# Shepherd Boy [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PIAZZETTA, Giovanni Battista]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 66 x 83 cm ## Commentary The companion piece depicting a Peasant Girl is also in the Residenzgalerie in Salzburg. Piazzetta's unusual way of depicting the Peasant Girl and the Shepherd Boy is evidenced first of all by his choice of a transverse oval picture format. Only a partial view of the boy is given, and his face, which is aligned slightly rearwards, is partly covered by a large hat. In his frontal view of the sleeping girl, the artist underlined the intimate, lascivious character of the picture by giving her a low-cut dress. The half-length paintings of the girl and boy are modelled on the half-length figures of Caravaggio. The artist was indebted to Crespi for the genre elements and the down-to-earth realism of the depictions as well as for its traditional rustic character. ## Related artworks - [A Young Ensign]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() - [Beggar Boy]() - [Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves]() - [Idyll at the Coast]() - [Judith and Holofernes]() - [Martyrdom of St James]() - [Martyrdom of St James]() - [Mucius Scaevola before King Porsenna]() - [Peasant Girl]() - [Rebecca at the Well]() - [St John the Baptist]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()