Luca Signorelli, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds', probably about 1490-1510

Three shepherds kneel to worship the newborn baby Christ. According to the Gospel of Luke, the shepherds were told of the birth of a saviour by an angel and went in search of the child: ‘they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.’ (Luke 2:16).

The size and shape of this little panel makes it look like it is part of a predella, the lowest tier of an altarpiece which runs along the bottom of the main image. But the decorative framing elements make it more likely that it was intended as a stand-alone image, possibly the bottom edge of a tabernacle, a container in which the Host (the bread consecrated at the Eucharist) was stored.

The painting was once thought to be unfinished but it is more likely that it was simply painted quite quickly. The figures' postures are dictated by the panel’s shape; Signorelli has compressed their substantial bodies into the available space by showing them almost doubled over in prayer before the tiny Christ, who lies naked on the ground. The Virgin Mary kneels and bows her head before her child while her husband Joseph sits on a low rock, forcing his knees up towards his chest, his pose mirroring the shepherd on the far left. The front two kneeling shepherds resemble those in another, much larger Adoration of the Shepherds by Signorelli, though they bow more deeply to the ground.

Despite its small scale, the panel demonstrates Signorelli’s immense skill at drawing the human body in complex poses, covering and revealing forms through their draperies. The gravity of the figures here is emphasised by the deep folds of their thick draperies, which add volume to their shape. It’s not surprising then that someone has tried to copy their forms by tracing the outlines with a sharp tool – close observation reveals incision lines around their bodies and the folds of their robes, showing how hard the person pressed. The panel has suffered other damage since it was painted: the edges have been cut and the landscape on the right-hand side was part of a restoration, probably dating to the eighteenth century.