Getty Museum
The Circumcision
Creator
Simon BeningFlemish Illuminator · 1483–1561
All works by this person →One of the most celebrated painters of Flanders in the 1500s, Simon Bening was hailed by Portuguese art critic Francisco da Hollanda as the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe. In addition to producing books for powerful aristocrats such as Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Bening worked for a group of international royal patrons including Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infan
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1525–1530
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf
- Culture
- Flemish
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
As was customary according to Hebrew law, a priest circumcised Jesus on the eighth day after his birth. Within this cavernous temple interior, that priest pierces the infant's skin with his knife. Simon Bening implied the building's enormity in part by cutting off pillars and statues at the edge of the image, which forcefully suggests the continuation of the space beyond the confines of the miniature. Medieval Christians viewed the circumcision as related to the final events of Christ's life, his Passion and death, because he shed his first blood then. They often discussed Christ's first suffering as a kind of foreshadowing of his final sacrifice on the cross.
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