(Venice 1707–1769)
The Adoration of the Shepherds
oil on canvas, 144 x 118 cm, framed

We are grateful to Ugo Ruggeri for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph (written communication).

The present painting is stylistically relateded to Fontebasso’s Adoration of the Magi in Glasgow, Museums and Art Galleries, coll. Stirling-Maxwell, Pollok House (see M. Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso, Vicenza, 1988, no. 48), as well as his Adoration of the Magi in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan (see M. Magrini ibid., 1988, no. 188). Both date from a later period, but seem to rely on the same compositional prototype as the present picture.

The relationship to the Glasgow painting is corroborated by a related Holy Family (Sorlini Collection, Venice), which according to Ruggieri makes it possible to date the present painting to the artist’s first maturity, between the 1740s and 1750s. This was a period when Fontebasso had already established himself as an artist and was influenced by Tiepolo.

The volume of the figures, the impasto, and the intensive colours are characteristic features of Fontebasso’s works from this period and can be compared to his large fresco decorations in the Palazzo Duodo in Venice, executed between 1742 and 1753, especially with the ceiling painting devoted to Magnanimity.