I chose the painting “Adoration of the Shepherd’s”, painted by Mattia Preti, in the 16th century. The painting displays a multitude of people all centered around a baby as the focal point on the illustration. You can also tell the baby is the focal point by the illumination of yellow light around his head. It is the brightest point in the painting and the farther you get away from the baby the more everyone around him fades into the darkness. You can also tell the baby is the focal point of the painting because everyone in the picture is looking towards the baby in admiration and aww.  So it seems the more important people are in the middle where there is more light to see the people more clearly. The mom in the picture is the closes on to the baby and you can tell she is taking care of him by the way she is holding the blanket around him, and also has her hand around the baby’s head. You can tell everyone is looking at the baby in admiration by the way people are looking at the baby. One man is holding his hat off his head and holding it up to the baby while on his hands and knees. 

There is also another man to the right of the baby who is on one knee with a cane balanced against his shoulder. He has his hands together seeming to be praising the new born baby. He is definitely one of the more important people in the illustration because he is one of the closest men to the new born. There is a great sense of haste and an anxious feeling in the picture because of the crowdedness of the setting in the barn. The setting is in a barn and you can tell this by seeing the donkey in the background right behind the baby. Other things like how the baby is laying down on a hay stack with a donkey right behind him.  The lady on the right above the man with the staff seems to be less important because she is barely pictured and it is darker around her head. She also is carrying a basket on her head with something inside it.  You can tell that there is a great sense of religious meaning in the painting because of the angel in the top right of the illustration. It’s as if it’s there but does not want to be noticed or see because it is up in the corner where it is the darkest part of the painting. You can tell that the people who are farther back in the painting are leaning forwards to get a better glimpse of the new born baby. There are also multiple people playing music to welcome the new born baby into the world. One is a younger child and the other is an older man playing what looks like a bag pipe or some sort of instrument. There are multiple types of animals in the piece which gives a good feeling of the location on the barn. This gives a sense of the type of place baby Jesus was born in. This shows how he was born into poverty, but still many people came to see his birth and praise him even though he was just a baby.  The man in the back left seems frustrated because he is so far back from the baby and is holding a peg on the wall to try to get as close as he possibly can see the baby. There is a great deal of hastiness created by Preti by making the painting crowded into a small area centered around one little baby. In the background there are four figures that a barely visible all bearing gifts, trying to press forward to give to the new born showing the importance of the little baby. Preti creates a sense of movement and importance through his use of light and darkness in the painting. By showing the most important person in the painting, (baby Jesus) in the middle, with rays of light glowing around him.  The lighting creates the sense of importance and main focal point by making the brightest part of the painting the center and it gets darker the farther away everything gets from the baby in the middle. You can tell everyone is in adoration of the baby hence the name “Adoration of the Shepard’s”.   Also the darkness of the photo gives a sense of everyone the setting of the place being a dinky low level place. Yet the people there are all in aww and adoration of the baby. This shows the importance of this person for all these people to come to a dinky barn where animals are all around just to see a new born baby. Which in this time period for a new born baby to be this important he would be in a castle or a city not in a low level barn/manger where animals are walking around. All of the animals in the painting create even more of a sense of wilderness where someone who is getting praised by others should be. The father (Joseph) is in the background by the donkey and is almost more faded out which I think gives an effect that he is not as important as some of these others. I believe the painter did this because Mary was a virgin so joseph was not in direct correlation of conceiving baby Jesus. 

“The Adoration of the Shepard”, by Mattia Preti was a painting about the birth of baby Jesus and his mother the Virgin Mary and father Joseph. The painting uses visual effects like brightness and color to demonstrate importance and meaning in the illustration. Also the dramatic feeling of the painting is created by the crowdedness of the painting and how every single person in there is attempting to get as close as possible to the new born baby.  