Adoration of the Shepherds
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
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About this painting
Luke has it the other way round. There the angels sing Glory to God in the highest to shepherds in a field; Mary hears of it when they arrive and repeat it. Cavallino reverses the traffic: the angels are here, overhead, with ribbons lettered Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and Cleveland's reading is that Mary alone is aware of them. Joseph and the shepherds stolidly regard the child.
He signed where no one looks, BC on the rump of the ox. The shepherds' news has become her secret; her face, Cleveland says, holds love, pride and humility at once.
Sources: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Adoration of the Shepherds', Bernardo Cavallino, acc. 1968.100, description and 'Did you know?'. · The Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access API, record 1968.100. · Luke 2:8-19, Douay-Rheims (Challoner).
Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will.
Luke 2:14 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 5,395 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.