Adoration of the Shepherds
by DAVID, Ludovico Antonio, Oil on canvas
The two large canvases in Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, the Adoration of the Magi and the Adoration of the Shepherds, are generally considered David’s best works. Both were commissioned some time after 1691 by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the nephew of Pope Alexander VIII. They are painted with rich colours and turbulent rhythms, in the manner of the much-acclaimed Death of St Francis Xavier by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (known as Baciccio) in the same church.