Both the pictorial composition and interpretation of the theme are radical departures from tradition. Instead of the usual three shepherds on a barren plain, Bassano has painted a family group with a moonlit landscape in his native Dolomite region. The artist, influenced by Titian, Tintoretto and Parmigianino, worked most of his career in Venice and in the region about fifty miles northwest of Venice near the city of Bassano. (The Athenaeum)