Luke 2:8-15 reports that there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
Joy comes with an angelic proclamation of good news (euangelizomai). The message is for all the people. Though in the original context such a messianic announcement would have been understood as being for the people of Israel, the development of Jesus' ministry shows that Jesus' work reaches beyond such national boundaries. As with other incidents in the infancy material, the angel describes a sign: the shepherds will know this announcement is true when they see the child in a manger. The angelic announcement does not come in mystical isolation; it connects to concrete events.
Frank Herbert Mason (February 20, 1921- June 16, 2009) was an American painter and teacher born in Cleveland, Ohio. Mason’s classical paintings - his portraits, still-lives and landscapes - have earned him scores of international awards and honors. He was commissioned to paint the portraits of princes, cardinals and governors, and was a member of the Royal Society of Arts, the National Academy of Design and President Emeritus of The National Society of Mural Painters. His monumental “Resurrection of Christ” hangs in New York’s Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A collection of his religious paintings has recently been published in book form, also entitled “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”.
Luke 2:7 records that Mary placed her newborn son in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The manger was a feeding trough for animals; sometimes these may have been built into the floor. The word traditionally translated as “Inn”may also mean “home” or “Guest room”; with all Joseph’s scattered family members returning home at once, it is easier for Mary to bear and care for a newborn in a livestock shelter outside.
Critics have cited this painting as one of the most engaging and convincing early treatments of the Nativity as a night scene. The brilliant light in the foreground comes from the Christ Child in the crib. It illuminates the figure of the Virgin, who bends forward, hands joined in prayer, Saint Joseph in the background, and the figures of the delighted small angels to the left. The radiance of the angel announcing the birth to the shepherds on the distant hillside provides another contrast between darkness and divine light. A third and lesser source of light comes from the shepherds' fire.
The idea of the infant Christ illuminating the Nativity scene comes from the writings of the 14th-century Saint Bridget of Sweden. She wrote that in her visions the light of the new-born child was so bright 'that the sun was not comparable to it'. A century later, the interest of artists such as Geertgen in depicting naturalistically the contrasts of extreme light and shade served to heighten the sense of the miraculous birth.
Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c. 1465 – c. 1495), also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, Gerrit, Gerritsz, Gheertgen, Geerrit, Gheerrit, or any other diminutive form of Gerald, was an Early Netherlandish painter from the northern Low Countries in the Holy Roman Empire. No contemporary documentation for his life has been traced, and the earliest published account of his life and work is from 1604. Geertgen lived in the city of Haarlem, where he was attached to the house of the Knights of Saint John, thus his last name "tot Sint Jans" was derived from the order's name and means "unto Saint John"
While in Bethlehem for the census, Luke 2:6-7 records that when the time came for the baby to be born, Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son, and she wrapped him inswaddling clothes.
If ever there was an opportunity for God to enact his plan with a majestic flourish, it was at Jesus' birth. But God did not presume upon humanity when he stepped in to redeem it. There was no pretense in this arrival. Rather, God chose to identify in the humblest way with those made in his image.
Hughes painting of the nativity is unusual in its depiction of Mary as an adolescent; she is traditionally portrayed as a fully-grown woman. Here, Hughes shows her undertaking one of her first duties as a mother, wrapping her child in swaddling bands, an act which prefigures his entombment. The tenderness and care with which she carries out her task further reminds us of her youth and, that as a first time mother, she has much to learn in order to look after the infant Christ. Despite her bewildering predicament she is aided by two angels and watched by three others from above. Their presence highlights the fact that she is not alone and that both mother and baby will be watched over by God. A vivid palette of purple and pinks was used to paint the celestial figures. Their wings almost burst out of the picture frame creating a sense of dynamism within the composition, but also giving a sense of the cramped, intimate space in which the miracle of Christ's birth took place. Although Mary, as the central figure, dominates the painting Hughes draws are attention to the Christ child, the most important figure, by crowning him in a nimbus, a style of halo favored in Renaissance paintings.
Arthur Hughes (27 January 1832 – 22 December 1915), was an English painter and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Arthur Hughes met Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) in 1850 and soon became the best of the younger Pre-Raphaelite followers. His work is noted for the magical glowing coloring and delicate draftsmanship. Hughes died in Kew Green, London, leaving about 700 known paintings and drawings, along with over 750 book illustrations.
Location: From “The Life of Jesus of Nazareth Portrayed in Colours.’ London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
As documented in Luke 2:1-5, in those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, and everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in 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 expecting her child.
As the decree for the census that leads Joseph and Mary to the city of David, better known as Bethlehem, comes from Caesar Augustus, the census probably sought to produce a registration list for taxes. A journey to the ancestral home would have fit Jewish practice, so that the custom was done in a culturally inoffensive manner. This was important, since an Imperial tax would have been a painful reminder of Israel's position before Rome. That Bethlehem is the town of David links Jesus’ birth with the promise of Micah 5:1-2, from Bethlehem will come “one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” The association of David with the birth sounds a regal note, even if the allusion is made subtlety.
