El Greco often made replicas or variants of important compositions. This repeats many of the features of a painting done for Juan de Ribera, patriarch of Antioch and archbishop of Valencia. The quality of this painting is higher than that of the primary version. El Greco’s late work is characterized by a tendency towards abstraction and almost dance-like, restless movement, with the gestures of the shepherds indicating their excitement and wonder at the birth of Jesus.

In his 1962 monograph Wethey distinguished four basic compositions of The Adoration of the Shepherds by El Greco. This canvas belongs to what he described as "type IV" and traces its descent from a picture now in the Colegio del Patriarca, Valencia. That work, conceivably commissioned by Don Pedro Laso de la Vega for Saint John of Ribera, Patriarch of Antioch and Archbishop of Valencia, was painted before 1605, when it was copied in an engraving by Diego de Astor. The composition of the MMA picture is almost identical—the major change is the placement of the ox in front of rather than behind the Christ Child—but its effect is quite different. This is partly due to the increased emphasis on the enveloping darkness of the nocturnal setting, with the figures defined by the flickering radiance emanating from the Christ Child, and to the use of a staccato-like brushwork that serves to dematerialize the forms still further. The painting served as a sort of prelude to the great Adoration of the Shepherds El Greco planned for his own tomb (Museo del Prado, Madrid). With reason, Wethey called the MMA canvas "much the finest" of its type. It should, nonetheless, be noted that the picture almost certainly involved the workshop, and that this explains the discontinuity in some of the highlights as well as the variations in quality in the realization of various features, for example the foreshortened hand of the pointing shepherd. X-rays show that in laying in the composition some alterations were made: most significantly, the head of Joseph was at first placed closer to the Virgin. Yet, if the picture cannot bear comparison to the sublime Adoration for El Greco's tomb, it is vastly superior to the reduced replicas that were made as studio records of his altarpieces. (One such replica—of the late Adoration—is also in the MMA.)

The idea of a nocturnal Nativity certainly originated with El Greco's recollection of Correggio's celebrated altarpiece known as La Notte (now Gemäldegalerie, Dresden) and of certain paintings by Jacopo and Francesco Bassano. The motif of the Virgin lifting the linen sheet on which the Christ Child lies, as though exposing him for veneration, is also found in Jacopo Bassano's treatment of the theme. It is an action that underscores the sacral nature of the scene and reinforces the traditional allusion to Christ's death and to the manger as an altar.

The ruins in which the Nativity is set have been taken from an illustration of the Baths of Diocletian in a publication of the ruins of Rome that El Greco probably owned. In the MMA painting the vaults serve both to locate the Nativity and to frame the composition in a contained oval—far more pronounced than in the painting in Valencia. It was doubtless the desire to emphasize internal compositional rhythms that led El Greco to change the position of the ox, whose horns serve to bind the left-hand shepherd with the figure of Saint Joseph. This tendency towards abstraction and an almost dance-like, restless movement, with gestures indicating excitement and wonder, is characteristic of El Greco's late style—but so also is the insertion of a naturalistically observed detail, in this case the placid, homely features of the ass. All of these features mark a significant improvement on the painting at Valencia and underscore the degree to which the Metropolitan's painting must be considered an independent production.

Nothing is known about the origins of the picture. Eight paintings of The Nativity are listed in the 1614 inventory of El Greco's studio—a clear indication of the popularity of the theme. It is impossible to say which were originals and which merely replicas. In the 1621 inventory of his son's possessions we do find a Nativity measuring 1 2/3 by 1 1/3 varas—the equivalent of about 54 x 44 inches. This could be the Metropolitan's painting, but it cannot be demonstrated.

[2011; adapted from Christiansen et al. 2003]

Inscription: Inscribed (on scrolls): GLOR[IA] INEXC[ELSIS D]EO / HOMI[NIBVS] / LAVDAMVSTE BENEDICIMV[STE] (Glory to God in the highest. . . . We praise thee, we bless thee [from the Greater Doxology].)

Don Alfonso de Silva Fernández de Hijar y Campbell, 15th Duke of Hijar, Madrid; Don Luis de Navas, Madrid (until 1895); E. Kerr-Lawson, Scotland (from 1895); Dugal McCorkindale, Carfin Hall, Lanarkshire, Scotland (by 1899–1903); his sale, London, Morrison & Co. Nov. 6, 1903, no. 64, ill., as the Nativity; [Eugene Glaenzer, New York (by 1904–5)]

Madrid. location unknown. "Exposición histórico—Europea," 1892–93, no. 100 (lent by Luís de Navas).

