How could one explain this image to a visitor from afar? A grand hall with ornate carved structures and tiled floor is painted on a small panel. An infant, held by a cloaked figure and attended by another in red, writhes in pain or starts in surprise. A man holding two birds looks askance; two further figures observe the scene. Each person has a thin gold ring around their face or floating above their head. We might gather that the event is ceremonial and sacred. From the Bible we learn that the Christ Child was circumcised on his eighth day, on 1 January, according to the rite prescribed in the Old Testament.[1] On that day Jesus was also named.

In early depictions the Circumcision of Christ takes place at home, performed by Joseph, but representation of the actual act is avoided. Later the event is set in a large building—as in images of the Infant Christ’s Presentation in the Temple—although the Child continued to be veiled. From the mid 1400s, with the new emphasis on the human form, the Child’s genitals became the focus. Bernardino Butinone has made a valiant effort to portray the foreshortened figure of Jesus, kicking and struggling in Mary’s arms while the priest performs the act. Those around look on calmly, even stoically. The doves held by Joseph to donate to the temple are a sign of Mary’s purified state. She is therefore able to stand witness to her Son—whereas, by Jewish law, a woman was prevented from entering the temple until the fortieth day after she had given birth.[2]The altar is carved with figures representing the Transfiguration of Christ, with Moses and Elijah on either side of him—a reference to the scene on a mountain when Jesus appears in glorious form, identified as the Son of God.

The Circumcision of Christ is one of a series of panels by Butinone depicting the Life of Christ and his Passion, probably part of an altarpiece.[3] In some of the other panels we find the same colourful tiled floors and architectural settings rendered with rigorous perspective. Personalities start to emerge, such as the rather nervous Joseph with yellow cloak, woolly grey beard and oversized head. Butinone’s distinctive, even eccentric types are characteristic and link him to the lively drawing of the Ferrarese school, Cosmè Tura in particular.[4] This panel would have been grouped with other early events, including the Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi, Massacre of the Innocents and Flight into Egypt,[5]with the scenes read sequentially like those of a monumental fresco cycle. The ceremonial act of the removal of Christ’s foreskin was the first shedding of his blood, and was thus understood as prefiguring the Crucifixion.

Lucina Ward

[1]‘And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations’, Genesis, 17:12.

[2]Diane Owen Hughes, ‘Distinguishing signs: Ear-rings, Jews and Franciscan rhetoric in the Italian Renaissance city’, Past & Present, no. 112, August 1986, pp. 3–59 (p. 3).

[3]In its complete state the altarpiece may also have included sculptural figures; see Federico Zeri, ‘Two contributions to Lombard quattrocento painting’, Burlington Magazine, vol. 97, no. 624, March 1955, pp. 74, 76–77, 79.

[4]Cosmè Tura (c.1433–1495).

[5]National Gallery, London; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; Art Institute of Chicago (two panels).