A longer look: Gossaert's 'Adoration of the Kings'

Excellent morning at the National Gallery looking in detail at the lovely nativity scene by Gossaert “Adoration of the Kings”.

The lecturer Aliki Braine, took the innovative approach to begin with of giving us a print of the picture and making us fold it up to help us look at the symmetry of the work. We then looked at the detail of it and the iconography.

She then took us through the technique used taking Messys St Luke as an example of how an artist worked. She showed us a Van de Goes with a similar composition but cut down. We also looked at the Durer print which featured the dog in the foreground. We also talked about what is known about Gossaert the man.

We spent some time at the picture sharing our thoughts and observations. Aliki also talked us through some of the other contemporary pictures in the room to show us the diverse nature of art at the time. I’d not realised that an Adam and Eve in the same room with a very sculptural look was also by Gossaert. The two pictures seem to come from different worlds. We talked about different patrons and also about how 50% of church art from this area at this time was destroyed in the iconoclasm of 1566 so we have a skewed view of the period. Was it just the best which was saved or is it more random than that!

Back at the seminar room we put the picture in its historic context and talked about changing ideas at the time and thoughts about the difference between seeing and looking. She took the example of two versions of St Luke by Gossaert, in one the saint looks at the Virgin and paints what he sees in the other the implication is that he is imagining her.

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