Once the central panel of an altarpiece, this painting simultaneously depicts the Adoration of the Christ Child and the Annunciation to the Shepherds, shown in the upper right. To create clear spatial relationships, the artist employed overlapping planes and daring, if naive, perspective—most evident in the projecting roof of the stable. The setting of the narrative combines the Byzantine tradition of representing the Adoration in a cave with the Western iconography of a stable. This panel may have been flanked by single panels depicting standing saints.
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Title:The Adoration of the Shepherds
Artist:Bartolo di Fredi (Italian, active by 1353–died 1410 Siena)
Date:1374
Geography:Made in Siena, Italy
Culture:Italian
Medium:Tempera on poplar, gilding
Dimensions:Overall: 69 1/8 x 45 1/8 in. (175.6 x 114.6 cm) Painted surface: 63 1/4 x 45 1/8 in. (160.7 x 114.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings-Panels
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1925
Accession Number:25.120.288
Probably from the Dominican convent of SS. Annunziata in San Gimignano; George Grey Barnard American, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 1863–1938 New York, New York (until 1925)
New York. The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Christmas Story in Mediaeval Art," December 25, 1940–January 12, 1941, no catalogue.
New York. Museum of Biblical Art. "The Adoration of the Magi by Barolo di Fredi: a masterpiece reconstructed," June 8, 2012–September 9, 2012.
Dewald, Ernest T. "The Master of the Ovile Madonna." Art Studies 1 (1923). p. 53.
Meiss, Millard. "Ugolino Lorenzetti." The Art Bulletin 13, no. 3 (September 1931). p. 379 n. 4.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art, in Fort Tryon Park. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1938. p. 50, fig. 25.
Freeman, Margaret B. "A Christmas Exhibition at the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 35, no. 12 (December 1940). pp. 248–49.
Wehle, Harry B. A Catalogue of Paintings: Volume 1, Catalogue of Italian, Spanish and Byzantine Paintings. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1940. p. 79.
Faison, Samson Lane. "A Note on a Sienese Resurrection." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 4 (1941). p. 99.
Meiss, Millard. "Italian Style in Catalonia and a Fourteenth Century Catalan Workshop." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 4 (1941). p. 55 n. 23.
Meiss, Millard. "Italian Primitives at Konopiště." The Art Bulletin 28, no. 1 (March 1946). p. 11.
Bush, Lucile Elizabeth. "Bartolo di Fredi." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1947. pp. 307–11, fig. 81.
Freeman, Margaret B. "Shepherds in the Fields." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 11, no. 4 (December 1952). ill. p. 111.
Allen, Josephine L., and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1954. p. 7.
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. pp. 16, 270, 606.
Laclotte, Michel, and Elisabeth Mognetti. Peinture italienne: Avignon, musée du Petit Palais. Inventaire des collections publiques françaises, Vol. 21. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1976. unpaginated, under no. 22.
Romagnoli, Ettore. Biografia cronologica de' bellartisti senesi, 1200–1800. Vol. 3. Florence: Edizioni S.P.E.S., 1976 [facsimile of original ms., ca. 1835]. p. 129.
Traldi, Rossana. "Due precisazioni per Bartolo di Fredi." Prospettiva 10 (July 1977). pp. 50–51, fig. 1.
DE BENEDICTIS CRISTINA. La pittura senese, 1330–1370. Florence: Salimbeni Libreria Editrice, 1979. p. 81.
Schrader, J. L. "George Grey Barnard: The Cloisters and the Abbaye." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 37, no. 1 (Summer 1979). p. 33, fig. 44.
Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. Vol. 1. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. p. 7.
Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. p. 54.
Zeri, Federico, and Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sienese and Central Italian Schools. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. pp. 6–7, pl. 27.
Christiansen, Keith. "Fourteenth-Century Italian Altarpieces." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 40, no. 1 (Summer 1982). pp. 38, 41.
Frederick, Kavin M. "A Program Completed: The Identification of the San Vittorio Altarpiece." In Tribute to Lotte Brand Philip: Art Historian and Detective, edited by William W. Clark. New York: Abaris Books, 1985. pp. 61–63, fig. 11.
