Adorazione_dei_pastori_con_i_santi_Nazaro_e_Celso

''Adoration of the Shepherds with Saints Nazarius and Celsus'' is a 1540 oil on canvas painting by

Moretto da Brescia Alessandro Bonvicino (also Buonvicino) (possibly 22 December 1554), more commonly known as Moretto, or in Italian Il Moretto da Brescia (the Moor of Brescia), was an Italian Renaissance painter from Brescia, where he also mostly worked. His da ...

in the church of Santi Nazaro e Celso in

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

. As its title suggests, it shows

Nazarius and Celsus Nazarius and Celsus ( German: :de:Nazarius (Heiliger), Nazarius) were two martyrs of whom little is known beyond the discovery of their bodies by Ambrose, Ambrose of Milan. According to Paulinus the Deacon, Paulinus the Deacon's ''Vita Ambrosii' ...

, patron saints of the church. It is one of the painter's most-discussed works and shows his gradual but decisive move towards

Mannerism Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

. It was only securely attributed to him from the late 20th century onwards. It includes several unusual compositional elements influenced by other artists. A restoration in 1987 also showed a huge number of

pentimenti In painting, a ; from the verb , meaning 'to repent'; plural ''pentimenti'') is "the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over". Sometimes the English form "pentiment" is used, especiall ...

and corrections. It is first recorded in 1630 by Bernardino Faino as an altarpiece in the Averoldi Chapel in Santi Nazaro e Celso - he attributed it to Luca Mombello, who had also painted the frescoes on the chapel walls. In later local literature it was ascribed to

Herri met de Bles Herri met de Bles, also known as Henri Bles, Herri de Dinant, Herry de Patinir,(c. 1490 – after 1566), was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter, native of Bouvignes or Dinant (both in present-day Belgium). The name ...

, whose nickname was 'La Civetta' (the owl) - he usually included one in each of his works and one is shown on the ruined arch in ''Adoration''.Pier Virgilio Begni Redona, ''Alessandro Bonvicino – Il Moretto da Brescia'', Editrice La Scuola, Brescia 1988, page 322

References

{{Moretto da Brescia Paintings by Moretto da Brescia 1540 paintings Paintings in Brescia

Altarpieces