The Adoration of the Shepherds

The monumental conception of the composition, with small figures in a grand setting, and the shaped top of the canvas together indicate that this painting corresponds to an altarpiece. Moreover, the inattention to fine detail and very loose handling mean that it was either a preparatory study—a bozzetto—or a replica of the sort appreciated by collectors of the time. The interpretation of the subject depends upon Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’scelebrated altarpiece in the church of San Luca, Genoa. The fluid movements, unusual color—silvery in the highlights, smoldering in the darks—and morphology, like the ovoid head of the Virgin, suggest that this is an early work by Bartolomeo Biscaino, a vibrant but short-lived painter in the circle of Valerio Castello, whose Ecstasy of Saint Francis is also in the Blanton's collections.