Probably by Bernardino Butinone, 'The Adoration of the Shepherds', about 1480-5

The Virgin Mary kneels in adoration before her son, Christ, who lies on his back in the hay in a manger. Behind her are two men in ragged clothes. This is the Adoration of the Shepherds, described in Gospel of Luke (2: 8–18).

The Gospel tells how an an angel appeared to shepherds one night and announced the birth of the Messiah. They were watching their flocks in the hills around Bethlehem, but hurried to the city and found Mary, her husband Joseph, and the child in a manger, as the angel had told them. The walled city in the background of this picture is presumably Bethlehem. Joseph, huddled in a yellow cloak, looks slightly despondent, and sits with his back against the wall. Beside him, a small waterskin and a round object, perhaps a flask, hang from a peg.

This small panel is one of a series that shows events from the life of Christ, painted by Bernardino Butinone probably in the early 1480s. Around 13 survive in various collections; others are lost. They perhaps came from a large multi-panelled altarpiece which possibly involved sculpture, such as were fashionable in Lombardy.

Rather than the classical ruins used for the stable by other Renaissance artists – for example in The Adoration of the Kings – here the holy family shelter in a convincing, if rather ramshackle, barn with an open front. The walls are made of broad vertical planks held in place by rough branches, behind which hay has been stuffed, perhaps as insulation. The infant Christ wears a small black cap, sometimes seen in Paduan and Venetian paintings, and lies in a kind of pen made of wattle.