Comparing the Portinari Altarpiece and Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds
Lillian Smith
February, 2021
Comparing the Portinari Altarpiece and Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds
Many famous, religious artworks were created during the Renaissance era; one in particular was a Nativity scene painted by Hugo van der Goes (b. Belgium/Flemish painter, c. 1440—1482), called the Portinari Altarpiece (c. 1478) (Stokstad and Cothren:594). This wood panel triptych stood at an exceptional 99-1/2“ tall and 55-1/2“ across. Tommaso Portinari, who was the head of the Medici Bank in Bruges, Belgium, had commissioned this tempera and oil painting from Hugo. In 1483, this piece was sent off to Florence and placed in Portinari’s family chapel, where it would have an impact on Florentine painters.
One of the artists who was influenced by Hugo’s Nativity scene was Domenico di Tommaso Bigordi (b. Italy/Italian Renaissance painter, c. 1449—1494), or more famously known as “Garland Maker,” “Ghirlandaio” (Stokstad and Cothren:632). In circa 1485, just two years after the Flemish painting was installed in Florence, he emulated the Portinari Altarpiece, creating the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, which stood at a comparatively smaller size of 65-3/4”x 65-3/4” and was painted with tempera or distemper on a wood panel (“Domenico Ghirlandaio,” Wikipedia; Kren and Marx). Both the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds and the Portinari Altarpiece are similar in concept, but they have their differences as well.
The main scene in the Portinari Altarpiece (on the center panel) focuses on the Christ Child, lying just off center on the ground before a humbly kneeling Mary, who is garbed in a flowing, deep blue dress, and is situated outside of a lowly stable where the ox and donkey are kept (Stokstad and Cothren:594). Off to the right kneel three shepherds who have rushed in from the fields to look at the newborn King. Their agitated expressions and stances convey their wonder and reverence. They are distinctive in their life-like individual faces and expressions. On the left of the painting, wearing a vibrant, red robe, Joseph is kneeling in worship. Winged angels encompass Mary and the Lord. Each of the figures’ hands in this altarpiece are held together as if in prayer, emphasized to show the emotion of this scene. This gesture cleverly points everyone’s hands in a circular direction to lead the viewer’s eye throughout the piece and to the center of the painting, where Jesus is resting.
In Art History, Stokstad and Cothren write that in the Portinari Altarpiece, “Tommaso, his wife Maria Baroncelli, and their three oldest children are portrayed kneeling in prayer on the side panels of the wing interiors” (594). Joined by the Portinari family are their name Saints, also on their knees before the Christ Child. There are additional scenes taking place in the background of each wing as well, with the left panel showing Joseph leading a pregnant Mary down a winding hill in a winter landscape, donkey in tow, to Bethlehem where they will take part in the census. And the right panel is showing a scene which occurs after the birth, where three Magi are asking for directions to the stable to lay eyes on and honor baby Jesus.
In Ghirlandaio’s adaptation, there is a similarity with Christ being the focal point, now positioned at the bottom center of the composition. Again in a circular composition, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds on bended knees surround him alongside the stable animals. “The shepherd to the right of the manger is pointing to the baby, showing that the Christ Child is the most important feature of the painting. In addition, the Virgin Mary and the other shepherds are gazing directly at the baby Jesus, supporting that the focus is on him” (Bennett). It is the grouped presence of the three shepherds, also coming in from the right, that most clearly reflects the influence from Hugo. However, these shepherds are more “restrained” than those of Hugo, reflecting the Italian Renaissance preference for visual balance. The scene differs in setting, as it has more pronounced references to Rome. Instead of just one reference, the Corinthian column seen in the Portinari Altarpiece, the stable is a roof supported by classical Roman pilasters (Stokstad and Cothren:632-633). The baby Jesus is lying on the ground in front of an “ancient sarcophagus with an inscription that promises resurrection” (632-633). The inscription refers to a prophecy that a god would be born while Pompey fought in Jerusalem (Kren and Marx). Pompey was a Roman general involved in Judean politics just before the birth of Jesus (“Pompey,” Wikipedia). There is also a road in the distance—being walked upon by travelling Magi on their way to the stable to see Jesus—which is framed by a Roman-style arch with an engraving referencing Pompey the Great, In the late half of the fifteenth century, classical elements such as these were common features in Florentine Renaissance paintings (Boundless).
Something else in Ghirlandaio’s artwork that differs to Hugo’s are the angels. In the Portinari Altarpiece, there are many angels—painted hierarchically smaller than the other figures—who are shown glorifying the Lord, either bowing on the ground or flying in the air with their hands raised in delight. They imply motion, which suggests excitement. The Flemish artists tended toward more expressionism. In Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, however, there is only one angel, who is flying in the background beyond the arch above shepherds tending their sheep. In Hugo’s altarpiece, there is a similar scene on the right wing, where an angel is flying above a shepherd and startling him. Understandably so at such a sight!
When Hugo and Ghirlandaio painted their compositions, the oil paint medium was new to fifteenth-century Italian artists but already was a preferred choice for Flemish artists (Stokstad and Cothren:585). This medium is slow drying, allowing for soft blending, easily made changes and luminous colors. When thin layers of oil paint (glazes), are painted on top of each other, “Light striking a surface built up of glazes penetrates to the lower layers and is reflected back, creating the appearance of an interior glow…. and enabled artists to capture jewel-like colors and the varying effects of light on changing textures” (Stokstad and Cothren: 585). These luminous effects are especially noticeable in the rich red clothing in Hugo’s painting and the blending allowed for the realism in the shepherd’s faces. Ghirlandaio did not create the same glowing color in clothing (the ingredients for oil paint may not have been understood) but he tried to match the naturalism of the rendering of Hugo’s figures.
