The negative space in the foreground of this unfinished (but still-published) print draws the viewer’s attention toward the reactions of the adoring shepherds. Their faces are illuminated by Joseph’s outstretched candle, which seems also to generate the brilliant whiteness of the paper itself. The viewer gets to glimpse Goltzius’ creative process and admire the dexterity of his engraved line. Ironically, the transitory state of an image-in-process is fixed in time in this print, its composition and meaning remaining both materially and conceptually unresolved. (EH)