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

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

Tua" (Gen 12:1) clearly establishes the subject of the picture: the first annunciation to Abraham.

25 In the foreground we see a pastoral scene with three figures, while the main character - Abraham - is standing in the background receiving God's words in form of rays of light, that is to say, the two scenes play on two separate sites. This item from the Verona collection has disappeared, but the depository of the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts contains a composition very similar to it, as if it were a copy, in standing format, of the half of the picture.

26 (fig. 67) God's annunciation is depicted not only with beams of light, there is an angel, too, to convey the divine will. This angel is a perfect likeness of that in the night Annunciation, and the two compositions are connected further with the figures of the recumbent shepherd and of the dog attentive to the celestial apparition. At the same time the foreground shows only two human figures, which is also a strong resemblance to the arrangement of the Sleeping Shepherd. The painting in the depository is a workshop piece executed near the end of 16

th century, and from a point of view of composition it is a compilation

27 - and it's just this why it is important for us. The background scene permits us to title it as Annunciation to Abraham. When they represented the shepherds receiving the message of Jesus' birth (Luc 2:8-15), Bassano and his workshop never placed the main scene into the background, the shepherds responding to the celestial apparition with emphatic gestures are always shown at a short range, in premier plan so to say, while here we are reminded of the inscribed engraving of Sadeler with two scenes. As regards to our theme it is a very important circumstance that a copy has been made even of the Sleeping Shepherd in Budapest (fig. 68). It was done by an awkward hand, still the craftsman creditably retained the elements and the composition of the model, so we may be certain that he was familiar with the original painting.

28 We may detect one only difference in motifs: the background of the copy contains the lacking scene of annunciation: a figure surrounded by the flock, raising his hand towards the light emanating from the sky. I firmly believe that the background in the Sleeping Shepherd, in its original state, must have contained this scene. My hypothesis is reinforced by the report on the latest restoration of the canvas which discovered a thinned layer of paint on the disputed spot.

29 25 Pan op. cit. (note 17.) cat. 3. 26 Inv. nr. 107. From the Esterházy Collection, defined as Bassano's School by Pigler op. cit. (note 2.), in the Esterházy inventory of 1812 cat. VI. Nr. 39. as Jacopo Bassano's work, in the inventory book of Museum of Fine Arts: J. Bassano's workshop. 27 The loose strokes of brush on the angel, on the background scene and on the sleeping pastor's dress are fine, energetic and lavish, while animals are painted in a more schematic, less original way; the painting is probably a work of more than one hand, I assume that it is a sketch later completed. 28 Apollo July 1975, 57., mentioned by Rearick: Jacopo Bassano c. 1510-1592, Fort Worth, Texas, 1993. 370. cat. 45. 29 He wrote about an early cleansing - made probably before the picture got to the museum - when it was washed down with lye; the paint layer was found defective and worn in the middle part and in certain spots of the sky, the undercoat came to sight, and he found an earlier blue overpaint in the sky, on the very spot where the beams of light are in the copy. The radiogram is blurred, gives no clue. Restoration documents by Jenő Csanda, 24 January 1992.