The Annunciation to the Shepherds
1604
Medium
pen
Dimensions
122; 159
About this artwork
Ontwerp voor een prent.
Art Historical Context
David Vinckboons’s *The Annunciation to the Shepherds* (1604) captures the pivotal biblical moment from the Gospel of Luke, when an angel appears to shepherds in the fields to announce Christ’s birth. Created as a compact pen drawing measuring just 159 by 122 millimeters, the work served as a preparatory design—known in Dutch as an “ontwerp voor een prent”—for a printed engraving or etching. Such studies allowed artists to refine composition and narrative clarity before the image reached a wider audience through reproductive prints. Vinckboons, a Flemish-born draftsman active in the Northern ...
About the Artist
David Vinckboons · 1576–1632
David Vinckboons (baptized 13 August 1576 – c. 1632) was a Flemish-born painter who became a pivotal figure in the Dutch Golden Age. Born in Mechelen in the Southern Netherlands, he was the son of Philips Vinckboons, a watercolor painter on canvas, under whom he studied as his sole teacher, according to Karel van Mander. The family fled religious turmoil, moving first to Antwerp around 1580, then ...