Adoration of the Shepherds and The Holy Family with the Shepherds - Term Paper Example

? Comparison of Two Artworks Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Adoration of the Shepherds by Mantegna 4 The Holy Family with the Shepherds 5 Comparing the Two Works of Art in Detail 6 Works Cited 8 Introduction This paper is a comparison of two artworks. One is the Adoration of the Shepherds by Mantegna and the other is The Holy Family with the Shepherds by Jordaens. Andrea Mantegna, who was born in 1430 and who died in 1506, completed The Adoration of the Shepherds not long after 1450. Mantegna is considered to be one of the prodigious talents to have come out of the Italian art scene, as evidenced by the fact that the man had come to be renowned at the tender age of 18. The Adoration of the Shepherds itself is estimated to have been done and completed when Mantegna was in the early part of the third decade of his life. In it, though the man was just in the early part of his twenties, the man's genius is evident in the way he is able to describe vividly the scene that he portrayed. The slant is towards a heavy emphasis towards detail in the describing of the scene. This was an offshoot of Mantegna's implicit dialogue with the humanists in the court of Borso, also known as Borso d'Este, who was then Ferrara's duke, and who is credited with having done the commissioning of the work. This was originally a wood composition, and then transferred on to canvas, even as the transfer process did not dim the genius of the work (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Similarly, the work The Holy Family with Shepherds by Jacob Jordaens, dated 1616, was originally in wood, and then transferred to oil in canvas. The work is said to have the heavy influence of the painter Caravaggio, taking off from the similar heavy influence of the artist in the works of Janssens and Rubens. The dating of the work puts it among the most primordial works of Jordaens, and the literature notes that there are many distinctive qualities in this work that stand out as characteristic of the early work of the painter, including the use of shadows and lighting together with the close clustering of people in the painting, together giving the impression and the sense of warmth as well as comforting intimacy (The Metropolitan Museum of Art (b)). The Adoration of the Shepherds by Mantegna High precision details are a hallmark of the work of Mantegna, as discussed in various reviews of the work The Adoration of the Shepherds. This obsessive attention to detail is a signature too of the Mantegna style and imprint, already fully formed at the time of the commissioning of the painting, completed when he was barely out of his teens. The descriptions of the painting include precision, hardness, a sense of clarity of the image and of the vision that was unique and spectacular during its time, and the refinement and the purity in the colors that were employed. In the Adoration of the Shepherds the clarity of the detail, the use of colors that are pure, and the sharpness and the overall sense of exactness of the composition is said to extend all the way to the background, where even the landscape far away from the scene in focus is described in such a level of detail that critics then and now consider with awe and astonishment. The emphasis on detail reflects tool, an aesthetic that focuses on reality, realistic depictions, even if in the case of the shepherds there is a lack of a tendency to idealize and beautify their presences, and instead they are depicted in the painting in the full reality of the coarseness of their appearance and the drabness of the colors of their clothing. In contrast, Joseph's clothing, and his presence and appearance, are vibrant and serene at the same time, starkly in opposition to everything else, especially with regard to the yellow garb of Joseph. Mary's muted blue and red garb blends more with the surrounding environment, meanwhile, and it is noteworthy that the focus of attention of the shepherds is not Jesus and Mary, but in the painting it is Joseph they are facing and bowing to (Kren and Marx; Louvre; Abrahams). The Holy Family with the Shepherds Looking at the painting, there is a sense of serenity to be had from the pure faces of the shepherds. They are smiling and full of love and goodwill, and they are able to approach mother and child with a proximity that can only be the result of the purity of the intentions that they had coming into the scene of the divine birth. We see that in the middle of the painting the focus of attention is the virgin mother Mary, who is bathed in light together with the child Jesus, even as the light dissipates into shadow at the back, where the luminous eyes of the good young shepherd and his comely face provide an alternative “light” that complements the light that is at the center of the painting. The older shepherd on the right is carrying a candle that provides the lighting in the painting's center, and that candle illumines the pure and calm, contented face of the virgin mother. The child is shown in the light to be in vigorous and tender health. There is no malice or hint of sexuality