Art Gallery of the Corporation of London. "Spanish Painters," April 30–August 28, 1901, no. 89 (lent by D. McCorkindale).

San Francisco. M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. "Loan Exhibition of Masterworks by El Greco," May 17–June 21, 1947, no. 15.

Stockton, Calif. Haggin Memorial Art Galleries. June 24–July 1, 1947, no catalogue.

Worcester Art Museum. "Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe during the XVIth–XVIIth Centuries," April 11–May 16, 1948, no. ?

Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 28.

Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 28.

Dallas. Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University. "El Greco, Domenikos Theotokopoulos: A Study in Connoisseurship," September 28, 1989–February 7, 1990, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "El Greco," October 7, 2003–January 11, 2004, no. 61.

London. National Gallery. "El Greco," February 11–May 23, 2004, no. 61.

Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne," June 23–November 12, 2006, no. 1.

Barcelona. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. "Grandes maestros de la pintura europea de The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York: De El Greco a Cézanne," December 1, 2006–March 4, 2007, no. 1.

Aureliano de Beruete. "Correspondance d'Angleterre: Exposition d'oeuvres de peintres espagnols au Guildhall de Londres." Gazette des beaux-arts 26 (1901), p. 252.

Bernard Berenson. Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner. July 27, 1904, discusses this painting, which he brought to the attention of the Metropolitan Museum, and, doubting "whether the picture spoke to them," urges Mrs. Gardner to make an offer for it, as he is eager to get it for America.

Miguel Utrillo. "Le Greco." L'art et les artistes 1 (April–September 1905), p. 204, calls it a first idea and not a summary sketch; notes the influence of Correggio.

Paul Lafond. "Domenikos Theotokopuli, dit Le Greco." Les arts 5 (October 1906), pp. 22, 24, ill.

Manuel B. Cossío. El Greco. Madrid, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 351–52, 595, no. 282; vol. 2, pl. 63, notes a similiarity between our painting and the version from Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo [now Museo del Prado, Madrid]; dates it 1604–14.

Albert F. Calvert and C. Gasquoine Hartley. El Greco: An Account of His Life and Works. London, 1909, pp. 167–68, pl. 131, includes it with works of his final period, from 1600–1614.

Morton H. Bernath. "Drei Hauptwerke des Greco in Amerika." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 21 (1910), p. 22, fig. 2.

Charles H. Caffin. The Story of Spanish Painting. New York, 1910, pp. 88–89, as from his "latest period".

Maurice Barrès and Paul Lafond. Le Greco. Paris, [1911], pp. 154, 157.

August L. Mayer. El Greco: Eine Enführung in das Leben und Wirken des Domenico Theotocopuli gennant El Greco. Munich, 1911, p. 81, ill., as a late work.

Paul Lafond. Le Greco. Paris, 1913, p. IV.

August L. Mayer. "Paintings by El Greco in America, Part Two." Art in America 4 (1916), pp. 311–13, ill., rejects Cossío's view that the composition of this picture is similar to that of the painting in Toledo [now Prado, Madrid]; notes the influence of Correggio's "Night" (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden) in the treatment of light.

Elizabeth du Gué Trapier. El Greco. New York, 1925, pp. xii, 120–21, 157, pl. 31.

August L. Mayer. Dominico Theotocopuli, El Greco. Munich, 1926, p. 6, no. 19, pl. 37, as a late work.

Thomas H. Benton. "Mechanics of Form, Organization in Painting." Arts 11 (March 1927), p. 147, ill.

Emilio H. del Villar. El Greco en España. Madrid, 1928, p. 112.

Frank Rutter. El Greco (1541–1614). New York, [1930], p. 100, no. 89, dates it 1604–14.

Ellis K. Waterhouse. "El Greco's Italian Period." Art Studies: Medieval, Renaissance and Modern 8 (1930), p. 80, comments on the influence of Correggio's "Night," suggesting that El Greco might have seen this picture in the Farnese residence in Parma; believes Jacopo Bassano, in his Adoration of the Shepherds (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), was likewise looking at Correggio, but could not have directly influenced El Greco in Rome.

