The Adoration of the Shepherds

Artist Otto Van Veen (Leiden, c. 1556 - 1629 Brussels)

Datec. 1600

MediumOil on Copper

Dimensions34 1/2 x 28 7/8 in. (87.6 x 73.3 cm)
Framed: 43 x 37 x 2 7/8 in. (109.2 x 94 x 7.3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 2013

Object numberSN11348

In this large copper panel, Van Veen created a dense, horizontally oriented composition using brilliant primary colors. Although Rubens came to adopt a more painterly working method than his teacher, the amalgamation of physiognomies that are found in this work - from the graceful Virgin to the heroic male shepherd to the androgynous angel - appear in paintings by Rubens as well, such as his Adoratioll of the Shepherds now in the St. Pauluskerk, Antwerp. In Van Veen's own oeuvre, this work is closely related to another Nativity on copper in the Gemaldegalerie,Schleissheim, which bdongs to a series of fifteen paintings depicting the Life of the Virgin. The Schleissheim painting, though smaller (23.5 x 32 em.), contains a virtually identical shepherd kneeling at the right, and in both works the shepherd presents the Christ child with humble gifts of apples, eggs, birds, and a lamb. The bound lamb, likely alluding to Christ's future sacrifice, appears as ,veil in works by other artists painting for Catholic patrons in the Netherlands. It is seen, for example, in Abrahanl Bloemaert's Adoratioll of the Shepherds of 1612 in the Louvre (inv. 1052). The present work is likely earlier, for the reverse of the panel bears the mark used by Antwerp coppersmith Pieter Stas before 1608.

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