The Unfaithful Shepherd

Currently not on view

The Unfaithful Shepherd

c. 1575-1600

Follower of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish (active Antwerp and Brussels), c. 1525–1569)

Christ's parable of the unfaithful shepherd, who grows fat from eating the sheep in his care and flees when the wolf attacks them, was rarely illustrated in art. Pieter Bruegel the Elder's original composition of 1567-69, with its dramatic sweep of landscape, is lost but thought to be reflected in this copy in a later style. The scene may be a disguised allegory of the failure of Margaret of Parma, then regent of the Netherlands, to protect dissenters and Protestants from persecution by the Duke of Alva, or of the flight of his Protestant opponent, the Prince of Orange, to Germany.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

The Unfaithful Shepherd

Date:

c. 1575-1600

Artist:

Follower of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish (active Antwerp and Brussels), c. 1525–1569)

Medium:

Oil on panel

Dimensions:

24 1/4 x 34 1/8 inches (61.6 x 86.7 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

John G. Johnson Collection, 1917

Accession Number:

Cat. 419

Geography:

Made in Netherlands (historical name, 15th-16th century), Europe

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Currently not on view