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The Adoration of the Shepherds by Caravaggio, 1609, Museo Regionale, Messina
Adoration of the Shepherds

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Caravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610)

1609 · Museo regionale Accascina, Messina

For Christmas · 25 December

Sizes

image 6.7×10 in on a 8×10 in sheet

What is dpi?

Dots per inch: how many pixels of the museum’s file go into each inch of paper. Our floor is 240 for sheets up to 20 inches, 180 up to 36 inches and 120 beyond, because a larger print is seen from further away. We never offer a sheet below the floor, and the number on each size is the one you receive.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm cotton rag · pigment inks · printed to order

Printed to order · the whole painting, never cropped · if it arrives damaged, we replace it

Free shipping, included in the price, to all eight countries we ship to. Dispatched in 2–4 working days — nothing to send back if it arrives damaged.

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About this painting

Our Lady lies on the straw with the Christ Child held to her cheek, and the shepherds gather to a family on the ground. Tools and a basket of bread lie in the corner. God has come down as low as the floor. The Messina museum calls this a manifesto of human fragility: the Madonna of Humility, the Virgin on the earth receiving the shepherds. It hung on the Capuchins' high altar, and a study after Lapucci reads her prone body as the base of a right triangle, cut from the equilateral one that stood for divinity. Caravaggio painted it in 1609. The Child's face is against hers.

Sources: 'Il Caravaggio a Messina: l'Adorazione dei Pastori', Studi e Ricerche, after Lapucci 1994 · The Art Newspaper, 11 Feb 2025, on Vincenzo Sorrentino, Paragone, Jan 2025 · Museo regionale interdisciplinare Maria Accascina, Messina, collection page 'Caravaggio'

And they came with haste: and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.

Luke 2:16 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

Pray with this every day  ›
The Record
Date 1609
Collection Museo Regionale, Messina
Subject Adoration of the Shepherds
Season Christmas
Master 14,412 px
License Public domain
Attribution Museo regionale Accascina, Messina

The original, as its museum records it

Artist Caravaggio
Date circa 1608-1609
Holding Museo regionale Accascina, Messina
Accession not published by the institution in a form we could read — the Museo regionale Accascina prints no inventory number

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source Adoration of the Shepherds-Caravaggio (1609).jpg
Master 14,412 px on the long edge
Rights Public domain — the photograph as well as the painting
At a glance
ArtistCaravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610)
Date1609
MuseumMuseo regionale Accascina, Messina
Sheet sizes8×10 in, 11×14 in, 16×20 in, 18×24 in, 24×36 in, 32×48 in, 40×60 in
Provenance of the file
Held byMuseo regionale Accascina, Messina the museum’s record
Source fileWikimedia Commons · Adoration of the Shepherds-Caravaggio (1609).jpg
LicencePublic domain
Master9,638 × 14,412 px, the file our printer receives
ChainTaken from Wikimedia Commons; held as our print master.

The sheets

8×10 in sheet 8×10 in · image 6.7×10 in · archival margin · 1441 dpi
11×14 in sheet 11×14 in · image 9.4×14 in · archival margin · 1029 dpi
16×20 in sheet 16×20 in · image 13.4×20 in · archival margin · 721 dpi
18×24 in sheet 18×24 in · image 16×24 in · archival margin · 600 dpi
24×36 in sheet 24×36 in · image 24×35.9 in · archival margin · 402 dpi
32×48 in sheet 32×48 in · image 32×47.9 in · archival margin · 301 dpi
40×60 in sheet 40×60 in · image 40×59.8 in · archival margin · 241 dpi

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 14,412 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.