Art of Christmas:
Puer Natus Est
by Patrick Hunt
Included in this preview:
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Excerpt of chapter 1
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Puer Natus Est
Art of Christmas
By Patrick Hunt
Stanford University
Bassim Hamadeh, Publisher
Christopher Foster, Vice President
Michael Simpson, Vice President of Acquisitions
Jessica Knott, Managing Editor
Stephen Milano, Creative Director
Kevin Fahey, Cognella Marketing Program Manager
Melissa Accornero, Acquisitions Editor
Copyright © 2011 by University Readers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
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ISBN: 978-1-60927-520-4
Contents
Dedication vii
Prefaceix
Introduction1
Iconographic Formulae for Advent Art
9
List of Paintings
17
Section I: the annunciation
21
Pietro Cavallini
23
Duccio25
Simone Martini
and Lippo Memmi
27
Jacquemart de Hesdin
29
Robert Campin
31
Fra Angelico
35
Caravaggio39
Hendrick ter Brugghen
Section II: The Visitation
41
43
Giotto45
Fra Angelico
47
Pontormo49
Section III: The Journey to Bethlehem
Byzantine Mosaic Master
Section IV: The Taxation in Bethlehem
53
55
57
Bruegel59
Section V: The Nativity
61
Byzantine Mosaic Master 63
Conrad von Soest
65
Sano di Pietro
67
Piero della Francesca
69
Sandro Botticelli
71
Gerard Horenbout
75
Mathis Grünewald
77
Section VI: Annunciation to the Shepherds
79
Limbourg Brothers
81
Gerard Horenbout
85
Flemish Master
87
Section VII: Adoration of the Shepherds
89
Bartolo di Fredi
91
Robert Campin
93
Ghirlandaio95
Pinturicchio99
Giorgione101
Caravaggio103
Georges de la Tour
Section VIII: Journey of the Magi
Ravenna Mosaic Master
107
109
111
Sassetta115
Rogier Van Der Weyden
117
Gozzoli119
Section IX: The Adoration of the Magi
123
Gentile da Fabriano
125
Andrea Mantegna
129
Filippino Lippi
131
Joos Van Cleve
133
Pieter Bruegel
135
Peter Paul Rubens
139
Section X: Presentation in the Temple
Andrea Mantegna
141
143
Raphael147
Champaigne149
Rembrandt151
Section XI: The Dream of Joseph
153
Rembrandt155
Gaetano Gandolfi
Section XII: The Flight into Egypt
157
159
Ghislebertus161
Vittore Carpaccio
163
Melchior Broederlam 165
Sano di Pietro 169
Albrecht Dürer
171
Caravaggio173
Section XIII: The Slaughter of the Innocents
177
Giotto179
Matteo di Giovanni 183
Cornelis van Haarlem
185
Pieter Bruegel
187
Section XIV: The Holy Family
191
Giovanni Bellini
193
Leonardo da Vinci
195
Andrea del Sarto
199
Michelangelo Buonarroti
201
Titian205
Notes207
Dedication
T
his book which reflects several decades of inspiration is dedicated to Peter and Helen
Bing. As Keats said, “Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.” Helen and Peter exemplify this
perfectly.
I also want to acknowledge Cordell and Susan Hull, Fritz and Beverly Maytag and Michael
and Sande Marston for their love of beauty and truth in art. For her vision and championing
of the Humanities, I gratefully acknowledge Carolyn Lougee at Stanford University. For her
constant and matchless love, I acknowledge my wife and muse Pamela, who epitomizes the
wisdom of Keats. I also thank my editor Jessica Knott for her high standards and peerless eye
for art.
Dedication vii
Preface
A
rt is often the voice of the people rather than the voice of the powerful. Christmas art is
no exception. Even if the subject of Christmas Art appears a sacred cow with a handsoff label, it is not above scrutiny. The life and death of Jesus continues to elicit deep and even
explosive reaction—no matter how often it is reinterpreted by each generation, running the
gamut from skeptical reflection and scorn to reverence and worship. What many call the
greatest story ever told—always able to stir up emotions and controversy—has as much raw
appeal in its beginning as in its ending. Dogma is not fond of real examination. But art can
be looked at from almost an infinite variety of angles, and is in no way lessened by multiple
reference points or interpretive approaches.
This Puer Natus Est: Art of Christmas book deciphers the many layers of formula and
accumulation of stories added over the original terse gospel narratives, whether oral or scriptural. Puer Natus Est is Latin for “A child is born,” from Isaiah 9:6 Vulgate. The texts of Luke
and Matthew were merely starting points. Apocryphal texts added color and vigor, folklore,
popular themes, puns, and sometimes magical details to the bare skeleton provided in the
scriptures. Talking beasts; exotic and extravagant tapestries of costumes, crowns, and turbans;
fragrant spices; and all the language of miracle and medieval allegories augment the text.
