Denijs Calvart or Calvaert known as Flemish Dionysus (1549-1619), Adoration of the Shepherds 103.5x75.5 cm oil on canvas Provenance: England, Wilton House, collection of the Earl of Pembroke; Christie's, Wilton House, May 27, 1960, no. 53; London, Christie's, Nov. 26, 1976, no. 91; Bologna, Fondantico, 1999; Bolognese private collection. Exhibitions: Bologna, Fondantico, Tesori per il Duemila, 1999; Caldarola, Palazzo del Cardinal Pallotta, May 23-November 12, 2009. The Cardinal's Rooms. Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino, Mattia Preti. Curated by Vittorio Sgarbi; Bologna, Palazzo Fava, February 14-May 17, 2015. From Cimabue to Morandi. Felsina Pittrice. Curated by Vittorio Sgarbi. Bibliography: D. Benati, in Tesori per il Duemila, Bologna, Fondantico, 1999, pp. 26-28 n. 4; M. Danieli, in Le Stanze del Cardinale. Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino, Mattia Preti. Exhibition catalog, Milan 2009, pp. 82-83, n. 4; M. Danieli, in Da Cimabue a Morandi. Felsina Pittrice. Exhibition catalog, Bologna 2015, pp. 146-47, no. 41. Photographic references: Fototeca Federico Zeri, card 37792. In addition to altarpieces for churches in Bologna, Calvaert painted many small-format compositions, on canvas or copper and of sacred and profane subjects, to satisfy the demands of collectors in Emilia as well as abroad, to whom the captivating sweetness of his figures created with vivid polychromy and highly refined technique succeeded, then as now, in being particularly pleasing. It is natural that in this intense activity Calvaert was assisted by an efficient and perfectly organized workshop in the realization of his inventions: hence the existence of replicas of the highest level that repeated the most successful ones. Our composition, in fact, is known through three other specimens that are smaller in size but virtually identical even in excellent quality. In presenting our painting for the first time, Daniele Benati argued its precedence over the other known versions, one of which is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Parma, suggesting a dating within the first decade of the seventeenth century, shared by Michele Danieli who anticipates the invention to the last five decades of the sixteenth century on the basis of a drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York that can be approached to our composition. Even closer is then the sheet in London in the Victoria and Albert collections that repeats it in counterpart, perhaps for the purpose of a printed reproduction.