About this artwork

The size and degree of finish suggest that this was a sketch or modello but there is no known work which is closely dependent on this design. The striding shepherd probably derives from a woodcut after a Titian Nativity while two kneeling peasants derive from Caravaggio's Loreto Madonna in the Church of Sant' Agostino, Rome.

Published June 2023

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Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Sir Peter Paul Rubens