 Francesco Granacci (Italian, 1469–1543) Adoration of the Christ Child, c. 1500 Tempera on wood panel
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1961 (2987.1) Francesco Granacci trained and worked with
Michelangelo on the Sistine Ceiling, though his time on
the project was brief, perhaps due to what Giorgio
Vasari, a 16th-century biographer, alluded to as an
easygoing personality and tendency to avoid
unnecessary effort or thought. In his Adoration of the
Christ Child, which neither confirms nor conflicts with
Vasari’s characterization of the artist, Granaccihe
depicts the Holy Family and anthe infant Saint John
the Baptist kneeling to adorein adoration to the Christ
child. Like Michelangelo and his contemporaries,
Granacci looked to classical sculpture to impart The
figures appear monumentality to the figures, and, like
Michelangelo and his contemporaries, Granacci he
used bright and contrasting colors for Mary’s and
Joseph’s robes to heighten the sense of immediacy.
Christ reaches out totowards his mother in a playful
manner, and his gaze meets his cousin’s, who, as an
adult, predicted the arrival of a messianic figure and
baptized Christ in the River Jordan. |