Adoration of the Shepherds

This painting exemplifies the formally sober, clear and explicitly iconographic language of the artist Daniele Crespi. The horizontal format urges the viewer to focus attention on the event taking place in the foreground. The protagonists invade the scene, excluding the background or any other element characterising the surroundings. The face of the Virgin, idealised and delicate, contrasts with the characteristic profiles of the shepherds and of Joseph himself, revealing influences of Caravaggio