Getty Museum
Adoration of the Shepherds
Creator
Baciccio (Giovanni Battista Gaulli)Italian Artist · 1639–1709
All works by this person →"[His] manner . . . was powerful, extravagant and altogether beautiful; he need not have envied even the greatest master," wrote Baciccio's biographer. Early contact in Genoa, Italy, with works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck influenced Baciccio deeply, as did Genoese painter Bernardo Strozzi's broad, painterly manner and warm palette. After the plague killed his family in 1657, Baciccio
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1672
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, brown wash, white gouache heightening and black chalk
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Two angels swoop down to hover above the manger where the infant Jesus lies sleeping on a pile of straw, cradled by his mother Mary. Numerous other angels peer over her shoulders, eagerly crowding around Joseph to catch a glimpse of the infant Christ, while local shepherds kneel to pay homage with their backs turned to the viewer. Baciccio concentrated on rendering the powerful effects of light in this preparatory study for his painting of the same subject in a church in central Italy. Light seems to radiate from the baby, casting a brilliant glow over the faces of those gathered around his crib. In contrast, broad areas of wash create bold shadows over the bodies of the shepherds crouched on the edge of the drawing. Baciccio also used exuberant, free lines that give the scene a sense of dynamic movement.
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