Countless bright angels dressed in every silken damask and wing hue hang above frightened
shepherds or rickety stable rafters to signal heaven and earth are momentarily one. Wicked,
bloodthirsty tyrants like King Herod compete with Joseph’s peasant cunning. Bridled camels
and pet leopards plod along in unusually mobile starlight while magpies joke and peacocks
preen. Even humble plants like chamomile give off their allegorical fragrance, symbolic of
Christ when trampled by all the retinue of this huge Christmas cast. Gold, frankincense, and
myrrh were more than just storied gifts—they marked clear theological reference points for
Jesus as the kingly Son of David, divine Son of God, and Son of Man born to die. The tale of the
Wise Men is a new borrowed type of Jewish rabbinic midrash commentary for explaining the
Magi, as old Mithraic priests bending the knee to the new Christianity, or the subordination
of Roman paganism to austere Christian monotheism. These eastern Wise Men became the
religious spoils of a theological war that culminated in Constantine and what would become
the new imperial state, a church triumphant because it conquered as much by assimilation
as by evangelism. Yet, each participant in this Christmas pageant has at least one meaning to
Preface ix
Codex Bruchsal, “Journey of the Magi,” ca 1220
be fleshed out, and no symbol is too shadowy for the microscope and the zoom lens of this
project. Here for the first time, the Puer Natus Est: Art of Christmas is given its due as Old
Masters from Byzantine mosaic to Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Raphael, Bruegel, Caravaggio, and
Rembrandt give their versions of the story.
Visual literacy is often easier to manage than textual literacy. The eyes register even when
the idiosyncrasies of an artist make a story more interesting. While one must still train to
observe many subtleties in art, the ability to see depends less on education and erudite training than on the practical reality of familiarity. A bright child who knows little about art history
but who is already familiar with a story can often more readily identify its protagonists than
an adult overly concerned with an artist’s pedigree and documents relating to the history of
a painting. Unlike the child, the adult may have never carefully read the actual biblical text or
heard it in catechism, Shabbat school or Sunday school. So Puer Natus Est: Art of Christmas
brings back to life the treasury of symbols that were layered into paintings, sculptures, and
mosaics for millennia. The great artists desired to be understood not just as individuals but
narrators in common of a higher truth than their own lives. They passed along the Christmas
story in their art because even though it humbled them, it also elevated them to their highest
art.
x Puer Natus Est
Introduction
Ancient art has a specific inner content. At one time, art possessed the same
purpose that books do in our day, namely: to preserve and transmit knowledge.
In olden days people did not write books, they incorporated their knowledge into
works of art. We would find a great many ideas in the works of ancient art passed
down to us, if only we knew how to read them...1
G. Gurdjieff
V
isual literacy, unlike textual literacy, has always been the property of common people.
Since its inception, Christian art has always demanded and mandated a symbiosis between word—in this case, scripture—and picture. The picture has rarely been independent
of the text.
This book has a dual focus. One focus, as mentioned, is for those who are deeply interested
in art—well educated students of history but who are not art historical specialists, and for
whom Christian iconography is a new topic. For these the focus of the book is on “decoding”
the art, explaining its symbolism and formulae. Another focus is to bring out subtleties of both
biblical text and art iconography that will be appreciated by those with a modicum of training
in art history, but who are not necessarily students of biblical texts and traditions. There is a
fundamental question addressed here at the outset, which for many need not even be asked.
Others may not be persuaded, preferring the antecedent art of antiquity even though they
postdate much of formative Christian art, or those who are content with modern art without
any necessary genetic link to the past in terms of theme or myth, or those unbound by any
narrative at all.
The question to be asked is why should we study Christian art, and the art of Christmas
in particular? Many early aesthetes of the Classical tradition, likely beginning with
Winckelmann—admittedly biased toward Greek forms—in the eighteenth century,
denigrated Christian art as oxymoron, elevating instead a “cult of beauty,”2 which erroneously
measured everything against the Classical Apollo Belvedere type3 that Winckelmann (and
antiquarians such as Sir William Hamilton) “strongly championed”4 and accepting very few
artists of a Christian world besides Raphael as an inheritor of Classicism “who owed his
qualities to the ancients.”5 Winckelmann also said in comparing Classical and Renaissance
Introduction 1
sculpture: “Among them all, only Michelangelo, perhaps, may be said to have attained the
antique.”6 In 1740, George Turnbull made a comparison between Raphael and the Greek
Classical painter Apelles (fourth century BCE), preferring Apelles as superior in his Treatise
on Ancient Painting, which is absurd because none of Apelles’ works survive; he is known
primarily through Pliny’s descriptions and lavish encomia,7 some of which are repeated early
in the Renaissance in Alberti’s On Painting around 1435.8 Even in the mid-twentieth century,
André Malraux (1960) extends the philosophical and compositional gulf between Classical
and Christian art and considers the contrasts as immense and the break permanent:
On the eve of Constantine’s triumph, all the arts concerned with the Other World,
whatever god they venerated, disdained the decorative and realistic arts of the age.
