Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1650): Art, History and Details

Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1650) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Bernardo Cavallino (Italian, 1616–1656).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Cavallino worked in Naples where he was not well known during his lifetime, but was alert to the work of contemporaries whose innovations he transformed with extraordinary delicacy and charm. The adoration of the shepherds is a traditional subject, but here Cavallino shows it in a new light. The focus is on Mary, indicating that she alone is aware of the angels who flutter above with ribbons proclaiming Gloria in Excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the highest). Joseph and the shepherds stolidly regard the child, but the sweetness of Mary's expression simultaneously reveals her love, pride, and humility.

Object facts

• Title: Adoration of the Shepherds
• Date: c. 1650
• Creator attribution: Bernardo Cavallino (Italian, 1616–1656)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 151 x 172 x 7 cm (59 7/16 x 67 11/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 126.8 x 148.3 cm (49 15/16 x 58 3/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1968.100

A detail from the museum

The artist signed this painting with his monogram “BC” on the rump of the ox.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chez Didot. Catalogue de tableaux de differens bons maîtres des trois écoles, de figures de bronze, de bustes de marbre, d'estampes montées sous verre, & d'estampes en feuilles, après le décès de M. le Marquis de Villette, Pere. Apr. 8, 1765. Chez Didot: Paris, 1766. Lot 8.
• Hôtel Drouot. Catalogue de tableaux anciens et modernes, émaux de limoges, porcelaines de la chine et du japon, objets d'art formant la collection de feu M. Auguiot . Mar. 1–2, 1875. Hôtel Drouot: Paris, 1875. p. v.
• Galleria d'Arte al Corso. Mostra di Pittura Antica. Trieste: January 1943. no. 30.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.