The Adoration of the Shepherds

The Christ child, nude and seated on a bundle of straw in a contrapposto pose, receives the homage of a shepherd and his wife, who kneel at the right. St. Joseph stands behind them, while the Virgin, kneeling in the left foreground, extends her left hand towards the child and uplifts her right hand, as if to answer the shepherd's gesture of salutation. Behind her, an old woman advances, followed by a youth holding a lantern. In the background the ass pulls fodder from the hay-rick and the ox lies on the ground. The scene takes place in a ruined and open rectangular hall with courses of stones and ceiling-beams of wood set in perspective. On the left of the ruins a column supports the spring of an arch. Two landscape vistas open at left and right.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Markus Antokolsky, Paris, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; Markus Antokolsky Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 10, 1901, no. 58; A. von Lanna, Prague, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; A. von Lanna Sale, Berlin, November 9, 1909, no. 47; George Robinson Harding, London, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.