The Adoration of the Shepherds

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, four people surround a nude infant boy in this nighttime horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. The pudgy baby has short brown hair and lies on a white cloth, holding the end of a translucent yellow cloth with one chubby hand. The largest person is Mary, who stands just right of center. Her hair is covered by a sheer white cloth, and she wears a lapis-blue robe over a muted rose-pink, long-sleeved dress. She holds her fingertips together over the child as she looks down at him. Two bearded men with gray hair stand to our left of Mary. The leftmost man faces our right in profile. He holds both hands up, palms out and fingers loosely curled toward the child. He wears a soft red cloak over a pale yellow garment. He and the man next to him look down at the baby. That second man holds one hand to his chest over a pale gray cloak, and the rest of his body is lost in shadow. The final person is a clean-shaven man to the right. He tips his head up and holds his hands together in prayer. He wears an olive-green jacket over a white shirt. This person tilts his head back with lips parted and eyes lifted so he looks up and to our left. The background is dark and includes what appears to be a stone building with arched windows. In the deep distance in the upper right corner of the painting, three small people are illuminated by a glow of golden and coral-red light breaking through a bank of dark clouds. A winged angel hovers in the light.