The Adoration of the Shepherds

Bartolo di Fredi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art