Adoration of the Shepherds
Bernardo Cavallinoc. 1650
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Cavallino worked in Naples where he was not well known during his lifetime, but was alert to the work of contemporaries whose innovations he transformed with extraordinary delicacy and charm. The adoration of the shepherds is a traditional subject, but here Cavallino shows it in a new light. The focus is on Mary, indicating that she alone is aware of the angels who flutter above with ribbons proclaiming <em>Gloria in Excelsis Deo</em> (Glory to God in the highest). Joseph and the shepherds stolidly regard the child, but the sweetness of Mary's expression simultaneously reveals her love, pride, and humility.
- Title: Adoration of the Shepherds
- Creator: Bernardo Cavallino (Italian, 1616–1656)
- Date Created: c. 1650
- Physical Dimensions: Framed: 151 x 172 x 7 cm (59 7/16 x 67 11/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 126.8 x 148.3 cm (49 15/16 x 58 3/8 in.)
- Provenance: Marquis de Villette, Château de Villette, Oise, Jean Baptiste Angiot, Paris (sale: Hotel Drouot, Paris, March 1-2, 1875, cat. no. 41, as Benedetto Castiglione), Private Collection, Buenos Aires, [Frederick Mont, New York], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.100
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Inscriptions: Signed left on ox: "BC [monogram]"
- Fun Fact: The artist signed this painting with his monogram “BC” on the rump of the ox.
- Department: European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: Italy, 17th century
- Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
- Accession Number: 1968.100
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