Adoration of the Child
Bramantino, 1485
The painting presents the Christ Child receiving the adoration of several kneeling figures: Bernardino of Siena, recognisable by his grey Franciscan habit; Francis of Assisi, bearing the stigmata; Benedict of Nursia, in a black Benedictine habit; and the Virgin Mary. Behind them, a group of angel musicians stands on a column base. At the far edges stand the emperor Augustus and a sibyl, in poses derived from the Pothos sculpture, while a Roman arch in the background alludes to a passage in the Golden Legend (1.40). There, a sibyl tells Augustus that his Temple of Peace in Rome would collapse the day a virgin gave birth. Bringing pagan and Christian worlds together, the scene places the Nativity at its centre. Executed in tempera and oil, the work is held in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan and is regarded as an early testimony to Bramantino, a painter who also made his name as an architect.
- Painter
- Bramantino
- Date
- 1485
- Dimensions
- 86 × 85 cm
- Museum
- Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- boy, Mary, woman, Christ Child
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