1575
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Adoration of the Shepherds is a 1575 by Denys Calvaert, a Renaissance work, depicting Adoration of the Shepherds, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This sketch shows a group of people gathered around a baby in a manger. The figures are drawn in quick, rough lines. Some stand, some kneel, and one holds a hat. The background has faint trees and a few animals. The artist used thin, layered lines to build up shadows and shapes. This makes the drawing look almost three-dimensional. Look up cross-hatching to see how this technique works.
The work is a pen and brown ink drawing with black chalk and brown wash, heightened with white, on brown paper, and includes squared lines for transfer. It was purchased from London dealer Robert Jackson in 1885 as part of a group of forty drawings for £5. 17s. 6d.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Denis Calvaert was an Antwerp-born Flemish painter who spent most of his life in Italy, where he was known as Dionisio Fiammingo or simply Il Fiammingo.
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