The Adoration of the Shepherds

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1609

Oil on canvas, 314 × 211 cm

Museo Regionale di Messina, Messina

Room VII · Sicily and the Last Journey (1608–1610)

The Adoration of the Shepherds, Caravaggio, 1609 — Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Mary, exhausted, lies on the straw of a poor stable, holding the Child close, as the shepherds approach in silence. Painted for the Capuchins of Messina, it is perhaps the humblest of his Nativities.