The Adoration of the Shepherds: A Night Piece
c. 1657
Medium
Etching, drypoint, and burin in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, cut within platemark: 15.2 × 19.8 cm (6 × 7 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
111952
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Rembrandt was printing mezzotint-like prints before the medium existed. Ludwig von Siegen’s invention of mezzotint engraving may even owe something to his encounter with Rembrandt’s prints during a pivotal 1642 visit to Amsterdam. Several of Rembrandt’s works dating from the 1650s—when few were familiar with the mezzotint process—were traditionally called “dark manner” or “night pieces.” In this unusually nocturnal Adoration, tardy shepherds arouse the Holy Family. The mezzotint process was an i...
About the Artist
Rembrandt van Rijn · 1606–1669
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) stands as one of the greatest visual artists in the history of Western art and the most important Dutch painter of the 17th century. Born in Leiden to a prosperous miller's family, Rembrandt transformed painting through his revolutionary use of light and shadow, his psychological depth in portraiture, and his elevation of etching to a fine art. His approx...