Now if the name of Giorgione be denied this “Nativity,” to which of the followers of Bellini are we to assign it?—­for the work is clearly of Bellinesque stamp.  The name of Catena has been proposed, but is now no longer seriously supported.[25] If for no other reason, the colour scheme is sufficient to exclude this able artist, and, versatile as he undoubtedly was, it may be questioned whether he ever could have attained to the mellowness and glow which suffuse this picture.  The latest view enunciated[26] is that “we are in the presence of a painter as yet anonymous, whom in German fashion we might provisionally name ’The Master of the Beaumont “Adoration."’” Now this system of labelling certain groups of paintings showing common characteristics is all very well in cases where the art history of a particular school or period is wrapt in obscurity, and where few, if any, names have come down to us, but in the present instance it is singularly inappropriate.  To begin with, this anonymous painter is the author, so it is believed, of only three works, this “Adoration,” the “Epiphany,” in the National Gallery, No. 1160, and a small “Holy Family,” belonging to Mr. Robert Benson in London, for all three works are universally admitted to be by the same hand.  Next, this anonymous painter must have been a singularly refined and poetical artist, a master of brilliant colour, and an accomplished chiaroscurist.  Truly a deus ex machina!  Next you have to find a vacancy for such a phenomenon in the already crowded lists of Bellini’s pupils and followers, as if there were not more names than enough already to fully account for every Bellinesque production.[27] No, this is no question of compromise, of the dragging to light some hitherto unknown genius whose identity has long been merged in that of bigger men, but it is the recognition of the fact that the greater comprises the less.  Admitting, as we may, that these three pictures are inferior in “depth, significance, cohesion, and poetry” (!) to the Castelfranco “Madonna,” there is nothing to show that they are not characteristic of Giorgione, that they do not form part of a consistent whole.  As a matter of fact, this “Adoration of the Shepherds” connects very well with the early poesie already discussed.  There is some opposition between the sacred theme and Giorgione’s natural dislike to tell a mere story; but he has had to conform to traditional methods of representation, and the feeling of restraint is felt in the awkward drawing of the figures, and their uneven execution.  That he felt dissatisfied with this portion of the work, the drawing at Windsor plainly shows, for the figures appear here in a different position, as if he had tried to recast his scheme.