Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
Portinari Triptych (detail)
StyleNorthern Renaissance
Artwork Details
Cite or Embed This Work
APA · MLA · Chicago1-click academic citation and embeddable “On View” museum badge for articles, syllabi, and research.
Hugo van der Goes painted the Portinari Triptych around 1475 in Bruges for Tommaso Portinari, director of the Medici bank's branch in the city. The massive altarpiece, measuring 253 x 304 cm overall, depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds in the central panel with donor portraits on the wings. Portinari appears with his two sons on the left; his wife Maria Baroncelli and their daughter Margarita appear on the right, each accompanied by patron saints.
The exterior panels show the Annunciation in grisaille, painted to imitate sculpture. Van der Goes developed an original style characterized by intense naturalism and chiseled drawing. The altarpiece contains some of the most complicated and hidden symbolism in any 15th-century Nativity scene. Botanical details are rendered with scientific precision, while the emotional expressions of the shepherds show unprecedented psychological depth.
Transported by sea to Florence in 1483, the triptych deeply influenced Italian artists including Domenico Ghirlandaio. It hangs at the Uffizi Gallery, van der Goes's greatest surviving work.
Portinari Triptych Series by Hugo van der Goes
More by Hugo van der Goes
View all →T
The Portinari Altarpiece, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Margaret with Maria Baroncelli and Daughter Margherita Portinari, Right Wing
Hugo van der Goes
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence
D
Death of the Virgin
Hugo van der Goes
Groeningemuseum, Bruges
V
Virgin and Child With St. Anne and a Franciscan donor
Hugo van der Goes
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
Also at Uffizi Gallery, Florence
View all →L
Landscape drawing for Santa Maria della Neve
Leonardo da Vinci
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence
P
Primavera
Sandro Botticelli, 1482
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence
T
The Discovery of the Body of Holofernes
Sandro Botticelli
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence
T
Thebaid
Fra Angelico
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Florence
Related Works
Works that share an artist, movement, museum, genre, palette or theme with Portinari Triptych (detail).
- Same artist
- Same movement
Portinari Altarpiece
Hugo van der Goes, 1475
- Same artist
- Same movement
The Adoration of the Kings (Monforte Altar)
Hugo van der Goes
- Same artist
- Same movement
Portrait of a Man of Prayer with St. John the Baptist
Hugo van der Goes
- Same movement
- Same museum
Adoration of the Magi
Albrecht Dürer, 1504
- Same movement
- Same museum
Portrait of Albrecht Dürer the Elder
Albrecht Dürer
- Same movement
- Same museum
Alliance Coat of Arms
Albrecht Dürer
- Same movement
Arnolfini Portrait
Jan van Eyck, 1434
- Same movement
Ghent Altarpiece
Jan van Eyck, 1432
- Same movement
The Annunciation
Jan van Eyck, 1436
- Same movement
The Haywain Triptych
Hieronymus Bosch, 1516
- Same movement
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch, 1510
- Same movement
Christ Carrying the Cross
Hieronymus Bosch
About Portinari Triptych (detail)
The triptych is at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It arrived in 1483 and deeply influenced Italian Renaissance painters who saw it.
Tommaso Portinari, director of the Medici bank in Bruges, commissioned it for his family chapel. He and his family appear as donors in the wing panels.
The altarpiece measures 253 x 304 cm (about 8.3 x 10 feet) overall. It's Hugo van der Goes's largest and greatest surviving work.
The naturalism, emotional expressiveness, and detailed symbolism influenced artists like Ghirlandaio. Its arrival in Florence in 1483 had considerable impact on Italian painting.
Own Art Like This
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection