The Christmas Story in 10 Old Master Paintings

The Christmas Story in 10 Old Master Paintings

ANGELICO, FraThe Annunciation1442-43Convento di San Marco, Florence

Here is the news, delivered by an angel. The Virgin Mary is pregnant. The son of God is on his way. In this exquisite painting, by a Florentine monk, the split-second of the telling appears to be the very moment of conception itself. Mary listens in astonishment, hands crossed over her body as if receiving a blessing, but also as if protecting the new life there. Her face is a graceful portrait of awe, bewilderment and emotion: the sudden revelation made visible.

ANGELICO, FraThe Annunciation1442-43Fresco, 230 x 321 cmConvento di San Marco, Florence

ANGELICO, FraThe Annunciation (detail)1442-43FrescoConvento di San Marco, Florence

The detail represents the Archangel Gabriel.


The detail represents the Archangel Gabriel.


The detail represents the Virgin Annunciate

CHAMPAIGNE, Philippe de The Dream of Saint Joseph 1643National Gallery, London

In the Gospel of Matthew, Mary is pledged in marriage to Joseph when he discovers she is pregnant. In consternation, he decides to continue with the marriage but with future divorce in mind. But God sends an angel to Joseph in a dream to explain the divine conception and ask him to name the baby Jesus. The French painter Champaigne is one of very few artists to depict Joseph’s story, imagining his dilemma and this angelic intervention. And just like a figure in a dream, the angel speaks without words, explaining the mystery entirely in sign language.

CHAMPAIGNE, Philippe de The Dream of Saint Joseph 1643Oil on canvas 210 x 156 cm National Gallery, London

CHAMPAIGNE, Philippe de The Dream of Saint Joseph (detail) 1643Oil on canvas 210 x 156 cm National Gallery, London




GOES, Hugo van derThe Portinari Triptych, Sts Anthony and Thomas with Tommaso Portinari1476-79Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Mary and Joseph are on their way through a rocky landscape. She has climbed down from the donkey, perhaps afraid of riding down such a perilous, ankle-breaking slope. Joseph, grizzled and weary, is helping her along with all his loving kindness, his actions (rather than her physical appearance) suggesting just how pregnant she is. Jesus’s earthly father is generally portrayed as ineffectual but not in this vision, a detail from the famous Portinari Altarpiece in Florence. He is doing everything he can, as husband and prospective new father, to protect his little family from hardship and danger.

GOES, Hugo van derThe Portinari Triptych, Sts Anthony and Thomas with Tommaso Portinari1476-79Oil on wood, 253 x 141 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

GOES, Hugo van derThe Portinari Triptych, Sts Anthony and Thomas with Tommaso Portinari (detail)1476-79Oil on woodGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Mary and Joseph making their way to Bethlehem.



In the background, against a barren, rocky landscape, Mary and Joseph can be seen making their way to Bethlehem, an episode that prepares us for the holy event of the central panel.

BRUEGEL, Pieter the ElderThe Census at Bethlehem1566Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Luke describes the event. “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered… Joseph went to Bethlehem to be registered with Mary, who was with child.” For Bruegel, the event is contemporary, taking place in his native Belgium in the harshest of winters. Mary and Joseph are just two more poor people trudging through the freezing air to queue for this ruthlessly imposed bureaucracy. The only thing that distinguishes them in the general misery and chaos is the proverbial donkey.

BRUEGEL, Pieter the ElderThe Census at Bethlehem1566Oil on oak, 116 x 164 cmMusées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

BRUEGEL, Pieter the ElderThe Census at Bethlehem (detail)1566Oil on oakMusées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Bruegel treats the biblical story, a rare subject in previous Netherlandish art, as a contemporary event. A reference to particular political events has been adduced - the severity of the Spanish administration in the southern Netherlands. However, Bruegel may well be making a more general criticism of bureaucratic methods.The ruined castle in the background is based on the towers and gates of Amsterdam.


Mary with the Christ child is sitting on a donkey, the ox visible behind her. Joseph is striding out in front of them in the direction of the inn where the tax collectors or census officials are. Otherwise, no one in Bruegel's depiction of a winter village square is interested in the biblical figures.


No one pays Mary and the Christ Child any attention; children are enjoying themselves on the ice with skates, tops, and a stool which has been pressed into use as a toboggan.

BAROCCI, Federico FioriThe Nativity 1597Museo del Prado, Madrid

Of all the many thousands of nativity scenes in western art, this one is among the most tenderly maternal. Mary kneels humbly before her God, but she is equally full of love for her newborn baby. Mother and child gaze into each other’s eyes and the whole composition emphasises their mutual bond. The art of Barrocci, until recently one of the most overlooked of Italian masters, was especially popular with women in his lifetime and it is not hard to see why from this nativity, in which the radiant child illuminates the exquisitely loving face of Mary.

BAROCCI, Federico FioriThe Nativity 1597Oil on canvas, 134 x 105 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

BAROCCI, Federico FioriThe Nativity (detail)1597Oil on canvas, 134 x 105 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid



GADDI, TaddeoAnnunciation to the Shepherdsc. 1330Cappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence

Luke reports that the shepherds were tending their flocks outside Bethlehem when an angel suddenly appeared, announcing that the saviour has just been born in the town. Medieval painter Taddeo Gaddi imagines the scene taking place on a steep hill in the middle of the night. Only one of the shepherds is awake so far, the other hunched like a rock behind him. Sheep and dogs are beginning to stir too, as the angel speaks from above – a shepherd and his flock waking up to the astonishing news.

GADDI, TaddeoAnnunciation to the Shepherdsc. 1330FrescoCappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence

GADDI, TaddeoAnnunciation to the Shepherds (detail)c. 1330FrescoCappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence



GOZZOLI, BenozzoProcession of the Youngest King (east wall)1459-60Chapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence

Not three kings, so much as 33: a whole cavalcade of the great and good (or the rich and powerful) wends its way down a steep valley on the way to Bethlehem. Gozzoli’s fresco, with its deer, hounds and horses, its hunting and social conversation, could almost have been painted from life; and sure enough these Magi include a throng of Medici godfathers and their hangers-on. (The artist himself is among the portraits.) The image commemorates real events – the annual Epiphany procession in 15th-century Florence – as it tries to make biblical events real for contemporary viewers. It’s the high point of the Magi chapel in Florence.

GOZZOLI, BenozzoProcession of the Youngest King (east wall)1459-60FrescoChapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence

GOZZOLI, BenozzoProcession of the Youngest King (east wall) (detail)1459-60FrescoChapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence Members of the Medici family are portrayed in the youngest king's retinue. For example, the man riding on a brown mule has been identified as Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464). Benozzo Gozzoli placed his own self-portrait among the Medicis. His red cap bears the inscription BENOTII. He is standing behind two youths, who, it is now believed, portray Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici.

GOZZOLI, BenozzoProcession of the Youngest King (east wall)(detail)1459-60FrescoChapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence


The youngest of the Magi was thought to be a likeness of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He is at the head of a cortege which includes Cosimo de' Medici, Piero the Lame and his brother Giuliano. Lorenzo's face is characterized by shining eyes, a strong, square jaw and fine mouth. However, it is not probable since at the time the work was created, he was just ten years old.


Behind the youngset king scenes of hunting, one of the noble pleasures of the time, can be seen.

BOTTICELLI, SandroAdoration of the Magic. 1475Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

More Medici - including Lorenzo and Giuliano, Botticelli’s patrons – appear in varying states of worship before the newborn Christ. The scene is anything but hallowed and hushed. The Medici are not all intent on the baby, whose miraculous birth has taken place in a derelict outhouse of yawning rafters on the brink of collapse. But Botticelli raises the holy family above these queuing Italians and finds a way to bring the ancient past into the present. He shifts the tense by including himself, on the extreme right, fixing you with a pressuring gaze – how deep is your respect, your love?

BOTTICELLI, SandroAdoration of the Magic. 1475Tempera on panel, 111 x 134 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence

BOTTICELLI, SandroThe Adoration of the Magi (detail)c. 1475Tempera on panelGalleria degli Uffizi, Florence


This detail shows the assumed portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Behind him: Agnolo Poliziano.



The detail shows the assumed self-portrait of the artist.

GIORGIONEThe Adoration of the Shepherds1505-10National Gallery of Art, Washington

The mysterious Giorgione left very few works at his premature death, but this one is a masterpiece of contemplation. The elderly Joseph is deep in prayer, Mary holds a pose of silent worship before the Christ child, whose hazy face appears so inward-looking. The shepherds, in their ragged clothes, are speechless and spellbound, but full of love for the baby. They are the first to arrive, the first to understand what they are seeing, before the rest of the crowd arrives. The scene is very close and intimate, against the distant Venetian landscape. Not a sheep in sight. By their humility shall you know the shepherds.

GIORGIONEThe Adoration of the Shepherds1505-10Oil on panel, 91 x 111 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

GIORGIONEThe Adoration of the Shepherds (detail)1505-10Oil on panel, 91 x 111 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington



GENTILESCHI, OrazioRest on the Flight into Egypt1615 - 1620 Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery , Birmingham

What a scene: bisected by a rough brick wall, dominated by the donkey’s head popping above it, Gentileschi’s Rest is a staggeringly strange composition. Joseph is flat out with exhaustion, his snoring head lolling backwards. The Virgin’s feet are dirty and she is too tired to cradle the hungry baby, who looks furtively in our direction. The holy family are fugitives from murderous Herod and his massacre of the innocents. The nativity scene of a billion Christmas cards is all over now.

GENTILESCHI, OrazioRest on the Flight into Egypt1615 - 1620 Oil on canvas, 175.6 x 218 cm Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery , Birmingham

GENTILESCHI, OrazioRest on the Flight into Egypt (detail)1615 - 1620 Oil on canvas, 175.6 x 218 cm Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery , Birmingham



The Christmas Story in 10 Old Master Paintings

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GENTILESCHI, OrazioRest on the Flight into Egypt

Gentileschi has treated the subject as if the Holy Family were ordinary Italian peasants. Joseph is old, haggard and exhausted. The Virgin is a young, well-built woman with grubby feet sitting uncomfortably on the floor of a ruined building as she feeds her toddler child. Jesus appears naked and vulnerable

glancing furtively towards the viewer and we are reminded that this family are refugees escaping from Herod's death-threat.

ANGELICO, FraThe Annunciation

1442-43

This fresco is situated on the wall of the northern corridor on the upper floor in front of the staircase in the Convento di San Marco in Florence. It was painted on Angelico's return from Rome in 1450, and is therefore several years later than the majority of the frescoes at San Marco. In style it falls between the sparseness of The Annunciation in cell 3 and the richness of the Cortona altarpiece. Unlike in the Cortona version, the garden is here viewed through a colonnade of columns which recede to a vanishing point near the

centre of the painting.

Under the arches between the Corinthian columns are the slender figures of the Madonna and of the angel in devout converse, regulated with the rhythm of gentle curves; in the background, on the left, the celestial fields with Tuscan cypresses; Gabriel's wings stretch out like a rainbow. It is the theme of the tabernacles which multiply themselves at the crossing of the ways; the greeting taken from the mediaeval hymnology and the invitation addressed to the passer-by and writings under the painting show Angelico's most

cultivated devotion: Salve, Mater pietatis / et totius Trinitatis / nobile triclinium / Maria!

The lighting of the scene is curiously illogical, the interior of the arcaded loggia is evenly illuminated, despite the fairly strong light coming from the left.

CHAMPAIGNE, Philippe de The Dream of Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph, Christ's earthly father, has a dream telling him that Mary's child is from God. New Testament (Matthew 1: 18ff.). Champaigne painted this subject at least three times. This one was possibly commissioned for the now demolished church of the Minimes near the present Place des Vosges, Paris.

GOES, Hugo van derThe Portinari Triptych, Sts Anthony and Thomas with Tommaso Portinari

The picture shows the left wing of the Portinari Triptych.Three members of the Portinari family, Tommaso Portinari and his two sons Antonio and Pigello, are portrayed kneeling, their faces pale, sculptural and almost

ghostlike. Above them stand Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Thomas, two of the family's patron saints, looking grave and solemn, their majesty almost compressed by the absence of a surrounding space. In the background, against a barren, rocky landscape, Mary and Joseph can be seen making their way to Bethlehem, an episode

that prepares us for the holy event of the central panel.

