The artists of Artmajeur have also tried their hand at depicting Nativity, both sacred and profane, such as, for example, the very traditional gouache by Catherine Digue – Turpin, which is similar to the classic and religious interpretation of the same topic executed by Gerrit Van Honthorst, preserved at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. In fact, like the Florentine masterpiece, the work of Digue – Turpin, although less realistic and detailed, has its focus in the figure of the child, who is contemplated by the other characters above him. Moreover, in both paintings, the arrangement and mode of execution of the light generates a “muffled” atmosphere, harmonious and calm, which is perfectly capable of conveying the magic of Christmas. Therefore, the gouache of Digue – Turpin falls perfectly within the figurative tradition of the sacred event, so much so that, in addition to the work of Gerrit Van Honthorst, it could also be compared to Correggio’s Adoration of the Shepherds and Carlo Maratta’s Nativity.
Representations of Jesus Christ Throughout History- Dan Patten
Эта галерея пользователя создана независимыми авторами и не всегда отражает позицию организаций, в чьи коллекции входят представленные работы, и платформы Google Искусство и культура.
This Gallery represents the Religious and Historical Life of Jesus Christ as depicted within the following paintings. These paintings are a visual guide to actual stories as told in the Bible. These events, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ are the foundations of the Catholic and Christian Church.These paintings are brought to life with the use of color, shading, texture and space, which all help to create movement throughout.
Adoration of the Shepherds , Bernardo Strozzi, ca. 1615 (Baroque), Владелец коллекции: The Walters Art Museum.
In The Gospel, an Angel appeared to the three shepherds and told them that The Savior was born and that He could be found wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. Bernardo Strozzi has captured this scene with beautiful colors and shading. The viewer’s attention is immediately brought to Christ in the manger. Using softer brush strokes, color and shading with highlights of white and lighter flesh tones, Strozzi created a great sense of depth, bringing the figures to life.
The Twelve-Year-Old Jesus Teaching in the Temple , Lodovico Mazzolino, 1524, Владелец коллекции: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
In The Gospel of Luke, Jesus at age 12, strayed from his parents, and after three days of looking for him, he was found, teaching the elders within the Temple. Lodovicco Mazzolino has depicted Christ as the central image with his use of emphasis and balance. With the artist’s use of color, Christ in all white, and the brown chair He is sitting in, the viewer is drawn up to him, sitting above those surrounding him. This technique created a sense of hierarchy.
Baptism of Christ , Verrocchio / Leonardo da Vinci Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, 1470 – 1475, Владелец коллекции: Uffizi Gallery.
Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci both created this beautiful panel of the depiction of Christ’s baptism, as told within the Gospel. In this painting, John The Baptist is to Christ’s left and is baptizing Christ while two angels are seen kneeling in prayer. Also depicted in the Bible, a dove descends from heaven on a beautiful ray of yellow light that shines down on Christ. The artist’s use of shadows on the flesh of these figures helps to capture the solemn emotion on Christ’s face.
Christ on the Sea of Galilee , Eugène Delacroix, 1854, Владелец коллекции: The Walters Art Museum.
Eugene Delacroix has captured this beautiful depiction of Christ on The Sea of Galilee. As Christ lay asleep on the boat, his disciples panic around him while the sea rises up, threatening them. The sea foam texture, created with beautiful colors, and the wavy lines that create the fullness of the sails, gives so much movement to the waves and the storm they are in. According to the Gospel; Christ is awakened by their screams of terror and rises up to calm the sea.
The Raising of Lazarus , Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1310–11, Владелец коллекции: Kimbell Art Museum.
In The Raising of Lazarus, Duccio di Buoninsegna recreates The Miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead after being buried for four days. This is one of the greatest miracles ever performed by Jesus. The artist’s use of lighter and darker shades of the figures within this painting gives the crowd a sense of depth, while he seems to have used the height of each person as higher to the left and shorter to the right, leading the eye down to Lazarus and the tomb. This gives the viewer a sense of going down into the tomb.