The figures in these artworks are fairly naturalistic, as the chiaroscuro in their faces, hands, and robes helps to give more dimension to the artwork (“Adoration”). Other elements utilized to create depth are atmospheric perspective and a type of intuitive linear perspective; in both pieces, the landscapes in the distance aren’t as bright and detailed as they are in the foreground, and the roads going into the background lead the eye to a vanishing point. Fifteenth-century Flemish artists created depth with an intuitive perspective system that diminished the scale of objects as they went up the image, and “In the portrayal of landscapes—which became a northern specialty—artists used atmospheric perspective in which distant elements appear increasingly indistinct and less colorful” (Stokstad and Cothren:577). Fifteenth-century Flemish painters developed approaches to linear and aerial perspective at the same time as the Italians: “Such techniques permitted an extremely naturalistic representation of the world, saturated with spiritual symbols” (Flemish Painting).
When it comes to iconography, both the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds and the Portinari Altarpiece have hidden religious symbols to uncover, especially in the foreground of each scene. In the center panel of Hugo’s triptych, a wheatsheaf is lying on the ground, referring “both to the location of the event at Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means ‘house of bread,’ and to the Eucharistic Host, which represents the body of Christ” (Stokstad and Cothren:594). The wheatsheaf lies in front of a pot decorated with a vine and grape motif, representing the blood of Christ. Reddish-orange lily flowers are poised in this pot and symbolize blood and crucifixion. Along with the lilies are white and purple irises; the white standing for Mary’s purity, and the purple for Christ’s ancestry from King David. In the glass vase to its right are blue columbine flowers, representing Mary’s future sorrows. Lastly are the violets on the ground, which represent humility. The placement of these flowers, set between Mary and the angels, separates her from the holy figures.
Ghirlandaio, influenced by Hugo, incorporated one example of Hugo’s symbolic flowers into his painting; his irises, a symbol of the Passion, no longer are in a vase, but grow from the earth in the right corner, at the feet of the shepherds (Stokstad and Cothren:632-633). He also included the wheatsheaf, which can be seen under the fabric on which baby Jesus is lying. The iconography in artworks of the fifteenth century is a substantial feature of Renaissance artwork (Religious Symbolism).
In both artworks, light was used alongside the figure’s gestures and gazes to bring the viewer’s focus to Jesus and signify His divinity; Hugo showed the Christ Child’s holiness by painting rays of light on the ground around His form. “Rays of light emanate from his body” (Stokstad and Cothren:594). Whereas Ghirlandaio crowned Him with a nimbus—a sphere around the head used to represent light and signify a holy personage (Gietmann).
There’s a significance to Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds as it was “painted in a style that had not yet developed in Florence. Such a homage helps to illuminate the cultural network that was beginning to appear across the European continent” (Forbes). Hugo van der Goes was a very prominent artist, as he was a master of the Flemish style, in which the Portinari Altarpiece is a perfect example of characteristics such as: “closely observed realism and attention to detail, bright, rich colours of materials and fabrics and an elaborate religious symbolism” (Mitchell:268). These elements were also seen in Nativity and the Adoration of the Shepherds. Ghirlandaio was an incredible artist, largely because he mastered such an “eclectic style from widely disparate elements in Florentine, Flemish and Classical art” (“Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-94).”). Ghirlandaio’s rendition of the Nativity scene clearly had influence from Hugo’s painting that was newly arrived in Florence. “In his Adoration of the Shepherds, Ghirlandaio combines…reference to the Roman classical age with knowledge of Flemish art and turns them into an integrated whole” (Kren and Marx).
Works Cited
“Adoration of the Shepherds by GHIRLANDAIO, Domenico.” Web Gallery of Art, www.wga.hu/html_m/g/ghirland/domenico/5sassett/shepherd/shepher.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
Bennett, Hannah. Formal Analysis: The Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, 18 Jan. 2012, hannahbennett236.blogspot.com/2012/01/nativity-and-adoration-of-shepherds.html. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Boundless. “Boundless Art History.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/renaissance-architecture/#:~:text=15th century architecture in Florence,develop a true Renaissance architecture. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.
Bromley, David. “Religious Symbolism in Renaissance Art.” History of Symbolism in Religious Art. www.people.vcu.edu/~djbromle/art-symbolism/student-projects-2001/Religious-Symbolism-renaissance-gruden.html#:~:text=Religious symbolism is the most,of these forms of iconography. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.
“Domenico Ghirlandaio.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 30 Jan. 2021. https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Ghirlandaio. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.
“Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-94).” Art Encyclopedia. www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/domenico-ghirlandaio.htm. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.
“Flemish Painting.” Artehistoria. 2017. www.artehistoria.com/en/style/flemish-painting. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.
Forbes, Mia. “10 Things To Know About Domenico Ghirlandaio.” TheCollector, 13 Mar. 2020, www.thecollector.com/10-things-to-know-about-domenico-ghirlandaio/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
Gietmann, Gerhard. "Nimbus." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. www.newadvent.org/cathen/11080b.htm. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. “Ghirlandaio, Domenico.” Web Gallery of Art, https://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/ghirland/domenico/5sassett/shepherd/shepher.html. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
Mitchell, Rosie. “Art of The Netherlands: Painting in the Netherlands.” michelangelo.pixel-online.org/files/Manual_of_fine_arts/New%20Manual%2010%20netherlands.pdf Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.
“Pompey,” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 15 Feb. 2021. https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompey. 15 Feb. 2021.
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael W. Cothren. Art History. Vol. II 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. 2018.
