The Adoration of the Shepherds

This composition relates to the Adoration of the Shepherds altarpiece that Rubens painted for the Constantini Chapel in the church of San Filippo Neri, Fermo in 1608 (now in the Pinacoteca Civica). A sketch in oil for the Fermo altarpiece, dated by Julius Held to shortly before February 23, 1608, when the contract was negotiated for the painting, while Rubens was still in Rome, is in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (63.5 x 47 cm.). Upon first hand examination of the present painting between 2004 and 2006, Didier Bodart, Justus Müller-Hofstede and Erik Larsen all determined that the present painting was an autograph modello for the altarpiece in Fermo by Rubens.