In this modern work
Gaudí
harks back to medieval iconography with respect to the shepherds. Their
clothing and possessions emphasize their humble status (compare Bartolo
di Fredi's Adoration of the Shepherds,
14th cent.) while the lamb and breadbasket point subtly toward the
sacrifice of the "Lamb of God" in the crucifixion and in the sacrifice
of the Christian Mass (where the body of Christ is offered and consumed
in the form of bread and wine). But the artist is decidedly unmedieval
in giving the shepherds dignified physiognomies and an attitude of rapt
adoration, which contrast with the class-conscious medieval tendency to
portray them with crude faces and, where emotion is suggested at all, a
childish delight. (See, for example, the 15th century Burgundian
limestone Nativity at the Metropolitan
Museum.)
More of the Nativity