Christmas Day

Title: The Infant Christ on the Orb of the World

Artist: Joos van Cleve

Medium: Oil on panel

Size: 37 x 26 cm

Date: ca. 1530

Location: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Luke 2:14 Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace and goodwill among people.

In this image the artist combined Italian and Flemish elements. The Child, depicted full-length in elegant contrapposto on a crystal sphere, holds a slim cross in one hand and blesses with the other. His body maintains a delicate balance on the sphere but his legs and feet are securely positioned. The image evokes the idea of the Passion of Christ and that of the Christ Child as Saviour of mankind. The antecedents for such a figure are to be found in Italian art, while the landscape in the sphere with its four wings is Flemish in origin. Italian influence is again evident in the slight sfumato of the figure, derived from Leonardo da Vinci.

Joos van Cleve (c. 1458 - 1541) was a Netherlandish painter, mentioned in various documents in Antwerp as Joos van der Beke, nicknamed Van Cleve. He is known mostly for his religious works and portraits of royalty. He trained with the painter Jan Joest, with whom he worked on the wings of the altarpiece in the church of San Nikolai in Kalkar. Van Cleve moved to Antwerp where he is recorded as a master in the painters’ guild in 1511. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, the name of Joos van Cleve as an artist was lost. The paintings now attributed to him were, at that time, known as the works of “the Master of the Death of the Virgin,” after the triptych currently in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. In 1894 it was discovered that the monogram on the back of the triptych was that of Joos van der Beke, an alias of Joos van Cleve. As a skilled technician, his art shows sensitivity to color and a unique solidarity of figures. His last paintings reveal a profound interest in the Italian Renaissance although there is no concrete evidence that he made a trip to Italy. 

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Title: The Presentation in the Temple

Artist: Jean Bourdichon

Medium: Tempera and gold on parchment

Size: 24 x 17 cm

Date: 1499

Location: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Luke 2:22-32: After the days required by Moses’ Teachings to make a mother clean had passed, Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem. They took Jesus to present him to the Lord. They did exactly what was written in the Lord’s Teachings: “Every firstborn boy is to be set apart as holy to the Lord.” They also offered a sacrifice as required by the Lord’s Teachings: “a pair of mourning doves or two young pigeons.” A man named Simeon was in Jerusalem. He lived an honorable and devout life. He was waiting for the one who would comfort Israel. The Holy Spirit was with Simeon and had told him that he wouldn’t die until he had seen the Messiah, whom the Lord would send. Moved by the Spirit, Simeon went into the temple courtyard. Mary and Joseph were bringing the child Jesus into the courtyard at the same time. They brought him so that they could do for him what Moses’ Teachings required. Then Simeon took the child in his arms and praised God by saying, “Now, Lord, you are allowing your servant to leave in peace as you promised. My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people to see. He is a light that will reveal salvation to the nations and bring glory to your people Israel.”

This leaf depicting the Presentation in the Temple originally comes from a manuscript known as the Hours of Louis XII, so-called after its patron King Louis XII of France, and was one of the greatest French manuscripts of its time. Here Mary is seen in half-length, situated at the front of the space, close to the viewer who seems to peer over her shoulder at the scene of the presentation of her infant son at the altar of the priest Simeon. The purpose of compositions such as this one - which were increasingly popular in the second half of the 15th century - was to bring viewers physically closer to the narrative and actively engage them in the event being portrayed.

Jean Bourdichon (c.1457 – 1521) was a French miniature painter and manuscript illuminator at the court of France with a career that lasted nearly forty years during the reigns of Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I of France. As court painter, he designed stained glass windows, coins, gold plate, illuminated manuscripts, and executed independent paintings. Charles VIII set up a workshop for him in his castle at Plessis-lès-Tours and gave large dowries to Bourdichon's daughters, and Bourdichon himself became a wealthy landowner. Today, only one of his panel paintings is known to survive and he is therefore known primarily from his work in manuscripts. He is last recorded in 1520, receiving payment for the decoration of tents for the opulent encounter of Henry VIII and Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

Third Sunday of Advent

Title: Adoration of the Shepherds

Artist: Agnolo Bronzino

Medium: Oil on wood

Size: 65 x 47 cm

Date: 1540

Location: Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest

Luke 2:16-20: And they came, having hasted, and found both Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger, and having seen, they made known abroad concerning the saying spoken to them concerning the child. And all who heard, did wonder concerning the things spoken by the shepherds unto them; and Mary was preserving all these things, pondering in her heart; and the shepherds turned back, glorifying and praising God, for all those things they heard and saw, as it was spoken unto them.

