Italian school; first half of the 17th century. "Adoration of the Shepherds". Oil on copper. Size: 23,5 x 31 cm; 36 x 43,5 cm (frame). This canvas represents a classic theme in the History of Art, that of the shepherds adoring the newborn Baby Jesus in the Bethlehem s portal. It is a scene that lends itself to being interpreted as a large composition with numerous characters, worked in a costumbrista style, which is why it was very much to the taste of Baroque painters, who sought above all a natural and close art that would move the spirit of the faithful and make them feel close to what was represented on the canvas, to the sacred story. This work belongs to the Italian Baroque school, which draws its references from Greco-Latin classicism and the Renaissance of the early 16th century. His style is based on the study of natural truth, of reality as a model, although in a more aesthetic and idealised manner than Caravaggio, in a clearly classical sense. Following the aesthetics of Jacopo Bassano, who was one of the great masters of Venetian painting, son and father of painters and specialised in works, both secular and religious, full of characters and animals, of a genre of manners, announcing the creation of this genre in the following century. He was already highly esteemed in his day for his precision and taste for detail in depicting characters, animals and settings. His first dated work dates from 1528 and around 1533 he was already in Venice, where he began to use engravings by Titian, Dürer, Agostino Veneziano and Marcantonio Raimondi for his compositions, interpreting them in his own personal style. The following year he gained access to a more powerful and wealthy clientele through Andrea Navagero, at which point his work began to be more influenced by Raphael, and he moved towards a style closer to Parmigianino and Moretto around 1540.