Andalusian school of the second half of the seventeenth... Lot n° 27

Andalusian school of the second half of the seventeenth century. "The adoration of the shepherds". Oil on canvas. Relined. With repainting and restorations. Measurements: 137 x 151 cm; 158 x 171 cm (frame). The painter of this canvas is interested in approaching the theme of adoration in a naturalistic way, emphasizing the humble environment that welcomes in its bosom the birth of the Child Jesus. It is a painting indirectly influenced by the soft and delicate style of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The shepherds, devoid of all eloquent and ornate gestures, kneel or bow silently around the infant, whose small body rests on a bed of straw. The Virgin wraps the child in white cloths, and St. Joseph, at her side, holds the lily wand, a characteristic attribute of his iconography. Thus, Jesus occupies the center of the composition, and the contrasting lights contribute to order the figures and direct the viewer's gaze to each corner of the manger. In this canvas we see a theme very repeated throughout the History of Art, and that during the Andalusian baroque period knew a remarkable boom. The humanity that permeates the scene made the faithful identify with it, an intention that would characterize Spanish religious art from the Counter-Reformation onwards.