The Adoration of the Shepherds
shortly after 1450 · Tempera on canvas, transferred from wood · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The whole painting, uncropped, on a printed cream mat with its title beneath.
Museum-quality archival paper: heavyweight, acid-free, resists yellowing
- Printed to order, arrives in 4–9 business days
- Arrives perfect or we reprint it, free
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431–1506)
- Year
- shortly after 1450
- Medium
- Tempera on canvas, transferred from wood
- Original size
- 40 × 55.6 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Movement
- Renaissance
Mary kneels in prayer over the Christ Child, who lies on a fold of her blue cloak on a stony ledge, ringed by small winged cherubs. At the left, Joseph sits asleep in a yellow cloak, his head on his hand, beside a woven fence and an orange tree. Two barefoot shepherds kneel at the right. Behind them, winding paths lead through a green landscape to steep rocks, where two more figures approach. Andrea Mantegna painted it as a young man, shortly after 1450, on a wooden panel that was later transferred to canvas. It was probably made for Borso d'Este in Ferrara, where Mantegna stayed around 1450 to 1451. The picture passed through Roman collections and English owners before the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired it in 1932.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Bright yellow, rose and blue robes in a clear green landscape under a blue sky. For a dining room, study or hallway at Christmas, pair it with Fra Angelico's The Madonna of Humility; a dark wood frame suits the warm Renaissance colours.
Size, framing & materials
- Style
- Renaissance painting
- Era
- 15th century (shortly after 1450)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- dining room, hallway or entryway, study or library, living room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 16×12, 24×18 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard. See it to scale on your wall →
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; dark wood warms it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
- Restored in-house from the original painting, cleaned and colour-trued at museum resolution
- Museum-quality archival paper: heavyweight, acid-free, resists yellowing
- Framed option: wood frame in black or dark wood, 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, with a plexiglass front and no mat; the print is mounted inside and the frame's outside measures the listed size
- Made to order; colours may vary slightly from screen
