The Adoration of the Shepherds

Two shepherds have come to venerate the infant Christ. Mary, Jesus, and Joseph turn their heads and glance into the viewer’s space. The figures are set within a rustic manger, above which angles carrying a scroll of music are singing and celebrating. The ethereal angel in the distance is the Archangel Gabriel, who announced Jesus’s birth to the shepherds.

Due to his criminal tendencies, the artist Boccaccio Boccaccino had an itinerant career working in many Northern Italian cities, in particular Ferrara, Venice, and his native Cremona where he frescoed the dome of the cathedral. He had a talent for absorbing diverse styles. In this painting, he skillfully imitates the work of Giovanni Bellini and evinces understanding of the new style of Giorgione.