National Gallery Experience
The Adoration of the
Kings (1500) by Vincenzo Foppa (located in Room 55)
According
to the Nation Gallery website: “The Three Kings journeyed to Bethlehem to
honour the new-born Jesus. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The stable is set among ruins; this setting is probably intended to suggest
that the new Christian order was born out of the decay of the old pagan order. This
painting has some similarities with a drawing assigned to Foppa in the
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; this in turn has some connection with an engraving
of 1502 by Giovanni Maria da Brescia.”
Vincenzo Foppa (c. 1430- c. 1515) was a Northern Italian
Renaissance painter who was a leading figure in 15th-century Lombard
art. The Britannica states that “His earliest dated work is a dramatic painting
of the “Three Crosses” (1456). He spent the middle of his life in Pavia
in the service of the dukes of Milan, and until the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci
he was the most influential painter in the Lombard region. From 1480 he became
receptive to the Renaissance style, influenced by Donato Bramante,
Andrea Mantegna, and Leonardo da Vinci. This influence appears in the modeling
and perspective of his best-known fresco, “The
Martyrdom of St. Sebastian” (1485).
The Adoration of the Kings
(1573) by Paolo Veronese (located in Room 9)
According
to the National Gallery website: “The Three Kings have sought out the Child Jesus
in the stable where he was born. They bear gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh)
and have journeyed from the East (Matthew 2: 10-12). The stable at Bethlehem is
attached to the ruins of a great classical building with a triumphal arch in
the background. Across the foreground the kings and their attendants are
presented with grandeur. Angels appear in the sky, along the ray of light by
the side of the arch. The dominant diagonal, created by this beam of heavenly
light, is countered by the diagonal formed by the adoring figures, with Virgin
and Child placed where they intersect. The picture is dated 1573 in Roman
numerals on the lowest step (bottom right). It was painted for the church of S.
Silvestro in Venice, where it remained until the church was altered in the 19th
century. It was not an altarpiece but a large painting for the wall of the nave
beside the altar of the confraternity dedicated to Saint Joseph.”
Paolo
Veronoese, also known as Paolo Caliari, (1528-1588). An Italian renaissance
painted based in Venice. He trained under Antonio Badile but he had his own
blend of Central and Northern Italian influences. He then studied with Titian,
who was one of the “great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento”
or 16th century late renaissance. His paintings are grand and full
of color but with that it could be considered losing the meaning in the scene. For detailed
information about his life here
Now what surprised me the most was
that Vincenzo Foppa’s painting, that the subjects were not white. I stopped,
and just stared. The baby Jesus is not alabaster white, he has color. That made
me investigate more into looking at each subject of the painting, not one
person is alabaster white. Coming from the western civilization, Jesus is also
white, and normally very white. I thought for a minute that maybe it’s just
because the painting is from the 1500s, but if you look closely they paint was
not white, it was tan or darker colors. I couldn’t believe it, they painted him
‘colored’. This of course has been a debate for years that if Jesus was born in
the middle east, Jerusalem that he would not be alabaster white like a
European, that he would at least have olive skin color or even darker. (race of Jesus?)
There is only one place that it describes what Jesus looks like and it is his
heavenly appearance(which side note- sounds very scary, double sided sword out
of his mouth? Eyes that are red like fire? Yeah, don’t think I want that Jesus
walking around on Earth), not his day to day while on earth look according to
the site above and many others that debate on sites like ask yahoo (heated
answer)
So
now knowing that there is no actual description of Jesus while on Earth, then
maybe being lighter skinned or darker skinned can’t be proven. Since unfortunately
there were no camera’s back then for instant taking and instant upload to their
facebook. I guess at least today we have proof of what people actually looked
like and don’t have to rely on a book filled with text. But while at the National
Gallery not knowing any of the above information to the exact detail, I went
looking for a similar scene of a baby Jesus, and there really was no better
place than the National Gallery with all their Renaissance paintings that are
extremely Christian. I searched and it did not take me long to find a painting
that had the baby Jesus. What blew my mind away, was that the name of the painting
was the EXACT same. WHAT? REALLY? Ok hold on what was the date, (pause) little
over 70 years later? Ok apparently the scene of the three wise men brining gifts,
there is no other name then, The
Adoration of the Kings. It was even better since the baby Jesus was alabaster
white and so was everyone else except on wise man. So 73 years later, and he is
alabaster white. This made me think, so it wasn’t just age that made the other
painting make Jesus look darker. Now did both painters take artistic licenses? Or
were they told how the painting needed to be by a patron? Doesn’t really
matter. Maybe what matters is what people see in it. I saw that the baby Jesus
and everyone was darker skinned in Foppa’s painting while in Veronoese he was alabaster
white. The person standing next to me may not see that. What they see is the
iconic scene of the gift giving to Christ, the son of God birthed by the Virgin
Mary. The messiah that healed the sick, spoke of kindness and love and died for
our sins. Both paintings show that, so this scene. This scene that most people
in the world, Christian or not, know. They know the story, they know what it
means. And that is all the painter might have wanted was for someone to look at
his creation, look and see this iconic moment in the Christian faith.
So go to the museum, find these two works and take
a look for yourself. While you are there you should see some Rembrandt, Da Vinci,
Van Gogh, and many other famous painters’ work of art.
30 Paintings you must see according to the National
Gallery, here
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| Rembrant |
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| Da Vince |
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| Van Gogh |
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