Description
Workshop of Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659 – Venice 1734) – Adoration of the Shepherds.
Oil on canvas, in an ornate carved and gilded wooden frame.
The work relates to the painting by Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659 – Venice 1734) formerly in the Collection of G. Isham, Lamport, Northamptonshire (United Kingdom).
The painting is attributable to the workshop of Sebastiano Ricci, one of the leading masters of eighteenth-century Venetian painting and a key figure in the renewal of Italian art in a Rococo direction. The composition follows closely the autograph version formerly in the Isham Collection, Lamport, Northamptonshire, documented by J. Daniels in Sebastiano Ricci (1976, p. 44, n. 128) and L’opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci (1976, p. 129, n. 437). Light radiating from the Christ Child spreads across the faces of the shepherds, while the fluid brushwork and warm palette — harmonised in ochres, reds, and cold whites — reflect the master’s distinctive manner. The figures are arranged in a pyramidal scheme around the manger, completed by an angel in the upper left.
Condition report: Relined canvas. Good state of conservation of the painted surface, with traces of old restorations.
