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| December 2007 |
| Billie Silvey |
| An Account of Jesus' Birth In Art |
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| “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.” --Luke 1:30-31 |
| Pieter Bruegel the Elder is known for busy paintings with a "Where's Waldo?" air that causes us to search for the central event (here just right of center between the wagon and the ice). "The Numbering at Bethlehem” depicts Joseph and Mary joining the crowds in Bethlehem for the census for tax purposes ordered by the Emperor Augustus. Bruegel set his 1566 painting in a contemporary Dutch village with typical Dutch weather for December. |
| “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel, God with us.” --Matthew 1:23 “And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.” --John 1:14 |
| “Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth Peace, Good Will to Men" --Luke 2:14 |
| Caravaggio's painting of the Wise Men Adoring shows the scene when the wise men, who have followed the star, worship the infant Jesus and give him valuable treasures. Caravaggio (1571-1610) was a master of chiaroscuro, the use of light and darkness to clearly define a figure and give it a sense of volume and three-dimensional shape. |
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| Annunciation |
| This painting of the Annunciation by Fra Angelico depicts the angel's announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God. It was painted for the altarpiece of Saint Mark's in Florence. Fra Giovanni Angelico (1395-1455), an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, was called Brother John the Angelic One because of his skill in painting religious subjects. The multicolored wings of the angel are typical of the artist, as was the practice of including his fellow friars in his works (see the figure worshiping between the columns). Note that Fra Angelico portrays first-century biblical stories against Renaissance backdrops, typical of generations of religious art. The practice shows that the events are always contemporary. |
| "So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth of Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child." --Luke 2:4-5 |
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| Registration |
| Incarnation |
| Visitation |
| Giotto (1267-1337) was an Italian painter and architect from Florence. He was the first artist to cause painting to break out of the static, two-dimensional style of the Middle Ages to the rounded figures of weight and life of the Renaissance. Here, he combines two scenes--the angels appearing to shepherds in the fields and the birth of Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem. |
| Rembrandt's "Adoration of the Shepherds" is a humble, domestic scene painted at the height of Dutch painting. After the angel appeared to the shepherds, they left their sheep and went immediately to see the Christ child. They are roughly dressed with unidealized faces, indicating their lowly station in life. The light in the painting seems to emanate from the baby in the manger. |
| "On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh." --Matthew 2:10-11 |
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| Adoration of the Wise Men |
| The birth of Jesus inspired many of the painters of the Renaissance and still inspires artists today. It also inspires us as people who follow, not a baby in a manger or a teacher in Palestine or even a stark figure dying on a cross, but the eternal God of heaven who loved us enough to inhabit our temporal planet. |