The Adoration of the Shepherds. Artist: Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) (Italian, Parma 1503-1540 Casalmaggiore). Dimensions: sheet: 8 9/16 x 5 7/8 in. (21.7 x 14.9 cm). Date: 1524-27.In comparison with a similar composition in the British Museum, London (inv. 1853,0108.3), this fairly detailed design shows the kneeling Virgin facing to the right rather than to the left, and the agitated poses of the shepherds now tamed into classical balance and restraint. The Metropolitan Museum sheet also offers evidence for a dating of the Adoration of the Shepherds drawings early rather than late in Parmigianino's Roman years, because the pose of the large standing nude man drawn in red chalk on the recto of a drawing in Cambridge (Harvard Art Museum inv. 1969.32) is echoed in the shepherd standing here on the left, and the general idea for the seated shepherds seen on the left in the recto of a sheet in a private collection (Popham no. 747), bearing a Parmese watermark, is also t