Lot Essay
The composition is adapted from the Adoration of the Shepherds of circa 1562 by Jacopo Bassano in the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Corsini, Rome. We are grateful to Dr. Bernard Aikema for suggesting, on the basis of photographs, that this is a workshop picture of circa 1600-1620, a time when Leandro took over the running of the Bassano workshop. We are also grateful to Professor Alessandro Ballarin for further suggesting, again on the basis of photographs, that this may even be an early work by Leandro Bassano himself, possibly painted before his departure for Venice in 1588. Finally we are also grateful to Professor Roger Rearick, who on the basis of photographs, regards the present work as a good workshop picture that relates closely to Leandro.