The Last Supper , Marten de Vos, Undated, Владелец коллекции: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
In this depiction of the last Supper, by Maerten de Vos, de Vos captures the exact moment when Christ tell his twelve Apostles that one of them will betray Him. The artist used balance in grouping the Apostles together in threes, with the exception of Judas, whom he painted directly in front of Christ. Your attention is brought to Judas and then down to the brightly colored blue pouch he is holding, undoubtedly filled with the 30 pieces of silver he was paid to betray Christ.
The Prayer in the Garden , Baltasar de Echave Orio, ca.1610, Владелец коллекции: Museo Nacional de Arte.
In this painting of The Prayer in The Garden, depicting Christ’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Baltasar de Echave Orio has captured the pain and sorrow that Christ was feeling but also the terror for what He was about to go through. Christ is depicted as sweating blood in this painting and the color used and the way the eyes are created gives the viewer a deep sense of sorrow. The artist used space to create the distance between Christ and the Angel sent to comfort Him, and this distance seems to go on forever, as if even this distance was impossible to overcome.
The Betrayal of Christ , Anthony van Dyck, c. 1618 – 1620, Владелец коллекции: Minneapolis Institute of Art.
In The Betrayal of Christ, Van Dyck captured the calmness of Christ in his face amongst the turmoil that unfolded around him. Judas has betrayed Him with a kiss and as the lighted lantern beautifully lights up the scene, and highlights the subjects within it, they seem to fight amongst each other until a guard’s ear is cut off. Christ then calms his disciples telling them that this is the path His Father has chosen for Him and not to live by the sword or your shall die from it. With contrast in color creating texture of skin tones and clothing, each figure comes to life.
The Nativity
Christmas, the day celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, has been immortalized by many famous works of art depicting the Nativity, among which, the oldest is most likely the stucco preserved in the catacombs of Priscilla, in Rome, dating back to the third century. This early Christian work is distinguished by being particular and non-canonical, since it depicts Mary and Jesus, in the company of a prophet, pointing to a star, a symbol of the coming of Christ on earth. In fact, this mode of representation is clearly detached from the traditional one, which, about two centuries later, has immortalized the Virgin and child, in the company of the angel, the shepherds and Joseph. Representative examples of what has been said are the Nativity between the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel by Duccio di Buoninsegna, the Nativity of Jesus by Giotto and The Adoration of the Shepherds by Rubens. Later, however, the various artists who faced this subject, enriched the above composition with further details and personal reinterpretations, as demonstrated by the Mystical Nativity by Botticelli, the Adoration of the Child by Perugino, the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds by Ghirlandaio, the Nativity by El Greco and the Nativity with Saints Lawrence and Francis of Assisi by Caravaggio.
Nativity , 3rd century. Stucco, Rome: catacombs of Priscilla.
Duccio di Buoninsegna, Nativity between the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, 1308-13011. Tempera on panel, 43.8 × 111 cm. Washington: National Gallery of Art.
Pieter Paul Rubens, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1608. Oil on canvas, 300×192 cm. Fermo: Pinacoteca Civica.
Sandro Botticelli, Mystical Nativity, 1501. Tempera on canvas, 108.5 × 75 cm. London: National Gallery.
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, 1485. Tempera on panel, 167 x 167. Florence: Basilica of Santa Trinita .
Giotto di Bodone, Nativity of Jesus, 1303-1305. Fresco, 200 x 185 cm. Padua: Scrovegni Chapel.
Giotto: the Nativity of Jesus
Among the most popular Nativities in the history of art there is certainly that of Giotto, part of the cycle of frescoes that, included in the Stories of Jesus, decorate the Scrovegni Chapel, in Padua (Italy). In fact, this work, which has become the point of reference for the artists of the following generations, has managed to renew one of the most traditional iconographies of Christian art, through an unprecedented simplicity and humanity. As far as humanity is concerned, it emerges both from the face of Mary, lovingly taken to look at her son, and from the attitude of adoration that the animals direct at the newborn. These feelings are joined by the amazement of the shepherds, the joy of the angels and the meditative serenity of Joseph. All these figures are characterized by a refined, measured beauty and regular features, which refer to the classical world. Giotto’s masterpiece, however, is not only innovative for the recovery of ancient art and the desire to humanize the sacred event, but also for its spatial research, perspective and plasticism of its characters. As far as the description of the work is concerned, such Nativity is set in a rocky place, where the hut in which Mary, Jesus and a woman, a new character included in the story, who lends herself to help the Virgin with her newborn son, emerges strongly. Regarding the other characters, Joseph is painted far from his family, that is, in the lower part of the fresco, in order to highlight his subordination to the Divine Father of Christ. The ox and the donkey, however, are on the left side of the work, while, on the right, are depicted the two shepherds, intent on dialoguing with an angel, who informs them of the happy event. Finally, we find, floating above the hut, four angels intent on praying.