Freuler, Gaudenz. "L'altare Cacciati di Bartolo di Fredi nella chiesa di San Francesco a Montalcino." Arte Cristiana, n.s., 73 (May–June 1985). pp. 161–62, 166 nn. 60, 65, fig. 8.
Os, H. W. van. "Tradition and Innovation in Some Altarpieces by Bartolo di Fredi." The Art Bulletin 67, no. 1 (March 1985). p. 54 n. 15.
Castelnuovo, Enrico, ed. La Pittura in Italia: il Duecento e il Trecento. Vol. 2. Revised and expanded ed. Milan: Electa, 1986. p. 556.
Freuler, Gaudenz. Biagio di Goro Ghezzi a Paganico. Florence: Electa, 1986. pp. 56, 60 n. 9, fig. 48.
Laclotte, Michel, and Elisabeth Mognetti. Peinture italienne: Avignon, musée du Petit Palais. Inventaire des collections publiques françaises, Vol. 21. 3rd ed. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1987. pp. 52–53.
Muller, Norman E. "The Development of Sgraffito in Sienese Painting." In Simone Martini: Atti del convegno, edited by Luciano Bellosi. Florence: Centro Di, 1988. p. 150 n. 25.
Lucco, Mauro, ed. La pittura nel Veneto: Il Trecento. Milan: Electa, 1992. p. 522.
Harpring, Patricia. The Sienese Trecento Painter Bartolo di Fredi. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993. no. 7, pp. 19, 21, 68, 70, 129, 151, 175 nn. 10, 11, 15, ill. pp. 70–72.
Or & Azur: III exposition, dossier autour d'une oeuvre de Bartolo di Fredi. Avignon: Musée du Petit Palais, 1993. pp. 61, 86–87, fig. 3.
Freuler, Gaudenz. Bartolo di Fredi Cini: Ein Beitrag zur sienesischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Disentis, Switzerland: Desertina, 1994. no. 14, pp. 107–8, 368, 372, 443–45, fig. 107–8, 111, 321.
Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. p. 47, ill. p. 46.
Loseries, Wolfgang. "Bartolo di Fredi riabilitato: nuove ricerche e due monografie." La Diana 2 (1996). pp. 466–67, pl. 134.
Matthiesen, Patrick, ed. Gold Backs, 1250–1480. London: Matthiesen Gallery, 1996. p. 124 n. 4.
Turner, Jane, ed. "Cini: Bartolo di Fredi Cini." In The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 7. New York: Grove, 1996. p. 329.
Frinta, Mojmir. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague: Maxdorf, 1998. pp. 95, 330.
Old Master Pictures. London: Christie's, July 9, 2003. p. 140, ill. p. 138 (under no. 77).
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 69, pp. 105, 196.
Laclotte, Michel, and Esther Moench. Peinture italienne: Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon. New ed. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2005. p. 64.
Bellosi, Luciano, ed. La collezione Salini: Dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV e XV. Volume 1, Pittura. Florence: Centro Di, 2009. p. 209.
Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Choirs of Angels: Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300-1500." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 66, no. 3 (Winter 2009). p. 7, fig. 1.
Boskovits, Miklós, ed. The Alana Collection: Volume 1, Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th Century. Florence: Edizioni Polistampa, 2009. pp. 37–38, 40–41, fig. 7a–b.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 108.
Loseries, Wolfgang. "Altarpieces of the Adoration of the Magi and the Shepherds by Bartolo di Fredi." In Bartolo di Fredi: The Adoration of the Magi, a Masterpiece Reconstructed, edited by Bruce Boucher, and Francesca Fiorani. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Art Museum, 2012. pp. 40–63, fig. 24.
Master of the Codex of Saint George (Italian, active Florence, ca. 1315–35)
ca. 1330–35
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![Choirs of Angels: Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300–1500 [adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 66, no. 3 (Winter, 2009)]](/-/media/images/art/metpublication/cover/2008/choirs_of_angels_painting_in_italian_choir_books_1300_1500.jpg)
