Luca Signorelli, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds', about 1496

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Luca Signorelli

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The focus of this large altarpiece is the tiny infant Christ – he lies on the ground, his head supported by a small cushion. His mother, the Virgin Mary, kneels behind him, surrounded by angels. Also gathered in worship are Mary’s husband Joseph and, to the left, four shepherds.

Drawing was an important part of Signorelli’s artistic process and he planned his paintings with careful preparatory studies. A study for the group of shepherds (British Museum, London) is covered with a grid, probably to help the artist copy it to scale for the painting.

In-depth

The shepherds appear only in the Gospel of Luke, which describes how they saw a vision of the angel of the Lord who told them the news of Christ’s birth. Signorelli has depicted this event on the hillside to the left of the picture. Under the natural rock arch on the right, a man wearing a wreath plays the bagpipes. He is probably a shepherd too: they were traditionally shown seated on the ground playing the instrument (see The Angel appearing to Saint Joachim for another example).

In the background, immediately behind the angels, a group of people gather in an open structure that resembles a Roman temple, with columns and a pediment. If you look closely, you‘ll see a row of figures behind a bench who seem to be scribbling notes. This is probably a reference to the opening verses of Luke’s nativity story, which describes how Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, had ordered all citizens of the Roman Empire to enrol in a census for taxation (Luke 2: 1–5). The scene is rare in images of the Nativity, but it was the motivation for Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem, where Christ was born.

Vasari describes how Signorelli made this painting ’with love and design‘. Design (’disegno‘) was a crucial aspect of Renaissance painting in central Italy, where painters were more concerned with drawing than with colouring. The underdrawing of paintings was often very detailed, and there were many preliminary drawings. Signorelli’s study for the group of shepherds is at the British Museum. It is covered with a grid, probably to help him copy it to scale for the painting; specks of green paint on the paper suggest that he had it close to hand as he was painting.

The semicircle of adoring figures is carefully arranged to draw our attention to Christ; you can follow the standing shepherd’s gaze down his staff to the face of the second kneeling shepherd, who is looking towards the infant. Signorelli trained with Piero della Francesca whose interest in mathematics and geometry is reflected in this careful arrangement of the figures. He has also paid attention to detail – the delicately painted flowers in the foreground include a clump of wild strawberries, symbolising the fruitful and righteous life of Christ.

Signorelli has signed his name on the building where the census is taking place: LVCE . DE CORTONA. P.[ICTORIS] O.[PUS], (’work of Luca of Cortona, painter').

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Adoration of the Shepherds
Artist: Luca Signorelli
Artist dates: about 1440/50 - 1523
Date made: about 1496
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 215 × 170.2 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1882
Inventory number: NG1133
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Probably from S. Francesco at Città di Castello. The S. Francesco altarpiece may have been ordered by a member of the Tiberti family, but by 1541 the altar where it hung seems to have belonged to the Biccheri; the chapel may have been the one formerly containing the relics of the B. Giacomo (which were later transferred to another chapel). The church of S. Francesco was remodelled between 1707 and 1727, and Signorelli’s picture was apparently removed to a position over the main door of the church and then to the refectory, where it apparently remained until the Napoleonic suppression of the convent. No. 1133 is first certainly recorded in 1826 at Città di Castello in the collection of Giacomo Mancini, who in 1832 himself said that it is the S. Francesco picture. There is secondhand verbal evidence that, on the suppression of S. Francesco, the picture from there was sold to a priest Manfucci, that Can. Giulio Mancini persuaded Manfucci that the sale had been illegitimate, and when the picture had been handed back acquired it for himself, after which it is assumed that the picture passed from Can. Giulio Mancini to Giacomo Mancini; there may in any case have been some peculiar circumstances attending the acquisition by Giacomo Mancini, since among his frequent references to the picture only one apparently gives a clue to the provenance. No. 1133 remained for some decades in the Mancini Collection at Città di Castello; acquired thence by Bardini, from whom purchased, Lewis Fund, 1882.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1627

A. Conti, Fiori vaghi delle vite de' santi, e beati delle chiese e reliquie della Citta di Castello, Città di Castello 1627
1726

A. Certini, Origine delle chiese e monisteri di Città di Castello, Città di Castello 1726
1775

Città di Castello, Archivio Seminarile, MS 66: Andreocci, Memorie delle chiese conventi e monasteri… de Città di Castello, 1775
1832

G. Mancini, Istruzione storico-pittorica per visitare le chiese e palazzi di Città di Castello, Perugia 1832
1850

G. Milanesi, 'Commentario alla Vita di Luca Signorelli', in G. Vasari, Le Vite de più Eccellenti Architetti, Pittor e Scultore, Florence 1850, vol. 4, pp. 136-58
1856

London, National Gallery Archive, NG22/11: Charles Eastlake, Eastlake Notebook, 1856, vol. 2, fol. 13 v.
1864

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy: From the Second to the Sixteenth Century, 3 vols, London 1864
1872

M. Guardabassi, Indice-guida dei monumenti pagani e cristiani riguardanti l'istoria e l'arte esistenti nella provincia dell'Umbria, Perugia 1872
1878

G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
1879

R. Vischer, Luca Signorelli und die italienische Renaissance: Eine kunsthistorische Monographie, Leipzig 1879
1893

Burlington Fine Arts Club, The Work of Luca Signorelli and His School, London 1893
1897

