Adoration of the Shepherds (recto); Three Sketches: Buildings by Canal with Boats, Landscape with Buldings on Hillside, Buildings with Portico (verso) c. 1770

Francesco Guardi rendered this sketch of the Adoration of the Shepherds with pen and brown ink. The tender gathering around the newborn Christ is steeped in layered symbolism. Consider the shepherds themselves, kneeling in reverence. In early Christian art, they represented the humble and the marginalized, the first to witness the divine incarnation. This motif carries echoes from classical antiquity, of rural devotion, subtly transformed to fit the new Christian narrative. The halos, faint yet present, draw from the Roman imperial art, where they signified power and divinity, adapted here to denote spiritual enlightenment. In Guardi's composition, this symbol transcends its original meaning, imbued with a sense of grace. The way we see the re-emergence of gestures, the way light and shadow play across faces—reveals how symbols continually resurface, transformed and renewed across centuries.