the 10 best christmas story paintings

8/10/2019 The 10 Best Christmas Story Paintings

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The 10 best Christmas story paintings (printed in the Guardian 5thDecember 2015)

From Bruegel to Botticelli, Laura Cumming chooses her favourite depictions of the Christmas story

Laura Cumming (the guardian)

The Census at Bethlehemby Peter Bruegel the Elder, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium,

Brussels

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


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The Procession of the Magiby Benozo Gozzoli, Medici Riccardi palace, 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. Gozzolis fresco, with its deer, houndsand horses, its hunting and social conversation, could almost have been painted from life; and sureenough these Magi include a throng of Medici godfathers and their hangers-on. (The artist himself isamong the portraits.) The image commemorates real events the annual Epiphany procession in15th-century Florenceas it tries to make biblical events real for contemporary viewers. Its the highpoint of the Magi chapel in Florence.


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The Adoration of the Shepherdsby Giorgione, National Gallery of Art, Washington

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


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Mary and Joseph on the Way to Bethlehem(Portinari Altarpiece) by Hugo van der Goes, Uffizi

Gallery, Florence

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

and danger.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/05/the-10-best-christmas-story-paintings#img-4


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The Nativity by Federico Barrocci, Prado museum, Madrid

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


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Adoration of the Magiby Botticelli, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

More Medici - including Lorenzo and Giuliano, Botticellis patrons appear in varying states ofworship before the newborn Christ. The scene is anything but hallowed and hushed. The Medici arenot all intent on the baby, whose miraculous birth has taken place in a derelict outhouse of yawningrafters on the brink of collapse. But Botticelli raises the holy family above these queuing Italians andfinds a way to bring the ancient past into the present. He shifts the tense by including himself, on theextreme right, fixing you with a pressuring gazehow deep is your respect, your love?


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Annunciation to the Shepherdsby Taddeo Gaddi, church of Santa Croce, Florence

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


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The Annunciationby Fra Angelico, Convent of 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 verymoment of conception itself. Mary listens in astonishment, hands crossed over her body as ifreceiving 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.


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Rest on the Flight to Egyptby Orazio Gentileschi, Birmingham Art Gallery

What a scene: bisected by a rough brick wall, dominated by the donkeys head popping above it,Gentileschis Rest is a staggeringly strange composition. Joseph is flat out with exhaustion, hissnoring head lolling backwards. The Virgins feet are dirty and she is too tired to cradle the hungrybaby, who looks furtively in our direction. The holy family are fugitives from murderous Herod and hismassacre of the innocents. The nativity scene of a billion Christmas cards is all over now.

the 10 best christmas story paintings

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