Adoration in the Forest
7:00 AM |
| Fra Filippo Lippi, Adoration in the Forest, 1459 |
Lippi's piece, Adoration in the Forest, painted for Cosimo de Medici, gives a non-traditional interpretation of the Nativity. The composition is dark and leaves out the usual parts of a Nativity scene, such as Joseph, the shepherds, the kings, and the ox. Lippi's emphasis on the characters in his work pulls not only from their spatial relation in the painting, but also from the brilliant light he gives them in such contrast to the dark woods around them. This contrast continues with a defined linear perspective softened by pastel colors in the clothes and skin tones. He adds some elements of humanism to his characters' faces, God himself personified in all his glory, actual wings spreading out behind him.
Fra Filippo divides the piece rather symmetrically among the Trinity, with the Holy Spirit's ray of blessed light tracing all the way down to baby Jesus. It gives such power to the baby, such light emanating from him, but it also draws the eye upwards to God, who looks down upon them all. The ray itself matches with the tree trunks, slicing through the dark background that still, somehow, give some room for the scene. But he also literally divides the piece with the ground cracked down the middle. He also depicts chopped-down trees in a row behind Mary, lining up perfectly with the forest behind her. The forest seems to almost wrap around the scene, especially with the characters shown off-center. Jesus rests upon a grassy knoll, surrounded by flowers and life.
Mary's gaze really gets me here. Her face has such delicate care for the Christ-child, but her expression is also somber, perhaps even morose, which complicates the emotions usually so simplistically portrayed in a Nativity piece. Her robe lacks movement and fluidity, the usual curves of cloth instead stiffened. The angle of her jawline and her gaze trace directly to Jesus, much like God's. A rather youthful Saint John, with his signature staff, steals the show by looking directly at the viewer with no focus upon the baby at all. Fra Filippo depicts a different side of the Nativity, adding some mystery and room for interpretation to the piece with his complex iconography of the Trinity, the Virgin, and Saint John.
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