GOES, Hugo van derPortinari Triptych

This large triptych is the most important work of the Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes, constituting the basis for a reconstruction of the artist's entire oeuvre. It was painted in Bruges and was commissioned to the artist by Tommaso Portinari, an agent of the Medicean bank who resided in the city with his family The painting was

intended for the high altar of Sant' Egidio, the church of the Arcispedale of Santa Maria Nuova founded in 1288 by the banker's ancestor Folco Portinari. Shipped from Bruges by sea, with the financial aid of the banker Niccolò di Giovanni Capponi, it arrived in Pisa by way of Sicily. The painting was then transported along the Arno and

finally completed its tortuous journey at the Porta San Frediano in Florence on 28 May 1483. From here it was carried to its destination by sixteen strong porters under the surveillance of Meo di Tingo, an envoy of the Arcispedale. In 1567 the triptych was dismembered.

When the work arrived in Florence, it immediately caused a sensation among the people and attracted a considerable following among contemporary artists. The triptych had an enormous impact, noticeably influencing the art of manuscript illustration in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries as well as illustrious

representatives of Umbrian painting like Luca Signorelli.

BRUEGEL, Pieter the ElderThe Census at Bethlehem

Seen from above, the snow-covered village stretches on the one side to a ruined castle and on the other, beyond the pond, as far as the church. People are going about their daily tasks: sweeping the snow, building a cabin, crossing the pond on foot next to a ferry-boat caught in the ice, gathering around a fire. The children are playing, throwing snowballs,

skating, spinning their tops, sledging. In the right hand foreground, a man with a large carpenter's saw is leading an ox and an ass, the latter bearing a women wrapped tightly in an ample blue mantle. Without attracting attention, they pick their way between the carts of beer barrels and bales. These are Joseph and Mary, who have come to Bethlehem to be

enrolled in the universal census ordered by Emperor Augustus. The Gospel episode is associated with the payment of tax. And indeed to the left, the crowd is pressing in front of the tax-gatherer's office, installed at the window of the inn, whilst in front of the door, a pig is being killed.

The picture suggests a muffled atmosphere, made more limpid by the reddening disk of the setting sun. With tiny highlights and reworkings and subtle nuances of colour, Bruegel works on the whites to evoke the snow in all its diversity: powdery and virgin, footprinted, grey and frozen from where the children have been sliding on it, slushy where trampled.

The scene is punctuated with thin trees whose empty branches stand out like signposts against a clear sky, thinly painted to allow the background layer to show through.

In a masterful synthesis of religious painting, genre scene and landscape, Bruegel recomposes everyday life, revisiting the biblical story to create a picture of a rarely equalled richness, which can be read in several ways. With a few deft brushstrokes he brilliantly captures human silhouettes in the full spontaneity of their activities. Drawing his inspiration

probably from the snow-covered landscapes found in Books of Hours, Bruegel is one of the first artists to paint snow scenes, a theme he returned to another four times. In his wake, the subject proved an immense success, with winter landscapes becoming a genre of their own. 14 copies of this panel are known, one of which, from the hand of Brueghel the

Younger, is also in the Brussels museum.

BAROCCI, Federico FioriThe Nativity

Aspects of what was to be known as the Baroque style can be seen in Barocci's Nativity.

After a documented stay in Rome and a highly probable visit to Parma to study Correggio, Barocci returned to Urbino in 1576. When he painted this work for Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, he had a very personal style that merged the Venetian use of color with what has been called mystic naturalism. Barocci was at his best in small compositions like the present one, where his tendency toward affectation was compensated by a great sensitivity in the handling of the highlights, where were able to create a

poetic atmosphere all by themselves. In 1605, the Duke of Urbino gave this painting to Margarita of Austria, the wife of Felipe III.

GADDI, TaddeoAnnunciation to the Shepherds

This scene is located at middle left on the south wall. It is a 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.Gaddi was much involved in the study of light effects, perhaps as a consequence of the solar eclipses which repeatedly occurred in the 1330s. Studying the solar

eclipse in 1339, Gaddi acquired a serious eye illness.

