In order to complete the last essay to be submitted to the Commision of the Academy of Brera, Diotti stayed in Rome until August 1809, beyond the deadline initially foreseen by the scholarship.
If, for the first year, copies of classical works and studies of nudes from life were required and at the end of the second year a composition drawing of at least three figures representing the transposition of a literary text was requested, for the third and fourth years, on the other hand, painting essays were required. The half-figure sent by Diotti for the third year was the Moses with the tables of the law, shown here to the right of the final test of the following year, for which the artist was free to choose a subject of his own invention.
Diotti then reworked the motif of the "nativity scene by night light", a sixteenth-century tradition that was very popular in the neoclassical world, exploiting the classicist suggestions of his Roman training.
For this Adoration of the Shepherds the painter obtained great appreciation: a silver medal from the Capitoline Academy on the occasion of the first exhibition in Rome and a gold medal when the work was submitted to the judgment of the academic body of Brera, where the painting remained on display during the nineteenth century.
In 2007, on the occasion of the opening of the Diotti Museum, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan granted the deposit of both paintings.
Loan from Brera Academy of Fine Arts - Milan
