The Adoration of the Shepherds
c. 1475/1485
Sculptor, Florentine, 1437 - 1493


West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G15
Artwork overview
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Medium
terracotta
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 81 × 65 cm (31 7/8 × 25 9/16 in.)
framed: 132.72 × 102.87 × 11.11 cm (52 1/4 × 40 1/2 × 4 3/8 in.)
framed weight: 92.987 kg (205 lb.) -
Accession
1939.1.333
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Count Mastiani, Florence.[1] Charles Fairfax Murray [1849-1919], London and Florence. Andrea di Robilant, Venice;[2] (his sale, Galleria Bellini, Florence, 22-27 May 1933, no. 30, as by Andrea Verrochio); probably purchased by (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); purchased July 1934 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The invoice from Contini Bonacossi to the Kress Foundation, dated 13 July 1934, includes five paintings on panel and one terracotta, which is identified as Nativity by Andrea Verrocchio, formerly in the collection of Count Mastiani, Florence (copy in NGA curatorial files). A typed label tacked to the reverse of the wood frame around the sculpture includes the information "Formerly in Coll. of Count Mastiani Florence."
[2] Provenance according to Ulrich Middeldorf, Complete Catalogue of the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Sculptures XIV-XIX Century, London, 1976: 41; Fairfax Murray's ownership is documented by a photograph in the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1935
Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, A.S. Drey Galleries, New York, 1935, no. 16, as by Andrea del Verrocchio.
2019
Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence, Palazzo Strozzi and Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (as Verrocchio: Master of Leonardo); National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, Florence catalogue, no. 5.3, repro; Washington catalogue, no. 21, repro.
Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 238, no. A-37, as by Verrocchio.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 254, repro. 238, as by Verrocchio.
1943
Swarzenski, Georg. "Some Aspects of Italian Quattrocento Sculpture in the National Gallery." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th series, 24 (November 1943): 297 fig. 12, 298.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 173, as by Verrocchio.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 153, repro., as by Verrocchio.
1976
Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 41.
1994
Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 84, repro.
2009
Pisani, Linda. "Maestro di Pio II (?). 21. Madonna col Bambino." In Andrea De Marchi and Gabriele Fattorini, eds. La collezione Salini: Addenda Pittura e scultura (secoli XIV-XVI). Vol. 3 of 4 vols. Florence, 2015: 174, as a late work.
Wikidata ID
Q63809435