Adoration of the Shepherds

About the Artwork

The artist has set Christ's birth in a ruined stable, witnessed by shepherds and angels. The candle Joseph holds symbolizes the supremacy of Christ's divine radiance over earthly light. Beyond the overgrown arch of the dilapidated structure an angel announces Christ's birth to shepherds in the field. Schäufelein based his picture on the Paumgartner Nativity, a painting (now preserved in Munich) by his teacher, Albrecht Dürer. Schäufelein was born in Nuremberg, probably studied under Wohlgemut, and then became the assistant of Dürer, whose style he imitated.

Provenance

James Jackson Jarves; Mrs. Liberty E. Holden,Cleveland, 1884.Holden Collection, 1916.

Exhibition history

Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916). The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936). Five Centuries of German Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 12-December 13, 1936). Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).

Quick Overview

Artist: Hans Leonhard Schäufelein (German, 1480–1540)
Date: c. 1510
Medium: oil on wood
Dimensions: Framed: 86 x 85.5 x 4 cm (33 7/8 x 33 11/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 58 x 56.6 cm (22 13/16 x 22 5/16 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Medieval Art
Credit line: Holden Collection
Accession no.: 1916.807

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.