Shepherds in Adoration

This drawing is thought to date from Parmigianino's stay in Rome from 1524 to 1527. Rome was crucial to his development as a graphic artist. It was there that he began to make prints and this drawing is a study for two prints of 'The Adoration of the Shepherds'.

The shepherds appear as an excitable crowd, rushing onto the scene. They jostle each other as the eagerly present their gifts, adding movement and emotion to the intimate, dignified main event of the Christ Child's birth.