Tommaso Portinari, the Medici bank's agent in Bruges, ordered this triptych of the Adoration of the Shepherds from Hugo van der Goes for the church of Florence's hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. The wings show Portinari, his wife and children with their patron saints. Its rough, sharply observed shepherds impressed Florentine painters when it arrived in 1483.
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In the foreground stand a sheaf of wheat and two vessels of flowers, including irises and columbines, each loaded with meaning about Christ's Passion and the Eucharist.
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