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Titian

Sleeping Shepherd

c. 1500–1510
Oil on panel
27.6 × 127.6 cm (10.9 × 50.2 in)

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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 03, West Wall

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This work, attributed to the great Venetian painter Titian, was probably made for an aristocratic household for placement over a door. The subject is a pastoral landscape—an idyllic scene of rural life in which nature is presented as a comforting source of physical and spiritual sustenance. Note how the shepherd is cradled by his surroundings, with plentiful greenery for his plump goats. Pastoral scenes were popular in Europe in the early 16th century.

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