DOI issue:
Nr. 1-2
DOI article:Galicka, Izabella; Sygietyńska, Hanna: "Pokłon Pasterzy" Francesca Bassano
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49354#0065
Francesco Bassano's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds'
59
Francesco Bassano 's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds'
A picture depicting the nocturnal scene of the
shepherds greeting the Christ Child which reveals
features typical of the Bassano workshop, and was
discovered in 1966 during the inventorying of
historical monuments in the church at Kaski, near
Błonie, has been linked by the authoresses in
successive publications with the person of Francesco
himself. This picture, having been donated to the
church in 1946, was not acquired by the
Archdiocesan Museum in Warsaw until as late as
2002. Thorough conservation work, involving
chemical tests and technological research,
confirmed the work's authenticity. Traces of
alterations made by the author (pentimento) were
uncovered on its original layer of paint, as well as
previous and solicitously carried out conservation.
Such traces, as well as the picture's small size (93 x
72cm), gave rise to the presumption that it may have
served as an iconographic model for the five-person,
family bottega of the Bassanos. The liking for
nocturnal scenes betrayed both by Jacopo and
Francesco, the most accomplished as well as oldest of
the former's sons, was already well pronounced by
around 1575 in scenes depicting Adorations and
Annunciation to the Shepherds. In the Adoration,
researchers' interest had been drawn for years by the
background scene appearing in some of the nocturnes
where a man is walking up the household stairs,
illuminating the figure of a young woman in the
doorway with a candle held in his hand and pointing
with his left hand to the Nativity scene. This detail
has been defined as sacro spostato; i.e. as failing to
cohere with the sacred subject matter. It appears,
among other scenes, in the picture of the Ringling
Museum in Sarasota (Florida), a work by Francesco,
in a drawing from the Bassano workshop belonging to
the Louvre, as well as the picture discovered in
Poland.
The similarity of the Madonna's face as depicted
in Jacopo's picture of 1576 (Municipal Museum in
Bassano), the sketches of both Jacopo and
Francesco, as well as the picture from Kaski is proof
that in each case the same model was used. This fact
permits an approximate dating of the latter painting's
creation to the years 1576-8; i.e. from the moment
the nocturnes were begun by father and son to
Francesco's moving with his newly-wed bride,
Giustina Como to Venice, where they settled
permanently. The picture also may be acknowledged
as a family memento connected with the departing
from the family (bottega) of its most talented and
beloved son.
The scene on the stairs, being devoid of any
references to the Gospel or Old Testament, is of a
secular nature par excellence. The couple meeting
on the stairs may be identified as Francesco and
Giustina, whose thirty-year-old husband indicates
significance of the divine-cum-human aspect of the
Nativity. Such an interpretation of the enigmatic
scene makes it even more likely that the painter was
Francesco Bassano.
Translated by Peter Martyn
Illustrations
1. Francesco Bassano, The Adoration of the Shep-
herds, Archdiocesan Museum, Warsaw
2. Francesco Bassano, The Adoration of the Shep-
herds, detail in pentimento, Archdiocesan Museum,
Warsaw
3. Jacopo Bassano, The Adoration of the Shepherds,
Rome, Galleria Corsini
4. Francesco Bassano, The Adoration of the Shep-
herds, Little Rock, Arkansas Arts Center
5. Francesco Bassano, Birth, Sarasota, Ringling
Museum of Art
6. Bassanos' Workshop, Drawing: The Adoration of
the Shepherds, Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 5291
7. Francesco Bassano, Study of the Madonna's
head, drawing from the Witt collection, Courtauld
Institute Galleries, London
8. Jacopo Bassano, St. Roch presenting the Ma-
donna with the podesta of Sante Moro, Municipal
Museum in Bassano
9. The Madonna's head, a detail of the painting from
Kaski, prior to restoration
59
Francesco Bassano 's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds'
A picture depicting the nocturnal scene of the
shepherds greeting the Christ Child which reveals
features typical of the Bassano workshop, and was
discovered in 1966 during the inventorying of
historical monuments in the church at Kaski, near
Błonie, has been linked by the authoresses in
successive publications with the person of Francesco
himself. This picture, having been donated to the
church in 1946, was not acquired by the
Archdiocesan Museum in Warsaw until as late as
2002. Thorough conservation work, involving
chemical tests and technological research,
confirmed the work's authenticity. Traces of
alterations made by the author (pentimento) were
uncovered on its original layer of paint, as well as
previous and solicitously carried out conservation.
Such traces, as well as the picture's small size (93 x
72cm), gave rise to the presumption that it may have
served as an iconographic model for the five-person,
family bottega of the Bassanos. The liking for
nocturnal scenes betrayed both by Jacopo and
Francesco, the most accomplished as well as oldest of
the former's sons, was already well pronounced by
around 1575 in scenes depicting Adorations and
Annunciation to the Shepherds. In the Adoration,
researchers' interest had been drawn for years by the
background scene appearing in some of the nocturnes
where a man is walking up the household stairs,
illuminating the figure of a young woman in the
doorway with a candle held in his hand and pointing
with his left hand to the Nativity scene. This detail
has been defined as sacro spostato; i.e. as failing to
cohere with the sacred subject matter. It appears,
among other scenes, in the picture of the Ringling
Museum in Sarasota (Florida), a work by Francesco,
in a drawing from the Bassano workshop belonging to
the Louvre, as well as the picture discovered in
Poland.
The similarity of the Madonna's face as depicted
in Jacopo's picture of 1576 (Municipal Museum in
Bassano), the sketches of both Jacopo and
Francesco, as well as the picture from Kaski is proof
that in each case the same model was used. This fact
permits an approximate dating of the latter painting's
creation to the years 1576-8; i.e. from the moment
the nocturnes were begun by father and son to
Francesco's moving with his newly-wed bride,
Giustina Como to Venice, where they settled
permanently. The picture also may be acknowledged
as a family memento connected with the departing
from the family (bottega) of its most talented and
beloved son.
The scene on the stairs, being devoid of any
references to the Gospel or Old Testament, is of a
secular nature par excellence. The couple meeting
on the stairs may be identified as Francesco and
Giustina, whose thirty-year-old husband indicates
significance of the divine-cum-human aspect of the
Nativity. Such an interpretation of the enigmatic
scene makes it even more likely that the painter was
Francesco Bassano.
Translated by Peter Martyn
Illustrations
1. Francesco Bassano, The Adoration of the Shep-
herds, Archdiocesan Museum, Warsaw
2. Francesco Bassano, The Adoration of the Shep-
herds, detail in pentimento, Archdiocesan Museum,
Warsaw
3. Jacopo Bassano, The Adoration of the Shepherds,
Rome, Galleria Corsini
4. Francesco Bassano, The Adoration of the Shep-
herds, Little Rock, Arkansas Arts Center
5. Francesco Bassano, Birth, Sarasota, Ringling
Museum of Art
6. Bassanos' Workshop, Drawing: The Adoration of
the Shepherds, Paris, Louvre, inv. no. 5291
7. Francesco Bassano, Study of the Madonna's
head, drawing from the Witt collection, Courtauld
Institute Galleries, London
8. Jacopo Bassano, St. Roch presenting the Ma-
donna with the podesta of Sante Moro, Municipal
Museum in Bassano
9. The Madonna's head, a detail of the painting from
Kaski, prior to restoration