Both paintings focus on the life of Jesus, but at different times in his life. The Adoration of the Shepherds shows us Christ soon after being born. Cigoli chose to depict when the shepherds arrived to give praise to Christ after following the star of Bethelham. Moretto decided to pick a time much later in the bible when Christ was about to be buried after being taken down from the cross and brought to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. Both paintings tell their respective stories more clearly by visualizing as much as possible. In Entombment for example, Cigoli displayed Joseph and Nicodemus holding a crown of thorns and nails in order to help us understand that this sce

Christ in both paintings is very similar to one another. In both paintings, Christ is the is the point of view and is surrounded at all sides by people. What I found most interesting though is that Christ acts as an arrow in both pictures. In the Adoration of the Shepherds, Christ is angled so our eyes follow an imaginary line from him to the torch the man holds in the doorway. In Entombment, Christ's body is leaned to the side and his arms are held out making Christ look like a giant arrow which points to the three crosses alone on the top of the hill where the crucifixion took place. With the exception of the crosses, there is nothing else on the hill. Both artists chose to do this for different reasons. I think Cigoli chose to do that in order to add balance to the picture. When looking at the painting the viewers eyes get caught first by the large light source on top and then the viewer works his way down to the light on Jesus and from here the "arrow" Christ works because he points to the third light source adding total balance of the light. Even though the picture is asymmetrical, it still has balance and harmony because of this. For Entombment, I think Moretto kept the hill bare with a barron, dismal backround of greys in order to show the loneliness and pain of being crucified. To see Christs body and to know he was up there on one of those crosses alone makes you feel more pity for him. But Christ's body may also be pointing to the light that is fading over the hill which may be Christ after he left his body since he was known as the bringer of light.

Both artists composed the figures in different styles. Adoration of the Shepherds is a baroque moment while Entombment is a static composition. In the Adoration of the Shepherds, Mary seems to have just unveiled Jesus and people can be seen still filing into the manger and some of the shepherds struggle to get a glimpse. You can feel that it is the beginning of a long night. People are not positioned just for this picture. They are all in action. In Entombment, all the figures are posed around Christ and are not in any action except for Mary who has to hold Christ. The characters seem to display themselves in positions specifically for us to see. Cigoli's baroque style adds a greater sense of celebration and commotion by having movement throughout the large picture. Moretto's painting benefits from static composition because it adds to the stillness of the background. In the background everything seems motionless, including the tree and the sky. The stillness of the foreground characters help magnify the effect and make it seem like time had stood still for a moment to help commemorate the event.

Morretto and Cigoli each worked with the brush carefully in different ways to create their masterpieces. Cigoli bl

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