The Adoration of the Shepherds

Bartolomeo Bulgarini's Adoration of the Shepherds presents the Nativity's first human witnesses — the humble shepherds summoned by the angels — in the devotional style characteristic of this Sienese master working in the generation after the Lorenzetti brothers. Bulgarini maintained the Sienese gold-ground tradition while incorporating some of the emotional expressivity that the Lorenzetti and Simone Martini had developed in their more ambitious works. The Nativity subject, with its combination of celestial joy and rustic simplicity, appealed to devotional patrons who valued the contrast between divine grandeur and humble birth as a meditation on Incarnation's meaning.

Tempera on panel with gold ground in the Sienese tradition. Bulgarini's style blends the decorative refinement of Simone Martini's workshop with a slightly more volumetric approach to figural modeling, evident in the shepherds' drapery.