The Adoration of the Shepherds c. 1645
Red-brown oil paint on paper | 39.4 x 55.6 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 904080
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A drawing of the three shepherds approaching the Virgin and Child as St Joseph leans over them on the right; above the shepherds a host of angels and cherubs look down, while a group of children watch from the left. There is a broken column close to a crude shelter on the right. Though Castiglione had left Rome several years earlier, he continued to refer frequently to the paintings of Nicolas Poussin. Here he adapted the structure of the composition from Poussin’s Adoration of the Magi now in Dresden, and the figurative components from the same artist’s Adoration of the Shepherds in the National Gallery, both paintings of 1633-4.
Provenance
Probably Carlo II and Fernandino-Carlo Gonzaga, 9th and 10th Dukes of Mantua; Zaccaria Sagredo; from whose heirs purchased by Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice, 1752; from whom purchased by George III, 1762
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Medium and techniques
Red-brown oil paint on paper
Measurements
39.4 x 55.6 cm (sheet of paper)