The ''Circumcision'' is a painting of the

Circumcision of Jesus The circumcision of Jesus is an event from the life of Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, which states: And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, his name was called Jesus, the name called by the angel before ...

by the Italian Renaissance painter

Luca Signorelli Luca Signorelli ( – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the ''Last Judgment'' (1499–15 ...

, in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in London, dated to c. 1490–1491. The Circumcision was also the occasion of the naming of Jesus, and by this period the emphasis of Catholic devotion was on the

Holy Name of Jesus In Catholicism, the veneration of the Holy Name of Jesus (also ''Most Holy Name of Jesus'', it, Santissimo Nome di Gesù) developed as a separate type of devotion in the early modern period, in parallel to that of the '' Sacred Heart''. The ...

. The work was commissioned by the local Confraternity of the Holy Name of Jesus for the altar of the Circumcision Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Volterra, where Signorelli was working for the Medicis. Like many Renaissance versions of the subject it conflates it with the

Presentation of Jesus The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (or ''in the temple'') is an early episode in the life of Jesus Christ, describing his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem, that is celebrated by many churches 40 days after Christmas on Candlemas, o ...

by including at the rear

Simeon Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, so ...

. The Renaissance art historian and artist

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

saw the painting and described it as damaged by humidity, the Child having been repainted by

Il Sodoma Il Sodoma (1477 – 14 February 1549) was the name given to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Il Sodoma painted in a manner that superimposed the High Renaissance style of early 16th-century Rome onto the traditions of ...

. The painting was acquired by the National Gallery in 1882.

Description

The background is formed by a sumptuous niche with polychrome marbles, with two medallions portraying a Prophet and a Sibyl. It is perhaps a citation of the Brera Altarpiece by Signorelli's master,

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...

. Before it is the crowded scene taken from the

Gospel of Luke, 2, 21–36 The stripes on the garments of the man on the left were common in the fashion of the time, and can be seen in several contemporary paintings, such as the Flagellation Banner by Signorelli himself.

References

Sources

* * Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume I'', 2004, National Gallery Publications Ltd,

External links

Page at the National Gallery's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Circumcision, Signorelli Paintings by Luca Signorelli 1490s paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Signorelli Altarpieces