The Adoration of the Shepherds
Second quarter of the XVIII century. Pencil on white paper.Not on display
This drawing is a more complete variant on the central part of a drawing by Creti at the Albertina in Vienna. The composition is quite similar to a canvas with Adoration of the Shepherds from around 1740, which has a similar placement of the Virgin and Child, the group of shepherds on the right, and the woman seen from the back, climbing the stairs with a basket on her head. However, the left part of the scene is totally different. The Museo del Prado’s drawing is from late in Creti’s career, and the multiplicity of parallel and crossing lines influenced his disciple, Ercole Graziani’s graphic style.
Donato Creti (1671-1749) trained at Lorenzo Pasinelli’s workshop in Bologna, where he discovered Bolognese Seicento classicism through the work of Carracci, Reni, Cantarini, Cignani and others, and became that tendency’s last great exponent. His highly refined style is imbued with a certain melancholy and a clearly mannerist affectation. Many of his drawings have survived and they represent the maximum evolution of Reni and Cantarini’s style (Text drawn from Mena Marqués, M.B., Catálogo de dibujos. VII. Dibujos italianos del siglo XVIII y del siglo XIX, Museo del Prado, 1990, pp. 54-55).