at all in the bared breast, but only the purity of the intention of the virgin mother to nourish and to raise the child Jesus. There is an idealization, and a softness, in the way the whole scene is depicted. The shepherds; faces, especially those of the one in the left and the one in the center, are tender and almost angelic. They are clean faces, almost feminine or child-like too, innocent and seemingly lacking any taint of hardness, or having known hard labor and physical hardship, serene and well-rested. The older shepherd too, though his face is marked by age, seems likewise in good health and is likewise seemingly well-groomed and rested, even as his garb is plain and somewhat drab-colored in comparison to the vibrant hue of the garb of the shepherd on the left. His eyes too, seem pristine and free from any malice or hint of sin, adoring and full of light. The overall impression one gets is closeness, intimate warmth, happiness, softness of heart, and a general lightness of feeling (The Metropolitan Museum of Art (b)). Comparing the Two Works of Art in Detail The two paintings represent polarities in many respects. Where Mantegna’s work is characterized by a kind of intense realism and faithfulness to detail and clarity of composition, there a sense one gets from viewing and detailing the work of Jordaens that the latter painter focused instead on idealizing the painting and incorporating unique perspectives into the art work. In the work of Jordaens is the idealization occurs in several layers or facets. First, as noted in the previous discussion, there is a sense one gets from looking at Jordaens that the painting has been idealized to create an atmosphere of closeness and warmth. This is not the world and the congregation of shepherds as it occurred in the real world, but rather how it would have looked if the feelings and the auras of the parties involved were made the prominent features of the painting. There is a sense one gets from viewing the Holy Family with the Shepherds that Jordaens was somewhat depicting the emotional and spiritual reality of the whole gathering, depicting internal states of the soul rather than an outward reality. See in the painting the shepherds look more like angels than human beings, in the handsome quality of their faces, the serenity and lack of human sin in the way their faces are depicted, and in the way their smiles and their presences encouraged further intimacy of spirit among the shepherds and the holy family. There is nothing at all that is course or reflecting toil and hardship in this painting. The composition is idealized too, in the way the lighting is so crafted so that the virgin mother and the infant Jesus take center stage in the painting, with the baby Jesus as the focal point of the attention of all the people in the painting, a deliberate staging of the painting so that mother and child, and child in particular, are the most important figures in the painting. The child Jesus is the focus of the love and attention of the shepherds, as well as of the virgin mother Mary. In contrast to the softness and the idealization that are the hallmarks of the painting by Jordaens, the painting of Mantegna puts sharp focus on the outward physical reality of the scene, with the shepherds depicted not as idealized, angel-like figures but as very human, and as shepherds who toil and who are nomadic in their ways are expected to look at. Where Jordaens idealizes and softens the scene to evoke warmth and closeness, Mantegna offers stark reality, and detailed depictions of that reality. The focus too is different as far as the attention of the shepherds and the composition of the paintings are concerned, in that in Mantegna the lighting is not so much as important as the way the yellow garb of Joseph stands in stark contrast to the muted colors of the rest of the painting. The attention of the shepherds too, is on Joseph, rather than on the child Jesus, who is depicted in Mantegna as a realistic painting of a newborn baby. That said mother and Joseph seem not focused on the child Jesus too, but seem to be preoccupied with something internal, the mother deep in prayer, and Joseph in the position of someone brooding over something. Taking a step back, it is clear that this focus of Mantegna towards realistic, detailed composition stands in sharp contrast to the dreamy, idealized, soft, warm and personal/intimate depiction of Jordaens (Kren and Marx; Louvre; Abrahams; The Metropolitan Museum of Art (b); The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Works Cited Abrahams, Simon. “Mantegna's Adoration of the Shepherds”. Every Painter Paints Himself. 2011. Web. 6 April 2013. Kren, Emil and Marx, Daniel. “The Adoration of the Shepherds”. Web Gallery of Art. 2013. Web. 6 April 2013. Louvre. “Around the San Zeno triptych in Verona”. Louvre Mini Site. n.d. Web. 6 April 2013. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The Adoration of the Shepherds”. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. 2013. Web. 6 April 2013. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (b). “The Holy Family with Shepherds”. Search the Collections. 2013. Web. 6 April 2013. Read More