Sunday, December 25, 2011

The Adoration of the Shepherds by Jusepe de Ribera


Here is an offering as a Christmas meditation. In the 17th century baroque naturalism of Ribera. His is a genuine naturalism in which there are not even any halos. How wonderfully he presents this scene so that we focus on the important element, notice how only Our Lord and Our Lady are in colour, while everything else but the faces of the shepherds (looking at Our Lord and so in turn leading our eyes back to Him too) and the sacrificial lamb in the foreground in are in shadow.


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