An Uffizi Adoration that upstages even the Botticellis

Tourists who queue for hours outside the Uffizi to see Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ and ‘Birth of Venus’ are sometimes surprised to find his world-famous paintings upstaged by the work of a non-Italian they’ve never heard of.

At three metres tall and five metres wide, Hugo van der Goes’s ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ – known as the ‘Portinari Altarpiece’ – is certainly imposing, but it’s not the size that impresses so much as the colour: beside the glow of its Flemish oil paint, Botticelli’s tempera looks pasty. Despite its modern medium, though, and the realism of its technique, this monumental altarpiece by Botticelli’s Netherlandish contemporary appears more gothic than renaissance in feeling. Its devotional power holds the floor; once in the room, it’s hard to take one’s eyes off it.

 The painter of this triptych commissioned for the church of Sant’Egidio at Santa Maria Nuova hospital is a shadowy figure. For years his name was forgotten and guidebooks to Florence misattributed his work to Andrea del Castagno, a Florentine artist who helped to decorate the church walls.