''Adoration of the Christ Child'' is a painting in tempera and oils of by

Bramantino Bartolomeo Suardi, best known as Bramantino ( – ), was an Italian painter and architect, mainly active in his native Milan. Biography He was born in Milan, the son of Alberto Suardi, but his biography remains unclear, and was long complicated ...

in the

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana A pinacotheca (Latin borrowing from grc, πινακοθήκη, pinakothēkē = grc, πίναξ, pinax, (painted) board, tablet, label=none + grc, θήκη, thēkē, box, chest, label=none) was a picture gallery in either ancient Greece or an ...

, Milan. Produced for an unknown commissioner from Milan, it shows the Christ Child being adored by the kneeling figures of

Bernardino of Siena Bernardino of Siena, OFM (8 September 138020 May 1444), also known as Bernardine, was an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in Italy. He was a systematizer of Scholastic economics. His preaching, his book burnings, and his " bon ...

(recognisable by his grey Franciscan habit), Francis of Assisi (with his

stigmata Stigmata ( grc, στίγματα, plural of , 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet. Sti ...

), Benedict of Nursia (in a black Benedictine habit) and the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

. Behind them is a group of angel musicians standing on a column base. On the far left and right of the painting are the emperor

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

and a

sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local tradi ...

in standing poses based on that of the '' Pothos'' sculpture. Their presence and that of a Roman arch in the background refer to a passage in the ''

Golden Legend The ''Golden Legend'' (Latin: ''Legenda aurea'' or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary ...

'' (1.40) in which a sibyl prophesies to Augustus that his Temple of Peace in Rome would crumble the day a virgin gave birth.

References

{{15C-painting-stub Paintings by Bramantino Paintings in the collection of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana 1485 paintings Nativity of Jesus in art Paintings of Francis of Assisi Paintings of Benedict of Nursia Paintings of Bernardino of Siena Cultural depictions of Augustus