This illustration is one of eighty from the book ‘The Life of Jesus of Nazareth Portrayed in Colours.’ The watercolor paintings were done by British artist William Hole who travelled extensively in the middle east before executing this series of paintings. His aim was to depict what would have been visible to the contemporary observer, a follower of Jesus who recorded incidents of his daily life. Of this illustration he writes “A Syrian Khan or Inn is wholly devoid of privacy. Shallow and unfinished recesses, open for the most part, [...] provide the sole accommodation for travelers, whose animals with their attendants are crowded together in the central area.”
William Hole (b.Salisbury 1846 – d. 1917) relocated to Edinburgh as a youth where he received his education at the EdinburghAcademy. But after serving as an apprentice to a civil engineer in the city, he decided that he wanted to see more of the world. While traveling through Italy he befriended some artists in Rome who convinced him that he should pursue a career in art. On returning to Edinburgh, he began formal training in both painting and etching at the RoyalScottishAcademy.
Matthew 1:24-25 records that when Joseph woke up from his dream, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
By painting his name and the date, 1504, in the frieze of the temple in the distance, Raphael abandoned anonymity and confidently announced himself as the creator of the work. The main figures stand in the foreground: Joseph is solemnly placing the ring on the Virgin's finger, and in his left hand he is holding the flowering staff, the symbol that he is the chosen one. His wooden staff has blossomed, while those of the other suitors have remained dry. Two of the suitors, disappointed, are breaking their staffs. The polygonal temple in the style of Bramante establishes and dominates the structure of this composition, determining the arrangement of the foreground group and of the other figures. Caught at the culminating moment of the ceremony, the group attending the wedding reinforces the circular rhythm of the composition. The three principal figures and two members of the party are set in the foreground, while the others are arranged in depth, moving progressively farther away from the central axis. This axis, marked by the ring Joseph is about to put on the Virgin's finger, divides the paved surface and the temple into two symmetrical parts.
Raphael (1483 – April 6, 1520; full name Raffaello Sanzi or Santi) was an Italian painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance. He is best known for his Madonnas and for his large figure compositions in the Vatican in Rome. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, and despite his death at thirty-seven, a large body of his work remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of The Vatican, where the frescoed RaphaelRooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career.
Matthew 1:18-21 describes how Joseph was pledged to be married to Mary, but before they came together he learned that she was with child. Because Joseph was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
The basic account of the virgin birth is from an earlier tradition than either of the Gospels that describe Jesus' infancy; neither Gospel is clearly dependent on the other. Members of Jesus' family remained in positions of prominence in early Christianity when this pre-Matthew tradition (shared with Luke) was circulating. But Matthew is less concerned to prove the virgin birth to his audience, which both accepted Jesus as Messiah and acknowledged the miraculous. Matthew is more interested in teaching, and an important lesson his narrative teaches is that Jesus' birth fulfills Scripture. Immediately following the this account of the dream that alerts Joseph to the true nature of his betrothed's pregnancy, it is written in Matthew 1:22-23 that “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ —which means, "God with us."
Champaigne painted this subject at least three times. The example pictured above was likely commissioned for the now demolished church of the Minimes near the present Place des Vosges, Paris.
Philippe de Champaigne (26 May 1602 – 12 August 1674) was a Flemish-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school. Throughout his career he made many official commissions, for monasteries, for the Church, and for Louis XIII. He collaborated with Nicolas Poussin in decorating the LuxembourgPalace, then worked for the queen mother, Marie de Medicis, for Louis XIII, and after 1635 primarily for the king's chief minister, Cardinal Armand Richelieu, for whom he decorated the Palais Royal, the dome of the Sorbonne, and other buildings.
Luke 1:59-80 chronicles that on the eighth day the child was to be circumcised, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins...”
Ghirlandaio has made this composition animated by the unusual device of placing the most important group of people, who are standing around Zechariah, off centre. This means that the baby John is in the centre directly under the middle pilaster in front of a magnificent loggia which opens out onto an extensive landscape. Zechariah, whose spirit is undaunted although he is still mute, expresses amazement that a son has been born to him. While he is asked what name to give his son, he writes on his knees 'His name will be John' - all the while staring at his son, who is held by a woman kneeling reverently before him. Many of the other figures, who seem to be wondering whether this could be true or not, watch in astonishment.
Ghirlandaio (b. 1449, Firenze, d. 1494, Firenze) was an early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school noted for his detailed narrative frescoes. His original name was Domenico di Tommaso Bighordi, and he was the son of a goldsmith, his nickname "Ghirlandaio" derived from his father's skill in making garlands. Almost nothing is known about his training as a painter or the beginnings of his career, but on 1 September 1484, Ghirlandaio and his brother Davide signed a contract to paint the apsidal chapel of Santa Maria Novella. Here Ghirlandaio designed not just the colorful stained glass windows, still at their original location, he also created the altarpiece and its back. The vaulting of the chapel contains the Evangelists while on the left wall Ghirlandaio frescoed the stories of Mary, and on the right the life of St John the Baptist.