Raymond Escholier. Greco. Paris, 1937, p. 111.

M. Legendre and A. Hartmann. Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco. Paris, 1937, pp. 119, 504, ill., as from his "last period".

H. Vollmer in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 33, Leipzig, 1939, p. 6, erroneously as formerly in the Dreicer collection.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, pp. 230–31, ill., observes that this version of the subject most closely resembles the one in the Colegio del Patriarca, Valencia, and should therefore probably be dated well after 1600; believes both pictures are variants of the version from Santo Domingo El Antiguo, Toledo [now Prado, Madrid], from 1577; dates it probably "well after 1600".

Enrique Lafuente. "El Greco: Some Recent Discoveries." Burlington Magazine 87 (December 1945), p. 296, divides El Greco's paintings of the Adoration of the Shepherds into four categories, "Types A–D"; our painting is classified as "Type C" along with the version in Valencia; "Type C" paintings are late works characterized by extremely elongated figures, dramatic lighting and rhomboid compositions.

Walter Heil in El Greco. Exh. cat., M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. San Francisco, 1947, unpaginated, no. 15, pl. 15 (overall and details), dates it about 1604–14 and considers the Valencia version somewhat earlier.

Leo Bronstein. El Greco. New York, 1950, pp. 106–7, ill. (color), dates it about 1604–14.

José Camón Aznar. Dominico Greco. Madrid, 1950, vol. 2, pp. 738, 743, 1180–81, 1359, no. 54, fig. 567, calls it a late work; sees sources in Correggio's "Night" and also in the Nativities of Bassano; publishes an engraving by Diego de Astor (fig. 916) made in Toledo in 1605 after an "analagous" composition.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 4.

Halldor Soehner. "Greco in Spanien." Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 3rd ser., 8 (1957), pp. 186, 194, dates it 1610–12.

Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño. La pintura española fuera de España. Madrid, 1958, p. 201, no. 1368, dates El Greco's Toledo Adoration [now Prado, Madrid] about 1577 and the present work after 1600.

Harold E. Wethey. El Greco and His School. Princeton, 1962, vol. 1, fig. 157; vol. 2, pp. 26–27, no. 27, classifies El Greco's paintings of the subject into four main types with our painting and the version in Valencia belonging to Type IV, a synthesis of several elements from Types II and III; derived rom Type II are the figures of the Virgin and Joseph moved to the right of the composition, and derived from Type III, the "romantically ruined arches in the background as well as the Raphaelesque gesture of the Madonna" and an angel at the "upper left with arms lifted in a gesture of exhaltation"; states that our painting is the finest example of Type IV and dates it about 1605–10.

Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa del Greco. Milan, 1969, p. 118, no. 133b, colorpls. 37–38 (overall and detail), as an autograph replica of the version in Valencia.

Enrique Lafuente Ferrari. El Greco: The Expressionism of His Final Years. New York, 1969, pp. 78, 130–31, 136, 169, no. 143, colorpls. XVIII–XX (overall and details), asserts that El Greco certainly learned from Bassano to make the Child the luminous center of his Nativities; dates our painting 1610–14 and considers it a replica of the Valencia painting; identifies the latter as the source for the Diego de Astor engraving.

Calvin Tomkins. Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 209 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].

Manuel B. Cossío. El Greco. definitive ed. Barcelona, 1972, pp. 204–5, 309, 357, no. 25, dates it 1604–14.

Jacques Lassaigne. El Greco. London, 1973, p. 143.

Rollin van N. Hadley. "What Might Have Been: Pictures Mrs. Gardner Did Not Acquire." Fenway Court (1979), pp. 36, 48, no. 55, reproduces an illustration of the wrong El Greco Nativity (41.190.17) as pl. 55.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 16, 23, 285, fig. 29 (color).

Katharine Baetjer. "El Greco." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 39 (Summer 1981), pp. 2–3, 28, 30, 32–34, ill. (color, overall and details).

Denys Sutton. "The Aesthete of Toledo." Apollo, n.s., 116 (September 1982), p. 146.

