The Adoration of the Shepherds

probably 1520/1540

Adriaen Isenbrant

Artist, Netherlandish, active 1510 - 1551

Adriaen Isenbrant

Attributed to

A young woman and older man accompanied by two winged angels kneel to gaze at a tiny infant lying on an overturned basket in this vertical painting. They and the five men standing or kneeling to each side all have pale skin. The woman, Mary, is on our left and leans forward with her hands stretched out toward the infant. Her long, honey-blond hair is covered with a pleated white cloth, and she wears a marine-blue gown over a garment with garnet-red sleeves. The older man, Joseph, kneels opposite her. He has a gray beard and hair and wears a charcoal-gray cloak over a scarlet-red robe. The nude infant, Jesus, lies on the basket between them next to a bundle of wheat. The angels are about half the size of Mary and Joseph and kneel just beyond Jesus. They both have blond hair and wings striped in shades of carnation pink, canary yellow, and celestial blue. The angel on our left wears an olive-green robe, and the other wears a white robe shaded with arctic blue. Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the angels gather on a worn, tiled stone floor outside the ruins of a building with an exposed interior. Ornamented bronze and rose-pink panels are set into pillars and over openings. Ivy grows along the upper edges of the partially ruined walls, and small tree branches sprout on the roof. An owl and another bird perch on the remains of a wood roof tucked behind the first structure. An ox and a donkey are tucked into a back corner of the building below. Three men dressed in burgundy and black enter the ruins from the left. One wears a soft black hat and holds a musical instrument to his lips. Two more men kneel beyond Joseph on the right, and one wears pea green with a rose-pink cape. The background beyond the building and people is filled with a green and blue landscape scattered with buildings and tiny people walking and dancing around a fire.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 39


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 74.6 x 57 cm (29 3/8 x 22 7/16 in.)
    framed: 93.3 x 74.9 cm (36 3/4 x 29 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1978.46.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Kleinberger Gallery, Paris). (Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam, by June 1936). (Rudolf Heinemann, New York, by 1937-January 1975). (Feilchenfeldt, Zurich);[1] purchased 1978 by NGA.
[1] Information on the provenance was provided by Walter M. Feilchenfeldt and Mrs. Rudolf Heinemann. See NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1924

  • Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols. 1924-1937. Leiden, 1937: 14: 125. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1974: 11:102, Suppl. 309, pl. 202.)

1978

  • Erwing, Dan. "The Paintings and Drawings of Jan de Beer." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1978: 1:78, 160; 2:fig. 94.

1983

  • Wilson, Jean. "Adriaen Isenbrant Reconsidered: The Making and Marketing of Art in Sixteenth-Century Bruges." Ph.D. diss., The Johns Hopkins University (1983):20-28, 191-192, pl. 17.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 158, no. 174, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 210, repro.

1986

  • Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 118-122, repro. 119.

Inscriptions

center right at base of ornament on the square column at right: NSI (the 'S' in reverse)

Wikidata ID

Q20175532


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