This small, jewel-like devotional painting, commissioned by Filippo di Averardo Salviati (1513-1572), was most likely destined for a private chapel in the Salviati villa. This painting displays extreme refinement of execution and luxury of materials characteristic of Florentine Mannerism, with 'disegno' (drawing), sculptural modelling of forms, and enamel-like finish apparent in every detail. The entire upper half of the composition is a deep landscape of lakes and hills, above which stretches a vast blue sky that Bronzino painted in expensive lapis lazuli. To the right, an angel announcing the birth of Christ to a single shepherd hovers in the sky, and in the foreground five putti fly in celebration directly over the Nativity scene.

Agnolo di Cosimo (1503 – 1572), more commonly known as Il Bronzino, or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, Bronzino, in all probability refers to his auburn hair, or possibly derived from his having a dark complexion. He was court painter to Duke Cosimo I de Medici for most of his career, and his work influenced the course of European court portraiture for a century. Cold, cultured, and unemotionally analytical, his portraits convey a sense of almost insolent assurance. Perhaps it was these qualities which worked against him as a religious painter as his paintings have been accused of lacking real feeling leading to empty, elegant posturing.

Second Sunday of Advent

Title: Annunciation to the Shepherds

Artist: Taddeo Gaddi

Medium: Fresco

Size: tbd.

Date: c. 1330

Location: Cappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence

Luke 2:8-12: And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flock. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them; and they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them: “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.”

The angel announces that the new born child is the Saviour, that He has come to save us from our sins, that the salvation Christ brings is offered “to all the people”. In the words of St. Paul’s in his letter to the Colossians (3:11): “Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all.”

This fresco is located on the south wall among frescoes devoted to the Life of the Virgin in the Baroncelli Chapel. This nocturnal scene presented in a unique way: the golden yellow glow of the cloud that surrounds the hovering angel bathes the shepherds and their resting place in a bright light that even reaches the trees that crown the mountain peak, while the remainder of the pictorial space is filled with semidarkness. Although the light source is a supernatural one, it produces a natural effect.

Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1300 - c. 1366), a Florentine painter, was a pupil of Giotto's and one of his most inventive followers. He worked alongside the master for twenty-four years, and in 1347 he headed a list of the best living painters compiled for the purpose of choosing a master to paint a new high altarpiece for Pistoia Cathedral. Today, he is best known for the works painted for Santa Croce, Florence: notably the frescoes devoted to the Life of the Virgin in the Baroncelli Chapel (finished 1338).

First Sunday of Advent

Title: Annunciation

Artist: Matthew Whitney

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 61 x 76 cm

Date: 2008

Location: Private Collection

Luke 1:26-31 -- And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”

Mary, as captured by the frenetic brush of Matthew Whitney, looks more than just troubled, but rather terrified and utterly confused. Her bedroom is virtually invaded from both sides of the canvas. To the left Gabriel tries to delicately to bring her the message of the lord, his exhortation “Fear not” seeming to have little effect; to the right a menagerie of startling and grotesque animals force their way into the scene, although they, too, seem to hold Mary in reverence, prefiguring the animals in the manger.

Matthew Whitney is a multidisciplinary artist and educator who lives and works in Seattle, Washington. This painting was made as part of The Vancouver Project, a two week art residency at Regent College in Vancouver, BC. Selected Pacific Northwest-based artists created this visual art exhibition contemplating the beautiful, grotesque and sublime. The project provides a conduit for churches and other faith-based groups to support artists through project patronage, and hosting the art and artists in their community. More of Matthew’s art can be seen on his website http://www.matthewwhitney.com