, which recent research has brought to light. The painting stood in a side chapel of the Vallombrosan abbey church of Santa Trinita, Florence. This chapel was dedicated to St Benedict (about 480-547), whose rule the order followed, and who appears on the left in black. The altarpiece was painted in honour of Baldassare Gianfigliazzi, whose name saint was the second of the three Magi: Melchior, Balthazar and Caspar. Visually linked by their red garments, they here offer gifts to the Child. Gianfigliazzi family members, whose homes peppered the neighbourhood, traditionally celebrated mass in the chapel on the feast of St Francis (about 1182-1226) who, wearing a grey habit, is also seen here adoring the infant Christ. The penitent St Jerome (342-420), pictured beating his chest, was a cult figure in Florence at the time, a relic having recently been acquired by the cathedral. Finally, the Trinitarian associations in the altarpiece – with God the Father and the Holy Ghost aligned vertically with the Child - are at one with the iconographical programme of the church of Santa Trinita.
Throughout his career, Cosimo Rosselli absorbed the influences of those compatriots whose names epitomise the early renaissance style: Andrea del Verrocchio, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio, to mention but a few. Cosimo ran a thriving workshop in Florence, catering for the needs of private individuals from every stratum of society, secular confraternities and church bodies.
The Adoration of the Child Jesus is not a narrative of the Nativity, but an iconic representation. It is an invitation to contemplate the miraculous incarnation of Christ and Mary’s spotless virtue: details of the iconography and flower symbolism support this reading. Nonetheless, it is timely to admire the peace and serenity of the Holy Family and the three genuflecting Kings as Christmas and Epiphany approach.
George T. Noszlopy and Susan J. May, Birmingham City University
There will be a lecture on this painting on 15 December at 1.10pm, in the Barber Lecture Theatre. The painting will also feature in the Christmas Masterpieces gallery talk on 16 December, at 1.30pm, in this gallery.
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