On the occasion of the Christmas holidays, the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation presented a work associated with this theme belonging to the Masaveu Collection at its Madrid headquarters. This small scene, made with quick and agile execution, surely formed part of a cycle around the life of Christ. Set in a wide nocturnal landscape, it represents the shepherds approaching the manger to adore the newborn. Some figures show a theatrical and caricature-like appearance –something completely unusual in Antolínez’s production–, which gives the canvas a certain extravagant character, close to that with which the treatise writer Antonio Palomino described this artist, who is hardly known today.
