Adoration of the Shepherds

Documents establish that Miguel Gaspar de Berrio (1706-1762) was a criollo who began his career in 1735 as a disciple of Melchor Perez de Holguín (1665-1724). Working in Puno, near the Imperial City of Potosí, Berrio achieved renown as colonial Bolivia's second most important artist. His Adoration of the Shepherds probably was a pendant to an "Adoration of the Magi". In 1737 Berrio completed a series highlighting events from the "Infancy of Christ" for the Iglesia de Belén in Potosí. A primary source for his Adoration of the Shepherds is a work in the Cathedral of Sucre, dated about 1590, by the Italian Mannerist Bernardo Bitti. Berrio undoubtedly studied Bitti's painting when he was employed at the at the Sucre Convent of Santa Clara in 1744. While the attributed Adoration of the Shepherds, ca. 1737-1744, presents a joyous subject, the bound lamb intimates the future sacrifice of Christ at Golgotha. Two basquets also allude to the Redemption; one held by an old woman contains cloth (the shroud) and the other on the ground holds eggs, a traditional symbol of resurrection. A dark painting enlivened by a refined brocateado, the Adoration of the Shepherds, is stylistically similar to a work by Berrio in the Denver Art Museum.

Dr. Barbara von Barghahn
Washington, D.C., 1992