The Newborn Baby

Andrea Mantegna - The Adoration of the Shepherds - The Metropolitan Museum of Art In clothing tattered from years of labor, a group of shepherds arrives to witness the newborn Christ Child. His birth was announced to them by angels, as seen in the upper right. The humble figures find the Holy Family resting in a mesmerizingly detailed landscape. Mantegna depicted the Virgin Mary and Christ Child as a portal between the natural world and the divine: the Virgin’s blue and gold robes extend into clouds filled with cherubs who swirl around the newborn. The painting may have been commissioned by Borso d’Este, the duke of Ferrara. Its style seems to be a response to the vogue for Netherlandish painting in Ferrara.