The Adoration of the Shepherds, shortly after 1450, Tempera on canvas, transferred from wood, Overall 15 3/4 x 21 7/8 in. (40 x 55. 6 cm) ; painted surface 14 7/8 x 21 in. (37. 8 x 53. 3 cm), Paintings, Andrea Mantegna (Italian, Isola di Carturo 1430/31?1506 Mantua), Mantegna, one of the prodigies of Italian painting, had already established his reputation by the age of eighteen. This work must have been painted when he was in his early twenties, and it already shows the painter's astonishing descriptive gifts fully developed