Lorenzo Costa, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds with Angels', about 1499

The Adoration of the Shepherds with Angels

Lorenzo Costa

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This extraordinary painting is a unique depiction of the Adoration of the Shepherds. The Virgin Mary, Joseph and two shepherds cluster round the infant Christ; the ox and the donkey peer out of the darkness behind them. They are not, however, in a stable in Bethlehem, but gathered in front of a verdant grotto. Two trumpeting angels stand on the rocky outcrops while a host of angels overhead hold the instruments of the Passion (Christ’s torture and crucifixion). The scene is flanked by nine choirs of angels on clouds, who play drums, tambourines, portable organs, lyres and pipes.

This painting was probably made at the very end of the fifteenth century, a date which might help explain its meaning. It was commonly believed that the year 1500 – one and a half thousand years after the birth of Christ – would be marked by some kind of divine intervention in the world, an idea which might have been behind this very unusual painting.

In-depth

This extraordinary painting is a unique depiction of the Adoration of the Shepherds. The Virgin Mary, Joseph and two shepherds cluster round the infant Christ, who lies naked on a cloth spread over grass; the ox and the donkey peer out of the darkness behind them. They are not, however, in a stable in Bethlehem, but gathered in front of a verdant grotto. The shepherds have no gifts, and there are no flocks of sheep or angelic messengers in the background. Instead, two trumpeting angels stand on rocky outcrops.

A host of angels overhead hold the instruments of the Passion – among them the Cross, the sponge on a spear, the ladder, pincers and column – explicitly linking Christ’s birth with his eventual crucifixion. Angels with instruments of the Passion were sometimes included in Ferrarese paintings of the Adoration, but there are none quite like this. Even more exceptional is the angelic orchestra that flanks the scene. Nine groups of angels on clouds play instruments ranging from drums and tambourines to portable organs, lyres and pipes. Although musical angels appear in a number of Ferrarese paintings (like The Holy Family with Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and The Holy Family with Saints John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Zacharias and (?)Francis), this imagery is unparalleled.

According to medieval Christian theologians, angels were organised in a hierarchy of nine orders – sometimes known as choirs – from cherubim and seraphim at the top to archangels and ordinary angels at the bottom. Some artists, such as Francesco Botticini in The Assumption of the Virgin, tried to illustrate all the different types. But there were simpler schemes, more like the one in this picture. A lost fourteenth-century fresco in the hospice of S. Giacomo al Colosseo in Rome is framed by choirs of musical angels, and a similar arrangement is found in an illumination of Christ in Majesty attributed to Andrea da Bologna in the Missal of Cardinal Bertrand de Dreux (Vatican Library, Rome). Perhaps the patron of this picture asked Lorenzo Costa to follow such a model.

This painting was probably made at the very end of the fifteenth century; the closest stylistic comparison is Costa’s 1499 predella of the Adoration of the Kings (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). Such a date might help explain its meaning. It was commonly believed that the year 1500 – one and a half thousand years after the birth of Christ – would be marked by some kind of divine intervention in the world. This idea, which also prompted the creation of Botticelli’s ‘Mystic Nativity’, might have been behind this very unusual painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Adoration of the Shepherds with the Nine Choirs of Angels
Artist: Lorenzo Costa
Artist dates: 1460 - 1535
Date made: about 1499
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 52.4 × 37.5 cm
Acquisition credit: Layard Bequest, 1916
Inventory number: NG3105
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Sir Austen Henry Layard

Provenance

The painting is listed in the manuscript catalogue, dated 1835, of the collection of Giovan Battista Costabili in Ferrara (no. 92, as is recorded on the label on the reverse of the panel). According to the same catalogue, the picture was ‘in casa’, most likely meaning that it was in the collection of Giovan Battista’s uncle, Francesco Containi.

In 1866, together with another 21 pictures, the painting was purchased by Sir Austen Henry Layard from Giovan Battista’s great-nephew, Giovanni Costabili (1815–1882). From 1869 to 1871 the Adoration was lent to the South Kensington Museum with other paintings from Layard’s collection. In 1907 the picture is recorded at Ca’ Capello, Lady Layard’s residence in Venice. In 1916 it entered the National Gallery collection with the Layard bequest.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Giorgia Mancini and Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 3, ‘Bologna and Ferrara’, London 2016; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1838

