Gianfrancesco Penni
Born in Florence to a family of weavers, Penni entered Raphael's workshop very early in his life, and collaborated with him on several works, including the famous Rooms of the Vatican Palace, as well as the frescoes of Villa Farnesina, both in Rome. Heinrich Wölfflin and some other writers credited him with the entire execution of the Raphael Cartoons, with Raphael only creating the initial design, though more recent writers believe Raphael did much of the work himself.
Adoration of the Shepherds (Raphael)
Raphael's "Adoration of Shepherds" diverges from the traditional presentation of this scene, with shepherds in silent adoration of the infant Jesus, by putting almost all of the shepherds in some sort of active discourse. They talk with each other, and Joseph takes an active role in directing them. As Passavant wrote after studying the 13 arcades in the Vatican loggias, which Raphael and his artists made in 1519, “This is perhaps the only design in which Joseph is in action, he is generally merely a passive spectator.” Raphael's 1508 drawing of "Adoration of the Shepherds" would predate the loggias, painted in 1519, and may have inspired the more active portrayal of Joseph.