Lot 22: Jacob de Backer Antwerp circa 1555 - circa 1585 , The Adoration of the shepherds

inscribed lower centre: DICITE IO, DEVS EST NOBIS HOMO FACTVS, IESUS/ NASCITUR, INTEGRA VIRGINE, DICITE IO. oil on panel

measurements note 64.1 by 50 cm.; 25 1/4 by 19 3/4 in.

In a letter dated 3 February 2004 Prof. Justus Muller Hofstede suggested that this panel may be identifiable with one of four scenes representing the story of the Salvation formerly in the collection of the Archduke Ernst of Austria, Governor of the Netherlands 1594-95. These panels, in turn, may be the same that were with the Schaeffer Gallery, New York, in 1958, each measuring 66.5 by 51.5 cm, and thus approximately the same size as this panel.