Adoration of the Shepherds with Sts. Longinus and John

Mantua's basilica of Sant'Andrea was built around a relic. The city claimed to hold the blood of Christ, gathered at the crucifixion by the Roman soldier Longinus, who was said to have carried it north and buried it there. Giulio Romano, who ran the building and painting works of the Gonzaga court, made this altarpiece in the 1530s for a chapel in that basilica, which is why a Roman soldier stands beside the manger at all. A century later the Gonzaga sold their collection to Charles I of England. After the king was executed in 1649 his pictures were auctioned off, and this panel travelled to Paris, where Louis XIV bought it from the banker Everhard Jabach in 1662.