Day 227 - Roselli "Portrait of a Man" and Bosch "Adoration of the Magi"

December 24, 2020

Gallery 602 centers on 15th century oil painting. The north side of the gallery presents religious scenes by Netherlandish painters, the south side portraits by both Italians and Northerners. In general, I have no trouble distinguishing the provenances, but it's useful to be reminded yet again of the influence of Flemish artists on their Italian counterparts. (Actually, I'm beginning to think that the cross-influences of various painters and schools may be a guiding theme of all these galleries.)

I'm immediately drawn  to a portrait of a man by Cosimo Roselli, a Florentine painter unfamiliar to me whose dates are 1440 -1507. Long and narrow (perhaps 20 inches tall and 14 inches high), the panel, executed in tempera on wood, is enclosed in a beautiful frame. It's the palette of the painting - specifically, the subject's bright red garment, edged with narrow strips of ermine, and  the fact that he is shown against a light blue sky- that makes the work stand out, especially in contrast with the sober garments and dark backgrounds of the Northern portraits.  What's also noteworthy is the geometrical simplicity of the forms: the subject's neck is a cylinder, his hat is a rectangular brick, his eyes are almonds. I admire the delicacy with which the dark stubble of his beard is painted. What doesn't work for me are his hands: they seem tiny, and I can't figure out their positioning (clasped?). Still, it's an arresting portrait, beautifully displayed.

The painting that most surprises me is a 1475 "Adoration of the Magi" by Hieronymus Bosch. I have always associated Bosch with roiling canvases full of hallucinatory images, but this picture,  painted in oil and gold on wood, gives me a whole new perspective on his work.  The scene contains many figures: the Virgin and child, the three Magi, the ox and ass, a kneeling shepherd in the foreground leaning on his staff, other men looking on through windows, three winged angels holding an expanse of cloth that serves as a canopy over the Virgin, peasants working in the fields in the background, and a small white dog (a whippet? in any event, a symbol of fidelity) in the lower foreground. Nonetheless, the panel, which measures perhaps 27 inches tall and 22 inches wide, doesn't seem at all crowded.  For one thing, the principal figures form a triangle, with Mary's head as its top vertex, ensuring that our focus immediately goes to her face; the other figures are not a distraction. For another, the various components are brought together by a simple color scheme - primarily various shades of a soothing teal (appearing in Mary's garment, the shepherd's robe, the canopy, an awning hanging above a window,  the landscape, and the sky) and gold (Mary's long wavy hair, the cloth on which she sits, the angels' wings, the ox's coat, the embroidery on the robe of the Black king, his scimitar and tall boot, the gifts of the three kings, and the ornamentation on their crowns). There are touches of red as well as white and black in other garments, but in general, the teal and gold color scheme makes for a serene, integrated image. Finally, the whole scene appears to take place not in a dark manger but in a space that's enclosed on the sides by light brick walls but open to the sky,  It's a lovely, light-filled image.

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