Adoration of the Child
Gentile da Fabriano, 1420
In this small panel, Gentile da Fabriano blends two iconographic traditions: the Nativity and the Madonna of Humility, a devotional type in which Mary sits on the grass adoring the newborn Child. The Virgin occupies the foreground, while the background shows the hut with the donkey and the ox, Joseph asleep to emphasize his marginal role in the birth, and, further back, the annunciation to the shepherds. The painting is generally dated to around 1420–1421, falling between a brief stay by the artist in his hometown, Fabriano, and his move to Florence the following summer. The female faces recall those in the Adoration of the Magi, and copies by local followers in the Marche and Dalmatia suggest the work may have been in the Adriatic area at some point, though this is uncertain. Gentile's care for detail is evident in the grass of the foreground and the patterned sheet covering the Child. Embroidered inscriptions on Mary's cloak, drawn from the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, reinforce the devotional character of the scene.
- Painter
- Gentile da Fabriano
- Date
- 1420
- Medium
- gold, tempera, panel
- Dimensions
- 72 × 43 cm
- Museum
- J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- boy, Mary, woman, mother, Christ Child
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