Christmas with the Old Masters--van Honthorst

 

This painting by Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst caught my eye in 2018 when Roland and I visited the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy. I think what attracted me is the way the light shines on the baby.

The painting is “Adoration of the Child” and was painted sometime between 1619 and 1621.  Gerard van Honthorst was known for painting artificially lit scenes. The references I read indicate that the light in this painting is supposed to be coming from the moon and that the two girls on the left are angels. 

The light surrounding the Christ Child reminds me of two verses in John 1.

⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Or, to put it another way, here is a verse from the Advent hymn, “Savior of the Nations, Come.”

From the manger newborn light
Shines in glory through the night.
Darkness there no more resides;
In this light faith now abides.

There is one more post in this series, so join me next week as I discuss an unfinished painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Have a Christ-filled 2021.

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I took the photo when we visited Florence in 2018. The painting is in the public domain because of its age.

Christmas with the Old Masters--El Greco

 

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, better known as El Greco, ignored classic ideas regarding proportion and created an altered reality with elongated bodies and unlikely spatial relationships. His “Adoration of the Shepherds,” painted near the end of his life between 1612 and 1614, is typical. You can identify the shepherds surrounding the holy family and the angels hovering above, but the distortion is obvious. This particular painting is located in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

The story of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 is one of the best known in the Bible and possibly the most read passage at Christmas time. Even so, it is worth repeating here.¹

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. ¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ¹⁵And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” ¹⁶And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. ¹⁷And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. ¹⁸And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Adoration is a common theme for nativity paintings by the Old Masters, and the last two paintings in this series also have that word in their name. Next week I’ll talk about “Adoration of the Child” by another of the lesser known Old Masters (or at least lesser known to me).

Have a blessed Christmas.

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¹I’ve been quoting from the English Standard Version in these blog posts, but this particular passage has such poetry in the King James Version and the passage is so familiar with those words that I have used the King James Version here.

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The El Greco painting is in the public domain because of its age.

Christmas with the Old Masters--van der Goes

 

When Roland and I were in Florence, Italy, in 2018, we spent a substantial part of a day at the Galleria degli Uffizi. I took lots of photos of paintings, including a couple I will feature in later blog posts, but the gallery was simply too large to see everything. I must have missed “Mary and Joseph on the Way to Bethlehem,” a 1475 painting by Hugo van der Goes that is apparently among the collection as part of the Portinari Altarpiece, which I also don’t remember seeing. That means I got this photo from the internet.

When Caesar Augustus took a census, he didn’t send people out to every little village. Instead, he ordered his citizens to go to the town of their ancestors to be counted there. In Joseph’s case, that was Bethlehem, the city of David.

The road to Bethlehem is mountainous and rocky, even today. The picture shows Joseph carefully guiding his very pregnant wife over the treacherous path on their way to be counted for the census. Here is the passage from Luke 2:1-5.

¹In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the word should be registered. ²This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Next week I’ll look at a painting by El Greco based on some of the best-known verses from the nativity.

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The van der Goes painting is in the public domain because of its age.

Christmas with the Old Masters--Rembrandt

 

The angels announced Christ’s conception to Mary first, as discussed in last week’s blog post. But she was betrothed to Joseph, and it wasn’t his child.

A betrothal was more serious than an engagement is today. It was a legally binding arrangement that was treated with the solemnity of marriage even though the couple was not yet living together. That’s why the scripture passage refers to “husband,” “wife,” and “divorce” even though Mary and Joseph had presumably not completed the final ceremony and had certainly not consummated their marriage.

Rembrandt’s “Dream of Joseph” depicts the second angelic visit—this time to Joseph—to make sure that he didn’t reject Mary because she appeared to have been unfaithful.

Rembrandt painted “Dream of Joseph” (sometimes translated as “Joseph’s Dream”) around 1645. It is currently exhibited in the Gemäldengalerie in Berlin, Germany.

The event in the painting is described in Matthew 1:18-25, which is quoted here.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). ²⁴When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Next week I’ll look at a painting by a lesser known artist, Hugo van der Goes, depicting the trip to Bethlehem.

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The Rembrandt painting is in the public domain because of its age.