Frescoes in the Baroncelli Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence (c. 1330)by Taddeo GADDI

The Baroncelli Chapel was added to the south end of the transept of the Santa Croce in the fourteenth century. It consists of two bays of considerable dimensions. The construction on the chapel began in February 1328 and the donors were five members of the Baroncelli family. The decoration of the chapel was executed by Taddeo Gaddi

between 1328 and 1333. The chapel is consecrated to the Annunciation to the Virgin, and thus the pictorial program is devoted to the life of the Virgin.The fresco cycle covers only the two walls of the front section of the space, beginning on the east wall with the Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple and Joachim's Dream.

It is followed on the same wall by Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate and the Birth, Presentation and Marriage of the Virgin. On the south wall are the Annunciation to the Virgin, the Visitation, the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the Birth of Christ, the Christ Child Appears to the Magi as a Star, and the Adoration of the Magi.

On the pilaster dividing the two parts of the room are Isaiah above and a youthful David as the conqueror of Goliath below. On the vault of the front section of the room are depictions of the four cardinal virtues, while on the rear section are the three theological virtues and Humilitas. The window jambs feature fifteen additional virtues, the stained

glass window itself has St Francis Receives the Stigmata and the depictions of six other saints.Of the many family chapels in Santa Croce from the early fourteenth century, none has retained as much of its original appearance as the Baroncelli Chapel.

GOZZOLI, BenozzoProcession of the Oldest King (west wall)

The sequence of pictures begins with the youngest king. On the horizon his retinue is moving down from the mountains. At the highest point is a small medieval fortress, possibly Jerusalem, where the Three Kings first went. However, the architecture of the complex is reminiscent of the Medici villa in Cafaggiolo, which Cosimo de' Medici

commissioned Michelozzo to build in 1451 in the style of a medieval castle.

The young king, who is looking towards the old king on the opposite wall, was thought to be a portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici. However, it is not probable since at the time the work was created, he was just ten years old. Rather, in these features Gozzoli is repeating a portrait formula which he also uses in other places, especially the angels'

heads. Furthermore it would be unusual to portray a member of the Medici family in so prominent a position. Benozzo was aware that such portraits belonged at the edge, not in the centre of the composition. The portraits of the Medicis can, therefore, be found at the front of the young king's retinue. At the head of the group, behind king, rides Piero

de' Medici (1416-1469), who commissioned the frescoes.

Benozzo has also immortalized himself in the densely crowded retinue in close proximity to the "familiari". We know this from the inscription of his name on the red cap. In recent research the two youths in front of Benozzo have been identified as Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici. By having themselves depicted in the procession of the Three Kings,

the Medicis were demonstrating both their political and their financial power. They had themselves depicted at the end of the procession, as part of the youngest king's retinue, and not as part of the retinue of the oldest king, who is nearest their goal.

BOTTICELLI, SandroThe Adoration of the Magi

The Adoration of the Magi was a common theme in Renaissance Florentine art. This painting was commissioned by a banker connected to the house of Medici, Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama, for a chapel at the Santa Maria Novella church, which has since been destroyed. Botticelli painted many members of the Medici family into the scene, including del Lama

himself, Cosimo de Medici, Piero and Giovanni Medici (Cosimo’s sons), and Giuliano and Lorenzo (Cosimo’s grandsons). Although the four eldest of the Medicis were already deceased when Botticelli painted this piece, Lorenzo effectively ruled Florence. Botticelli also included a portrait of himself, in the yellow robe in the bottom right corner of the

painting.

GIORGIONEThe Adoration of the Shepherds

The Adoration of the Shepherds or the Allendale Nativity, as it is commonly known after one of the previous owners, is now generally accepted as by Giorgione. However, the debate on its attribution continues, with Bellini and the young Titian considered as possible authors. It is assumed by some critics that the landscape was painted by Titian.

This important work had an immediate impact on Venetian painting. The composition is divided into two parts, the dark cave on the right and a luminous Venetian landscape on the left. The shimmering draperies of Joseph and Mary are set off by the darkness behind them, and are also contrasted with the tattered dress of the shepherds. The scene is one of

intense meditation; the rustic shepherds are the first to recognize Christ's divinity and they kneel accordingly. Mary and Joseph also participate in the adoration, creating an atmosphere of intimacy.

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The Christmas Story in 10 Old Master Paintings