G. Magherini-Graziani, L'arte a città di Castello, Città di Castello 1897
1899

M. Cruttwell, Luca Signorelli, London 1899
1901

A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
1901

H.F. Cook, 'Notizie d'Inghilterra', L'arte, IV, 1901
1903

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
1903

G. Mancini, Vita di Luca Signorelli, Florence 1903
1909

M.W. Brockwell, The National Gallery: Lewis Bequest, London 1909
1910

G. Lafenestre, 'Review: M. W. Brockwell: The National Gallery, Lewis Bequest, London, 1909', L'arte, 1910
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1925

A. Fanfani, 'La Nativita di N. S. di Luca Signorelli', Polimnia, II, 1925
1927

L. Düssler, Signorelli, Klassiker der Kunst 34, Berlin 1927
1930

W. Bode, Mein Leben, Berlin 1930
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1950

A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, London 1950
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1953

M. Salmi, Luca Signorelli, Novara 1953
1956

M. Salmi, Luca Signorelli, Novara 1956
1960

G. Morelli, Italienische Malerie der Renaissance: Im Briefwechsel von Giovanni Morelli und Jean Paul Richter, 1876-1891, ed. I.A. Richter, Baden Baden 1960
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1961

C. Rosini, Città di Castello: Guida estetica, Città di Castello 1961
1964

A. Ascani, Trilogia francescana, Città di Castello 1964
1964

P. Scarpellini, Luca Signorelli, Milan 1964
1966

M. Lenzini Moriondo, Signorelli, Florence 1966
1966

G. Vasari, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori, eds R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, 6 vols, Florence 1966
1968

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, revised edn, 3 vols, London 1968
1980

E. Carli, Le storie di San Benedetto a Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Milan 1980
1983

P. Scarpellini and F.F. Mancini (eds), Pittura in Umbria tra il 1480 e il 1540: Premesse e sviluppi nei tempi di Perugino e Raffaello, Milan 1983
1983

A. Marabottini, Raffaello giovane e Città di Castello (exh. cat. Pinacoteca Comunale, 1983), Città di Castello 1983
1985

C.T. Dowd, 'The Travel Diary of Otto Mündler', The Walpole Society, LI, 1985
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1990

A. Paolucci, Luca Signorelli, Florence 1990
1995

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 1995
1995

C. Van Cleave, Luca Signorelli as a Draughtsman, Phd Thesis, Oxford University 1995
1996

T. Henry, The Career of Luca Signorelli in the 1490s, Phd Thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art 1996
1998

T. Henry, Signorelli in British Collections (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 11 November 1998 - 31 January 1999), London 1998
2001

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

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

More works by Luca Signorelli

(Showing 6 of 8 works)

Coriolanus persuaded by his Family to spare Rome

Luca Signorelli

This picture, painted in fresco (directly onto wet plaster), was part of a series of eight which decorated the walls of the palace belonging to Pandolfo Petrucci, the ruler of Siena. He commissioned the frescoes to celebrate the marriage of his son to Pope Pius III’s niece. Two others survive in...

Not on display

Man on a Ladder

Luca Signorelli

This fragment of a larger painting shows an elderly man on a precarious descent down a ladder. His grip is obstructed by a pair of pincers, which he has used to extract the nails which secured Christ to the Cross. Signorelli was noted in his time for his skill at depicting the human body in a var...

Not on display

Predella: Esther, and Life of Saint Jerome

Luca Signorelli

This long rectangular panel was made as a predella, the lowest tier of an altarpiece, and was commissioned by the Company of Saint Jerome for their church in Arezzo. The main panel, now in the Museo Civico, Arezzo, shows the Virgin Mary with symbols that refer to the doctrine of the Immaculate Co...

Not on display

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Luca Signorelli

The Virgin Mary kneels and bows her head before the newborn Christ, while her husband Joseph sits behind her on a low rock. Three shepherds bow in worship to the left. Despite its small scale, the painting demonstrates Signorelli’s immense skill at drawing the human body in complex poses, coverin...

Not on display

The Circumcision

Luca Signorelli

Following Jewish tradition, Christ was circumcised when he was eight days old (Luke 2: 21). Seated on his mother’s lap, Christ reaches out to the mohel, the man who will perform the surgery, who holds a fine blade. The vibrantly coloured marble floor tiles are designed to attract the viewer’s att...

Not on display

The Holy Family

Luca Signorelli

The Virgin Mary holds her clothing out the way as Christ leans towards her to breastfeed, and Saint Joseph dotes upon him. By using a plain dark background and a tightly cropped close-up view, Signorelli invites us to share in this intimate moment.Signorelli was well known for his ability to pain...

Not on display

The Triumph of Chastity: Love Disarmed and Bound

Luca Signorelli

This picture, painted in fresco (directly onto wet plaster) was part of the decoration of a room in the palace of the ruling Petrucci family of Siena. Two others survive in the National Gallery’s collection.Love – the naked youth with multi-coloured wings – is chased, captured and finally bound b...

Not on display

The Virgin and Child with Saints

Luca Signorelli

This large painting of the Virgin Mary surrounded by saints was part of an altarpiece. It was made for a chapel dedicated to Saint Christina of Bolsena in the church of San Francesco in Montone, in the Italian region of Umbria.A large stone hangs from a rope looped round Christina’s neck, as a r...

Not on display

You've viewed 6 of 8 works

Luca Signorelli, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds', about 1496

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Luca Signorelli