Pamono Jacques Waben, Shepherds, 1620, Oil on Board> Old Masters|Contemporary

Jacques Waben (Alkmaar ca. 1575–1641/1642 Hoorn)
Signed lower right and dated lower center ‘J. Waben f./1620’

The Annunciation to the Shepherds

Oil on oak panel
103 x 63 cm, framed 107 x 67 cm

Provenance: Vienna Palais Dorotheum Old Master Painting 12/10/2015 (lot 143)

This is a spectacular depiction of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, set in a nocturnal atmosphere, rich in photographs but refined, an episode of the birth of Jesus reported in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:8-15), in which an angel announces the birth of Christ to a group of shepherds.

We see the scene exactly as described in the Gospel passage, which sets the event at night, where the shepherds, intent on watching over their flock, were frightened by the sudden appearance of an angel of astonishing beauty. Here we see him bathed in a powerful golden light, while at his side a multitude of other angels of the heavenly host sing praises to God.

After exhorting them not to be afraid, he informed them that a savior, the Messiah, had been born in Bethlehem, whom they would find wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger, cared for by the Virgin and Saint Joseph.

The Annunciation to the Shepherds was the most depicted nocturnal scene in Flemish painting from the 15th century onward, evocative and extremely captivating. The theatricality of the scene is enhanced by the vivid, intense, and brilliant colors, as well as by the power of the light that pierces the nocturnal setting. The detail of the descent of the divine word is splendid, epitomized in the rays of light that fall from the angel onto the shepherds, dazzled by his power.

Of excellent quality, the work is signed and dated by the painter Jacques Waben (Alkmaar ca. 1575–1641/1642 Hoorn), a talented Dutch portraitist of the Golden Age.

The superb panel offered is one of the rare examples of his religious paintings, most likely commissioned for private devotional use or perhaps for the chapel of a small church.

It is a valuable work endowed with an effective devotional intensity, capable of engaging and captivating the viewer: the dichotomy between the two spatial parts of the panel is incredibly poetic: the upper part, from which an ethereal and graceful beauty transpires, and the lower part, where, by contrast, the predominant sense is that of an earthly drama, with the shepherds seemingly overwhelmed by divine force.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The painting is completed by a wooden frame and is sold with a certificate of authenticity and an iconographic.