The shepherds come to adore the new-born Jesus in the stable. New Testament (Luke 2: 8-14). In the background the angel announces the birth of Christ to them. Poussin uses a long-established motif, & places the Nativity in a stable built into the ruins of a classical building. This motif appears in the National Gallery's earliest Botticelli, ' Adoration of the Kings', & Poussin's contemporaries the Le Nain brothers used it in their ' Adoration of the Shepherds' of about 1640. The ruins represent the collapse of the Old Dispensation, the law of the Old Testament, superseded by the New Dispensation, the kingdom of Christ. The figure of the kneeling shepherd derives from that of one of the magi in ' The Adoration of the Magi' by the studio of Raphael (Rome, Vatican Loggie). Each figure shows a different stage in the bending motion of the human body. ...

Rembrandt: The adoration of the shepherdsshows Joseph behind the Virgin while two shepherds kneel before the crib. Behind, two women hold up a small child so that it can see Jesus. In the shadows on the right stand a group of five other figures, among them a boy with a dog. This Rembrandt painting is available as a print or framed print from the National Gallery. ...

In the right background is the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The painting was in the past attributed to Velazquez & to Zurbaran, & it has also been thought to be the work of various Neapolitan painters of the early 17th century. It is first recorded ...

Thirteen panels illustrating the life of Christ & comparable in size & style are known. They mainly depict incidents from the Life & Passion of Christ. It has been suggested that these works, probably with some others which are now lost, came from a ...

Painted in 1496 for the church of San Francesco in Città di Castello. Joseph is seated to the right while the shepherds kneel or prepare to kneel to the left; in the distance the angel is seen announcing Christ's birth. Within the portico is a scene representing the decree of taxation by the Emperor Augustus which had prompted Joseph & Mary to journey to Bethlehem. ...

In the background, an angel announces Christ’s birth to the shepherds. In the foreground, the same shepherds join the Virgin in worshipping the new-born Child. The ox & ass are stabled behind the manger. This painting originally formed the left-hand side of a diptych, bound in violet velvet with The Dead Christ at the right. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Guido Reni’s The Adoration of the Shepherds from our collection. About this painting The Adoration of the Shepherds, about 1640 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1957 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door. ...

In front of classical ruins (symbolic of the old order, now superseded by Christianity) the shepherds, represented by the bare-footed old peasant kneeling prominently to the left with the ox & two boys behind, adore the Christ Child. The treatment of the Virgin & Saint Joseph, & of the ass silhouetted against the wall to the right, may have been influenced by the work of Orazio Gentileschi, a follower of Caravaggio who had worked in Paris. The mood in the painting is one of unusual calm & stillness, focused upon the Christ Child lying on the straw. Like a number of other paintings by the Le Nain brothers this one is painted over another composition. The head of the Virgin Mary in the earlier composition can be made out between those of Joseph & the boy shepherd. ...

Saint Joseph stands behind the Virgin who kneels by the Christ Child. The ox & ass are in the stall behind the manger. New Testament (Luke 2: 15-16). The composition derives from Rembrandt's versions of the subject, notably those of 1646 in Munich (Alte Pinakothek) & in the National Gallery. Barent was the younger brother of the painter Carel Fabritius, who had been one of Rembrandt's most talented pupils & who was prematurely killed in the explosion of the municipal gunpowder magazine in Delft in 1654. The Gallery owns two works by Carel: 'A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall' & 'A Young Man in a Fur Cap & a Cuirass (Self Portrait?)'. Barent mostly painted religious history scenes, genre subjects & portraits. ...

This panel is usually said to have been part of a predella of an altarpiece, but it may have formed a single panel, possibly below an altarpiece. Although evidently painted very quickly, as was commonly the case with Signorelli, some of the forms
- notably the cloak of Saint Joseph
- have great monumentality.

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