86 The Adoration of the
Shepherds
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, and white gouache
heightening, incised for transfer; H: 27.9 cm (n in.); W:
18. i cm (yVsin.)
86.GA.592 (SEE PLATE n)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left, inscribed
P. P. Rub ... in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Henri Tersmitten, Amsterdam (sale, Jean
de Bary and Pierre Yver, Amsterdam, September 23 et
seq., 1754, lot 430); Pieter Testas the Younger, Amster-
dam (sale, Hendrik de Leth, Amsterdam, March 29,
1757, lot 49); Gerard Hoet, Jr., The Hague (sale, Ottho
van Thol, The Hague, August 25-28, 1760, lot 243);
Dionis Muilman, Amsterdam (sale, Jan de Bosch, Jr.,
Corn. Ploos van Amstel, Hendrik de Winter, Amster-
dam, March 29, 1773, lot 965); M. Neyman, Amsterdam
(sale, F. Basan, Paris, July 8-n, 1776, lot 755); Armand-
Frédéric-Ernest Nogaret (sale, Langlier, Antoine C. D.
Thierry, Paris, April 6, 1807, lot 457); sale, Christie's,
London, April 2, 1947 , lot 47; Ludwig Burchard, Lon-
don; W. Burchard, Farnham; art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Drawings by Old Masters, Royal Academy
of Arts, London, 1953, no. 292 (catalogue by K. T. Par-
ker and J. Byam Shaw); Flemish Art 1300-1700, Royal
Academy of Arts, London, Winter 1953-54, n°- 5°7
(catalogue of drawings by K. T. Parker and J. Byam
Shaw); De Madonna in de Kunst, Museum voor Schone
Kunsten, Antwerp, August-November 1954, no. 335
(catalogue by F. Baudoin, F. van den Wijngaert, and J.
van Herck); Tekeningen van P. P. Rubens, Rubenshuis,
Antwerp, June-September 1956, no. 48 (catalogue by
L. Burchard and R.-A. d'Hulst).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Basan, Dictionnaire des graveurs: An-
ciens et modernes depuis l'origine de la gravure (Paris, 1767),
p. 14, no. il bis; C. G. Voorhelm Schneevoogt, Catalogue
des estampes gravées d'après P. P. Rubens (Haarlem, 1873),
p. 18, under no. 41; M. Rooses, L'oeuvre de P. P. Rubens
(Antwerp, 1892), vol. 5, p. 60, under no. 1253; E.
Haverkamp-Begemann, Olieverfschetsen van Rubens,
exh. cat. (Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotter-
dam, 1953), p. 50, under no. 20; F. Baudouin, "De Aan-
bidding der Herders, een Schets van P. P. Rubens," An-
twerpen i (1955), p. 3; L. Burchard and R.-A. d'Hulst,
Rubens Drawings (Brussels, 1963), vol. i, p. 114 , under
no. 68; F. Baudouin, Rubens en Zijn Eeuw (Antwerp,
1972), pp. 89-91; idem, Pietro Paolo Rubens (Antwerp,
1977), pp. 131-32; J. R. Judson and C. van de Yelde,
Book Illustrations and Title-Pages, Corpus Rubenianum
Ludwig Burchard, vol. 21 (London and Philadelphia,
1978), vol. i, pp. 130-31, no. 2ia; A.-M. Logan, "Re-
view of Julius S. Held: Rubens: Selected Dr aw ings," Master
Drawings 25, no. i (Spring 1987), p. 64.THE ACCOUNTS OF THE PLANTIJN PRESS FROM THE
years 1610-18 record a payment to Rubens for nine de-
signs for a new edition of the Breviarium romanum (com-
pleted by March 10, 1614)* which included the present
drawing (Judson and van de Velde 1978, vol. 2, p. 447).
On April 12, 1614, Theodore Galle received payment for
cutting the plate for the engraving (ibid., p. 455), which
is in reverse of the drawing and departs from it only in a
few details, such as the addition of a strip at the top show-
ing the rafters of the stable. This is among the most richly
worked of Rubens's drawings for the Breviarium and is
notable for its delicate effects of nocturnal illumination.
Such careful and detailed execution, which left little to the
initiative of the cutter, i s also apparent in The Adoration
of the Magi (Pierpont Morgan Library inv. i, 230). The
stylistic similarity between the two argues for a date of
1613 (ibid., vol. i, p. 131, no. 2ia).
The Adoration of the Shepherds forms a transition be-
tween Rubens's later Nativities and his paintings of the
scene of 1608, in the church of San Filippo Neri, Fermo
(Fermo, Museo Civico), and in the Sint-Pauluskerk,
Antwerp, the latter executed in the years following his
return from Italy. The Museum's drawing follows the
correggesque precedent of the Fermo and Antwerp pic-
tures by showing the onlookers bathed in miraculous
holy light emitted by the Christ child. As noted by Bau-
douin (1972, pp. 89-90), this composition is echoed in
the oil sketch of circa 1615-16 in the Rubenshuis, Ant-
werp (inv. s.i23). The statuesque woman balancing the
milk pitcher on her head, who makes her first appearance
in the Getty drawing, recurs in Rubens's paintings of the
Nativity in the Alte Pinakothek and in the Musée des
Beaux-Arts, Marseilles (Judson and van de Velde 1978,
vol. i, pp. 129-30).^2- B. Moretus, Antwerp, to Jan Hasrey, Madrid, March 10,
1614 (cited in Judson and van de Velde 1978, vol. 2, p. 399). - R. Oldenbourg, P. P. Rubens: Des Meisters Gemàlde, Klassi-
ker der Kunst 5, 4th ed. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921), pp. 166,
2O6 FLEMISH SCHOOL • RUBENS