It is night, and the light in this painting comes from one source: the angel. Bloch lets it fall across sleeping shepherds and the straw, then fade into the blue dark at the right, where an older shepherd pulls back the tent flap to see what has woken them.
Each shepherd answers differently. One shields his eyes. One is still waking. Two at the left bow their heads. Above it all, one star burns in the sky, the only other light in the scene.
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