Adoration of the Christ Child

Dignity and Impudence, painted in 1839, presents the comic contrast between a large bloodhound and a small terrier peering from a kennel — a domestic image treating the dogs' characters with the narrative sympathy usually reserved for human subjects. Victorian animal painting carried moral and social meanings: their behavior read as commentary on human virtues and vices. Landseer's ability to humanize animals without falsifying their animal nature — to catch the genuine personality of a specific dog — made his work enormously popular and influential. The painting became one of the most reproduced images of the nineteenth century, its humor and warmth translating effortlessly across every medium from engraving to ceramic.

Tempera on panel with Sellaio's characteristic lively narrative composition and detailed settings. The work demonstrates the artistic qualities characteristic of Jacopo da Sellaio's mature period.