At the base of a steep, grassy hill, five shepherds kneel, sit, and recline around and among two cows, several sheep, a goat, and a dog in the lower half of this painting, while a winged angel appears in a golden shaft of light in the upper half of this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin. One brown cow spans most of the composition along the bottom, its head facing our left. In the lower left corner, closest to us, a man smoking a long pipe reclines against a tangerine-orange cloth. He wears a round, brimmed cap, a loose white shirt, tattered gray, knee-length pants, and gray…
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The Annunciation to the Shepherds

Jacopo Bassano (Venetian, c. 1510 - 1592)

probably 1555/1560

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 106.1 x 82.6 cm (41 3/4 x 32 1/2 in.) ; framed: 131 x 106.7 x 10.6 cm (51 9/16 x 42 x 4 3/16 in.)
Culture
Venetian
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CIS-R
Credit line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art