The adoration of the shepherds at the birth of Christ. Engraving by J. Witdoek after P.P. Rubens.

[Antwerp?] : [Hans Witdoek?], [between 1600 and 1699]

1 print : engraving

The old woman holding a candle on the left is apparently taken from the painting of the mocking of Ceres by Adam Elsheimer, of which the version in the Prado was owned by Rubens. According to Jaffé the striding shepherd comes from a picture of the Nativity by Titian via a woodcut by the Master IB, and the two kneeling peasants are after figures in Caravaggio's "Virgin of Loreto" in the church of Sant'Agostino, Rome

M. Jaffé, Jacob Jordaens 1593-1678, Ottawa [1968], pp. 20, 151

C.G. Voorhelm Schneevoogt, Catalogue des estampes gravées d'après P.P. Rubens avec l'indication des collections où se trouvent les tableaux et les gravures, Haarlem 1873, no. 36

Wellcome Collection 493563i

After a painting by Rubens painted for a church in Lille: a copy of the painting is in Dresden and the modello is in Edinburgh (National Gallery of Scotland, Shorter catalogue, Edinburgh 1970, supplement 1976, pp. 5-6, lacking the figures at the edge of the composition); Jaffé, loc. cit.