George R. Allen. El Greco: Two Studies. Philadelphia, 1984, pp. 49–50, pl. 11B (detail), notes that the figure of Saint John with his arms raised in the "Vision of Saint John" (MMA 56.48) parallels the clothed figure to the left in this painting, one of a number of borrowings that to him indicates that the former picture could be a pastiche by the workshop.

Colin Simpson. Artful Partners: Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York, 1986, pp. 93–94, 295 [British ed., "The Partnership: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen," London, 1987].

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 156–57, claims that in 1904 the MMA turned down the chance to acquire from the Havemeyers El Greco's Assumption of the Virgin, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, because they were negotiating for this picture, which they believed was a finer example of his work.

John Bury. "El Greco's Books." Burlington Magazine 129 (June 1987), pp. 390–91, considers Giovanni Battista Pittoni's images of ruins, published as "Praecipua aliquot Romanae antiquitatis ruinarum monimenta", possibly as early as 1561, to be the engravings closest in spirit to the ruins in El Greco's later Adorations, and suggests that the "Prospetibas y antiguedades de Roma" listed by Jorge Manuel in 1621 amongst his father's books, was a set of Pittoni's engravings.

Carlo L. Ragghianti. Periplo del Greco. Milan, 1987, p. 147, fig. 61 (color).

Maryan W. Ainsworth in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 18, 238.

José Álvarez Lopera. El Greco: La obra esencial. [Madrid], [1993], pp. 19, 260, 293, no. 302, dates it about 1608–14.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 155, 325 n. 215.

Albert Boime. "The Americanization of El Greco." El Greco of Crete: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held on the Occasion of the 450th Anniversary of the Artist's Birth. Iráklion, Crete, 1995, pp. 627, 642–43, ill.

Enrico Maria dal Pozzolo in El Greco in Italy and Italian Art. Exh. cat., National Gallery Alexandros Soutzos Museum. Athens, 1995, pp. 136, 438, ill., compares it to the work of Jacopo Bassano.

Nan Rosenthal. "The Pollock Sketchbooks: An Introduction." The Jackson Pollock Sketchbooks in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997 [vol. 4], p. 15, ill., illustrates two drawings (I:10v) by Pollock based on this painting.

José Álvarez Lopera in El Greco: Identity and Transformation; Crete, Italy, Spain. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 1999, p. 422.

José Manuel Pita Andrade in El Greco: Identity and Transformation; Crete, Italy, Spain. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Milan, 1999, pp. 157, 411.

Jean Louis Schefer. Sommeil du Greco. Paris, 1999, pp. 46, 107, 134.

José Álvarez Lopera. El retablo del Colegio de Doña María de Aragón de El Greco. Madrid, 2000, p. 94.

Gabriele Finaldi in Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings. Exh. cat., Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 2000, pp. 64–65, ill. (color), states that the figure with its arms raised is probably an angel and not a shepherd; dates it about 1610.

José Álvarez Lopera et al. in El Greco / colaboraciones . . . Barcelona, 2003, p. 301.

Keith Christiansen et al. in El Greco. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. London, 2003, pp. 214–15, no. 61, ill. (color).

Mary Sprinson de Jesús in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture européenne. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2006, pp. 28–30, no. 1, ill. (color, overall and detail) [Catalan ed., Barcelona, 2006, pp. 24–27, no. 1, ill. (color, overall and details)].

Natalie Maria Roncone. "Sketchbook III: Jackson Pollock's Homage to the Old Masters." Burlington Magazine 152 (January 2010), p. 30, fig. 36 (color).

During restoration in 1948 the original canvas, which measured 56 7/8 x 39 7/8 in., was set into a larger canvas, the overall measurements of which are 64 1/2 x 42 in. Additions of 3 1/4 in. were made along the top, 4 3/8 in. at the bottom, and 1 5/8 and 1/2 in. to the left and right, respectively.

Altogether Wethey (1962) ascribes nine versions of "The Adoration of the Shepherds" to El Greco and/or his workshop. The MMA painting is related to two earlier autograph versions of the subject. The prototype, in the Colegio del Patriarca, Valencia, of 1600–1605, was engraved by Diego de Astor in 1605. Another version, in the Romanian National Museum, Bucharest, was probably painted between 1596 and 1600 for the altar of the Colegio de Doña María de Aragón, Madrid. A workshop version of the MMA painting, generally dated 1605–15, is in the collection of Félix Valdés Izaguirre, Bilbao.