Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 95. (Budapest, 2001)

LICHNER, MAGDOLNA: Additional material to establishing the subject of Jacopo Bassano's Sleeping shepherd

73. Jacopo Bassano: The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1553-54. Rome, Galleria Borghese the earlier compositions inspired by Titian

62 - dominated as they are by gestures of reverent salutation - it reflects a new conception of the subject, and the composition is enriched just with the recumbent figure. Aikema calls this new figure a tramp, a 'furfante' and endows it with the role of the 'false pilgrim'

63

, though that shepherd is closely connected with the miracle of the infant Jesus, he is the most determinant figure of the foreground, with the 'sleeping dog' at his feet. The Washington Annunciation (fig. 74) resumes this really 'shabby', introspective figure. The loose posture reflecting contemplation is accompanied with a shepherd's flute in these instances. These two paintings reveal in the most conspicuous way the Christian interpretation of Virgil's Eclogue I and IV, expectation, soothsaying and a pose of musing over the fate of the infant Saviour. (

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2 The pictures from the 1540s in Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia and in Hampton Court (Royal Collection), and Giovanni Britto's woodcut after Titian, 1532-33, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Wethex op.cit. (note 8.) pict. 158. and 159. Later Jacopo returned to the earlier composition, the Adoration in Rome, Galleria Corsini from about 1562 follows again Titian's model. 63 Aikema op.cit. (note 35.) 53-54.