Adoration of the Shepherds
Ca. 1647. Oil on panel.Not on display
Infra-red reflectography conducted for this catalogue reveals no underdrawing, which could suggest that this painting is a copy, possibly a workshop replica of the signed original in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux. There used to be another very similar version of this original in the Hoogsteder Gallery in The Hague.
The inscription Rf. is an apocryphal signature possibly intended, as Valdivieso (1973) points out, to be interpreted Rembrandt fecit. Analysis under an electronic microscope shows, firstly, that this inscription is underneath the glaze but not integrated into the paint. Secondly, the glaze in this area has an unusual crackled effect, unlike that which appears on the rest of the pictorial surface. This would appear to confirm subsequent manipulation in order to add the inscription (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 302).
