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.

__________

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.

__________

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