Shepherds and the infant Christ to the left of an Adoration of the Shepherds

Artist/Maker

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 65,6 x 36,8 cm

Inventory numberNMH 1362/1863 recto

AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum (Carl Gustaf Tessin)

Other titlesTitel (sv): Herdarna och Jesusbarnet till vänster om herdarnas tillbedjan Titel (en): Shepherds and the infant Christ to the left of an Adoration of the Shepherds Titel i inventariet (sv): Herdarna tillbedja Jesusbarnet

DescriptionDescription: The sheet is made up of two pieces of paper, the join being about 10,5 cm from the top of the recto Numbered at lower right in pen and brown ink: 1182 (Sparre) In the Tessin inventories this and the following sheet [It. Drawings no. 609] were listed under Girolamo Muziano. Sirén did not include either of them in his catalogue of the Italian drawings in the Nationalmuseum. Nils Lindhagen, who first attributed them to Taddeo Zuccaro, also demonstrated that they were both fragments of larger representations, on several sheets pasted together, of an "Adoration of the Magi" (NM 1361 and 1362 verso) and an "Adoration of the Shepherds" (NM 1360 and 1362 verso). Gere showed in 1963 their correct realtion to each other, as established by the position of the joins in the paper. Further it was shown by Gere (1963) that the "Adoration of the Magi" in Stockholm is a sketch, or rather an unfinished cartoon, for a panel painting that Philip Pouncey had attributed to Taddeo (Fitzwilliam Museum). The "Adoration of the Shepherds", according to Gere, closely resembles two other drawings (Chatsworth and the Uffizi). In his 1969 oeuvre catalogue, he links them with the first (rejected) program for Taddeo's principle work, the frescoes in the Matthew Chapel, in S. Maria della Consolazione, Rome, begun in about 1553. The Stockholm version, however, is a vertical composition, while the other two are broader than they are tall. Gere's explanation is that our motif has been taken from the uncompleted Matthew program and adapted to serve as an alternative proposal when Taddeo was negotiating the commission for the Fitzwilliam painting [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 608]

Collection

Geographical origin

MaterialPaper, Black chalk (Crayon)

TechniqueDrawing

Object category