The Adoration of the Shepherds

A print after a painting now in the Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford (inv. no. 88) where it is attributed to Girolamo da Treviso. Signed by the printmaker with the attribution of the painting to Raphael; lettered with the title which is a quotation from Pietro Metastasio.  


Ruland (1876) catalogued this painting as a lost work by Raphael called the "Nativity of the Canossa family". Passavant, quoting Giorgio Vasari's description of a Birth of Christ with St Anne by Raphael, also believed the painting to be lost (see Bibliographic References). The only known painting by Raphael which was previously in the collection of the Count Canossa is a Holy Family, now in the Prado, Madrid (inv. no. P000301), which is commonly known as 'La Perla'. See RCIN 851004 for a photograph of the painting. The painting that Passavant and Ruland correctly recognised as 'La Perla' is probably the one that Vasari describes as a Birth of Christ with St Anne (now at the Prado), while the one reproduced in this print bears no relationship with the Canossa family or the description by Vasari.