C. Laderchi, Descrizione della quadreria Costabili, 4 parts, Ferrara 1838
1888

A. Venturi, 'Lorenzo Costa', Archivio storico dell'arte, I/7, 1888, pp. 241-56
1896

G. Frizzoni, 'La Galerie Layard', Gazette des beaux-arts, II, 1896, pp. 455-76
1907

B. Berenson, North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1907
1912

A. Venturi, 'La formazione della Galleria Layard a Venezia', L'arte, XV, 1912, pp. 449-62
1934

R. Longhi, Officina ferrarese, Rome 1934
1962

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian), London 1962
1967

R. Varese, Lorenzo Costa, Milan 1967
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1977

C.M. Brown, Lorenzo Costa, Ann Arbor 1977
1977

L. Benini, 'Descrizione della quadreria Costabili', Musei ferraresi: bollettino annuale, VII, 1977, pp. 79-96
1977

P. Tosetti, 'Lorenzo Costa', University of Padua: Annals of the Faculty of Arts and Philiosophy, II, 1977
1985

P. Tosetti Grandi, 'Lorenzo Costa miniatore', in La miniatura italiana tra Gotico e Rinascimento: Atti del II Congresso di Storia della Miniatura Italiana, Cortona 24-26 September 1982, Florence 1985, pp. 329-53
1985

M. Lucco, 'La Cultura figurativa padana al tempo del Codice Hammer', in Leonardo: Il Codice Hammer e la Mappa di Imole presentati da Carlo Pedretti: Arte e scienza a Bologna in Emilia e Romagna nel primo Cinquecento, Florence 1985, pp. 143-54
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1990

A. Ugolini, 'Rivedendo la Collezione Costabili di Ferrara', Paragone, XLI/489, 1990, pp. 50‑76
1993

M. Lennon, 'Morelli and the Layard Collection: Influence as Intellectual Exchange', in G. Agosti (ed.), Giovanni Morelli e la Cultura dei Conoscitori: Atti del Convegno Internazionale, June 1987, Bergamo 1993, pp. 242-52
1995

A. Ballarin, Dosso Dossi: La pittura a Ferrara negli anni del Ducato di Alfonso I, Padua 1995
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2016

Mancini, Giorgia, and Nicholas Penny, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 3, Bologna and Ferrara, London 2016

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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A Concert

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With this painting, Costa invented a type of image that would become very popular in northern Italy, particularly Venice, in the sixteenth century. The band of singers is engrossed in the camaraderie of their music; as she sings, the young woman keeps time by tapping her fingers against the marbl...

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The man in this portrait appears to have just turned away from the darkness surrounding him to take a look at us. His lips are slightly parted as though he might speak.An inscription on the back of the panel names him as Battista Fiera, doctor at the court of Mantua as well as a poet, though we c...

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Saint John the Baptist

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Saint John the Baptist sits on a stone ledge, his attribute of a reed cross leaning against his shoulder. John was a hermit and prophet who lived in the wilderness, baptising people in the river Jordan and preaching repentance of sins. The scroll in his right hand bears a Latin inscription: ECCE...

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Saint John the Evangelist

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Saint John the Evangelist is seated on a stone ledge. He holds a very fine quill in his right hand, while the other rests on a blank scroll which curls over his knee. He turns to look up over his shoulder towards a heavenly light, as if ready to take dictation from on high. Saint John was one of...

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Saint Peter

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This balding, grey-bearded saint can be identified as Saint Peter by the keys which he rests on his thigh and supports with his right hand. These are the keys to the kingdom of heaven, which Christ gave Peter as a symbol of his spiritual power. The keys themselves are unusually slender and elonga...

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Saint Philip

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A bearded Saint Philip stands in a landscape, immersed in a book. A slender cross rests against his shoulder, with another cross attached to it where Christ’s crucified body would have been hung, a reference to Philip’s martyrdom (he was crucified upside down).This painting was originally part of...

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The High Altarpiece from San Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza

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These five paintings were once part of a large multi-panel altarpiece, or polyptych, made for the high altar of the Oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. It was originally topped by a horizontal panel, now lost, showing the dead Christ supported by angels.Although the altarpiece has been disme...

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The Virgin and Child enthroned with Angels

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This painting of the Virgin and Child enthroned was once the central element of a large multi-panelled altarpiece made for the oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. In it, heaven and earth mingle. The Virgin is depicted as Queen of Heaven, although she has no crown: behind her is a green silk...

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The Virgin and Child with Saints

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The Virgin Mary and Christ Child are seated on a marble throne, which is elevated by two plinths decorated with biblical scenes. Below them stand two saints, Saint John the Baptist and probably Saint George in armour.A number of changes suggest that the altarpiece was painted in more than one sta...

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You've viewed 6 of 9 works

Lorenzo Costa, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds with Angels', about 1499

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Lorenzo Costa