Marc Chagall, The Birth, 19011. Oil on canvas, 46×36 cm. Private collection.
Marc Chagall: The Birth
The topic of the Nativity has also been investigated in its secular version, as seen, for example, in Marc Chagall’s work, The Birth, and Salvador Dali’s, Geopolitical Child Looks at the Birth of the New Man. Regarding Chagall’s painting, this canvas, highly narrative and rich in details, represents an explicit manifesto of the artist’s poetics, often marked by the use of details of everyday life, which, translated into symbolic images, are disclosed in all their specificity. In fact, the canopy, specially painted in red by the artist, symbolizes the maternal womb, which is the feminine principle and symbol of life. As for the characters depicted, the left side of the work is built on a pyramidal composition, which sees as protagonists the figure of the mother, the midwife, who holds the newborn in her arms, and a man, comically sitting on the floor while watching the scene. On the right side of the work, however, are portrayed an old man and a child intent on peeking through the window and some men who, within a luminous circle traced on the floor, are intent on discussing. Finally, among the latter characters stands out the figure of a cow, which, innovatively, enters the space of the image on equal terms with human beings.
Gerrit Van Honthorst, The Adoration of the Child, 1619-1620. Oil on canvas, 95.5 × 131 cm..
Catherine Digue – Turpin, Nativite3, date unknown. Gouache, 22 x 30 cm.
Representations of the birth of Jesus in art
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The oldest known reference to the Christmas Festival is in the Calendar of the Year 354, in which the celebration date of Christ’s birth is December 25 for the first time, which is also the time when Christ’s birth became an important subject in Western art.
Gerard David, The Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and Leonard — detail, 1510-1515, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The birth of Christ is traditionally called the “Nativity,” from the Latin word for “born,” and one of its earliest representations is found on the tomb of an Ancient Roman general in Milan:
Birth of Jesus detail on Sarcophagus of Stilicho, 4th century, Sant’Ambrogio Basilica, Milan — Photo by Giovanni Dall
From the beginning, one of the characteristics of Nativity scenes is the presence of an ox and a donkey, which represent virtues such as patience, strength and humility, as well as different groups of believers.
Many of the early representations are carvings or mosaics, which have survived in better condition than paintings from those times.
Central panel of Scenes from the Life of Jesus Christ Triptych, late 10th century, Louvre Museum, Paris — Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen
Nativity Mosaic, 1132-1140, Palatine Chapel, Palermo
The first master paintings and illuminations of the Nativity date from the 14th and 15th centuries:
Giotto, Nativity Fresco, c.1305, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua
Duccio, Maestà, Nativity detail, 1308-1311, Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena
Limbourg Brothers, Nativity in Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 44v, 1411-1489, Musée Condé, Chantilly
Fra Angelico, Nativity, c.1439, San Marco Museum, Florence
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Nativity, 1492, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
During the Renaissance, however, the birth of Christ itself became a less popular subject than what comes before and after it in the Biblical story.
What comes before is the “Annunciation,” in which the archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to the son of God:
Fra Angelico, Annunciation, c.1430, Prado Museum, Madrid
And what comes after is the “Adoration,” which means “worship.” The first worshippers are the shepherds:
Giorgione, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1505-1510, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
And the second important group is the Magi, who are the three foreign kings who came from far away to worship Christ when he was born:
Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, Adoration of the Magi, c.1440-1460, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Together, the Annunciation, Nativity and Adoration form the story of Christ’s birth, which has been celebrated on December 25 since the 4th century, inspiring quite a few masterpieces along the way.
