By Paul Dunwell, writing for EasyFrame
© Copyright EasyFrame 2019
Pictures are not just for Christmas
This article is about how great artists have celebrated Christmas, capturing their vision of the events recounted in the Bible. Any selection is a bit arbitrary, but here is a Top 10. Because nobody else seems to have had the wit to do it, they are in chronological order: not by the date they were painted, but by the scenes they depict.
Many of these works were made for church congregations who didn't understand the Latin of the services. But they could understand, and marvel at, a picture.
1. Fra Angelico's 'The Annunciation'
This fresco, probably painted in the early 1440s during the early Renaissance, is in Florence's Convent of San Marco, which the Medici family rebuilt at the time. Fra Angelico, an Italian Dominican friar, painted or personally supervised around 50 pieces there. 'The Annunciation', showing the Archangel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary that she is to bear a child, is the best known.
2. Philippe de Champaigne's 'The Dream of St. Joseph'
Philippe de Champaigne was a 17th-century artist from Brussels who was born into poverty but ended up painting Cardinal Richelieu. Here he shows Joseph dreaming that an angel tells him Mary's child is from God. He painted the subject several times. This version seems to date from around 1643 and was made for a Paris church that was demolished long ago.
3. Hugo van der Goes's 'Mary and Joseph on the Way to Bethlehem'
Hugo van der Goes was a 15th-century Flemish painter, famous for his use of colour, whose realism influenced Italian Renaissance art. Many of his drawings survive, but most of his paintings appear to be lost. This work, painted in 1475, shows a dismounted Mary being helped over rocky ground by her concerned husband.
4. Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'The Census at Bethlehem'
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish artist of the Renaissance, known for being rather rebellious: he was happy to depict peasants when most artists painted the rich patrons who employed them. 'The Census at Bethlehem' (also 'The Numbering at Bethlehem') was painted in 1566. He set it in a snowy Flemish village, which is not quite the climate of Bethlehem.
5. Paul Gauguin's 'Baby (Nativity of Tahitian Christ)'
This allegorical painting, made in 1896 during the French artist's second spell in Polynesia, is a post-Impressionist nod to the local culture. Gauguin's conduct there, including his relationships with very young girls, is rightly condemned today, but this is one of his less contentious works.
6. Taddeo Gaddi's 'Annunciation to the Shepherds'
Taddeo Gaddi was a medieval Florentine painter and architect, said to be Giotto's most talented student. He painted this around 1330. It convincingly shows the blinding light described in the Bible, and is striking because it came at a time when painters were hardly depicting light and shadow at all.
7. Guido Reni's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds'
Guido Reni, from Bologna, painted during the Baroque period, usually religious subjects and often in a classical style. This altarpiece, a massive 5 metres tall, was painted in 1640, a couple of years before his death.
8. Albrecht Dürer's 'The Adoration of the Magi'
Albrecht Dürer, said to be the most capable German artist of the Renaissance, was commissioned by Frederick the Wise to paint this in 1504. It hung in the castle church at Wittenberg for 13 years before, yards away, Luther nailed his theses to the door and started the Reformation. Dürer later became a supporter of Luther.
9. Peter Paul Rubens's 'The Massacre of the Innocents'
Christmas has a dark side. As the New Testament relates, Herod the Great, King of Judea, ordered the execution of all boys under two around Bethlehem. Warned of this, Mary and Joseph had already escaped with Jesus. Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th-century Flemish Baroque painter, depicted the slaughter they evaded in 1612.
10. Orazio Gentileschi's 'Rest on the Flight to Egypt'
Orazio Gentileschi was a Tuscan-born painter of the late Renaissance who moved from Mannerism to Naturalism. Curiously, he was often hired to add the figures to scenes painted by others. 'Rest on the Flight to Egypt' was painted in 1628. It shows the family resting after Joseph followed the instruction he was given in a dream to flee to Egypt for safety.
Conclusion
The Christmas story has been celebrated for a couple of millennia. The birth of Jesus Christ will doubtless remain an occasion when his teaching, his call for people to treat each other well, is observed at least for a while.
You can join in by giving any of the works described here, all of which can be found quickly online as unframed prints. Any good framer will show you a range of solutions and advise on what suits the work and where it will hang.
EasyFrame is on 01234 856 501 and sales@EasyFrame.co.uk.