Nativity with a Portrait of Cardinal Jean Roulin


Nativity with a Portrait of Cardinal Jean Roulin is a 1480 oil on panel painting, previously attributed to the anonymous Master of Moulins, who is now thought to be Jean Hey. The cardinal was one of the Master's protectors and this is his earliest surviving work. It was commissioned by the cardinal three years before his death and is now in the musée Rolin.

Description

The cardinal is shown wearing a cardinal's ermine mozetta and red cape, with his galero above his coat of arms behind him. The dog by him is symbolic of fidelity, whilst the whiteness of the veil and face of Mary, the ermine and the dog's fur refers to purity and the red of the robe to Christ's Passion. The Virgin Mary is shown with far whiter skin than the other people, showing her noble and their common origins. Two gilded wood details in the top left and top right corners bear the inscriptions "Deum Time" and "Time Deum".
It is in the Flemish primitive style: blueish hills in the background, shepherds talking to each other, the size of figures still in hierarchical proportion, despite the advanced sensibilities of the Northern Renaissance. The Virgin's face is similar to Profile of a Woman, now in the Louvre. The fence on which the shepherds lean has stakes with damaged or sharpened points, as in Fra Angelico's 1443 Annunciation.

Loans

France 1500, entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance