The Annunciation to the Shepherds 1599

Jan Saenredam created this print, "The Annunciation to the Shepherds," likely around the late 16th or early 17th century in the Netherlands, a period marked by religious and social upheaval. The image depicts a biblical scene, but what's striking is how it situates the divine within a very earthly, almost commonplace setting. Angels swarm above, yet below them, shepherds are caught between tending to their animals and startled awake from sleep. Here we see those on the margins—the working class—as the first witnesses to a sacred revelation. Saenredam makes interesting choices about who gets to be the protagonist of this story. It makes you wonder about the role of the everyday person in religious narratives, and who gets access to divine encounters. How does the inclusion of rural workers and their environment expand traditional understandings of faith and revelation? It asks us to consider, emotionally, what it means to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.