Adorazione dei Pastori

The figure of Mary stands out in the light of the clouds that invade the modest hut, among happy angels for the birth of the Savior: someone holds a flowering branch, lifts a veil, waves the censer or kisses the hand of Jesus. Joseph points to the wrapped child. in swaddling clothes in a manger to the shepherds surprised by the divine event, who rushed to Bethlehem after the angel's announcement of the Savior's birth, as Saint Luke narrates. With this extraordinary image, which enhances the compositional and pictorial qualities of Maratta, creator of many Marian iconographies, the Stories of the Old and the New Testament conclude in the upper part of the walls of the Gallery of Alexander VII, in which a symbolic reference to the history of Salvation or to the purity of Mary is identified.