Adoration of the Shepherds  1500

Essentially a small painting on parchment, this image appears to have been created as an independent object for private devotion. According to a letter of 1591 formerly pasted onto its reverse, which refers to it as a "tablet," the miniature once belonged to the Medici pope Clement VII (r. 1523–34) and in 1591 was given as a gift by Pope Gregory XIV to Christine of Lorrain...