Flemish school; 17th century.

Flemish school; 17th century.
"The Good Shepherd".
Oil on copper.
It has frame of the XIX century.
Measurements: 15 x 11,5 cm; 23 x 19,5 cm (frame).
The theme of the good shepherd is very old within the Christian art, and sinks its roots in the ancient western art, concretely in the Moscóforos of the Ancient Greece. Christians will follow these iconographic models for their first representations, as we see in examples such as the catacombs of St. Callixtus. As for its meaning, the good shepherd is a biblical allegory, originally referring to Yahweh and later to Jesus Christ. The good shepherd is interpreted as God, who saves the lost sheep (the sinner). The theme appears in the Old Testament, and in the Gospels the same allegory is applied to Jesus as the Son of God. This iconography shows the Parable of the Good Shepherd that appears in the Gospels (John 10:1-6; Luke 15:3-7), which speaks of the shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, and which was prefigured in Psalm 23 and in the Book of Ezekiel (34:12), uniting God with the figure of the shepherd who takes care of the sheep, of his flock. In art, the theme is the most represented in Paleochristian iconography, and testimonies can be found from the 2nd century onwards. From the 4th century onwards, its representation declined until it disappeared completely in the Middle Ages, but it finally recovered between the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century, it would share the limelight with the Divina Pastora, a theme that became popular during the Baroque period.