Maria Macharska regards Cornelis Cort's engraving after Marco dal Pino as the main prototype. Considering that the composition of the painting is in the same direction as the engraving, she suggests that the original must have been an engraved copy of Cort's print. She also refers single motifs (e.g. figures of the shepherds) to two other sources: Ghisi's Adoration of the Shepherds after Bronzino and the Passage through the Red Sea published by Cock.