Colors that painters in the classical age would have never dreamt of were combined
with forms that were equally hostile to illusionist idealization… The antique forms
we find in Christian art are not those of Praxiteles, nor even clumsy copies of them;
they are, exclusively, forms that now had ceased to have significance. 9
Antiquarian preferences and narrowness of vision have been more of a burden on Classical
aesthetics than a credible pronouncement against Christian art. It is the reappearance of the
old problem comparing apples and oranges as if to say one art tradition (Classical) is better
than the other (Christian).
But even if only on the basis of greatness in artists and the surviving length of tradition
alone, it is apparent that Christian art demands study, though most would see this false comparison today as a “straw man” argument needing little defense.10 MacGregor has stated in his
authority as director of the National Gallery in London, “All great collections of European
painting are inevitably also great collections of Christian art.”11
Yet in an ironic foreshadowing of Neoclassical aesthetics, the beginnings of Christian art
were not so auspicious. Earliest opportunities for art in Christianity had opposition from
some of the same Judaic anti-iconic philosophy (Exodus 20:4) by assimilation: “You shall not
make for yourselves a graven image.”12 Although the origins of Christian art can certainly be
seen by at least the Severan Roman period of the late second century,13 by the fourth century
this lack of artistic tradition was corrected by Christianity’s new status as a state religion with
commensurate lavish state sponsorship. “For religious reasons, the early church had refused all
pictorial representations of its faith, in conscious contrast to pagan idolatry.”14 The patronage
of Constantine and subsequent imperial successors alone would be insufficient to change this,
but the pent-up creative energy soon flowed in an unstoppable flood of Christian imagery
that often absorbed pagan symbolism as easily as other spolia. It was also necessary for assimilation of formerly imperial and possibly “problematic” pagan symbolism that Christianity
had a program for reinterpreting (interpretationes christianae) or transforming Classical and
imperial motif in appropriate and “compatible” new ways.15
Syncretism was one of the “new” ways in which Christian art developed. A mixture of old and
new imagery gradually came to be hybridized, not at all surprising since Christianity reclothed
Classical cultural icons. One small example is seen in the Rosalia, the old Roman festivals of
2 Puer Natus Est
roses that originated as dies rosationis.16 Although not necessarily only a public festival or series
of holidays, a dies rosationis could often be celebrated intermittently in late spring through summer when the graves or tombs of Romans were garlanded with roses throughout the empire. It
has been shown how early Christian Patristic writers like Paulinus of Nola (fourth century CE)
and Prudentius (died 410 CE) “reimagined” Rosalia for Christian interpretation, juxtaposing
this festival with martyrdom as a euphemism in the blood of martyrs in flores martyrum (“flowers of martyrs”) and nascentes rosas (“rosebuds”) that promise resurrection in the flowering
roses much like the mythic Adonis.17 This was also noted iconographically by Grabar in early
Christian art in Egypt with a female martyr blooming in a flowering field18 and added to the
gradual Christianization of the pagan Elysian Fields and the Happy Isles of the Blessed, adapted
from Classical mythology and literature by writers like Justin Martyr (c. second century CE) as
both shadows of Eden and foreshadows of Paradise.19
Additionally, both more dramatic and far more consequential, apparitions of old Mother
Goddesses could be seen thinly behind the cult of Mary in hauntingly familiar imagery. Mary
took not only the blue maphorion of Isis—again, whose flower was the rose—but like her in
Apuleius’ The Golden Ass became titled as Regina Caeli (or Coeli) or “Queen of Heaven,” especially in a locus like Ephesus where the persona of Artemis or the Great Diana needed a deity
replacement in a Divine Mary since old paganism was frowned on by the new order. In The
Clash of Gods, Mathews relates how common sarcophagus myth images such as the reposing
Endymion became newly resculpted as Jonah by the end of the third century. Mathews states:
The impact of Constantine as a patron on the evolution of Christian art was,
therefore, considerable. How this affected the development of the image-language
is another question.20
Although certainly not the first, Mathews also traces the parallel of the developing icons
of the Mother of God with Jesus—precursor to Madonna and Child—to the earlier RomanoEgyptian icon of Isis and child Harpocrates (Horus), where both mothers either hold the
child on their lap or nurse the child at the left breast:
The Greeks call [her] Isis Kourotrophos and the Romans Isis Lactans, the mother
Isis suckling the infant Horus. This image has resonance in Christian iconography
as the immediate forerunner of the Virgin Mary cradling her son Jesus.21
The image shown with this text is a hornless Isis on a first–third century CE plaster gesso
plaque at the Hearst Museum, Berkeley. Mathews is not the only historian to use the word
“copy” relative to Christian assimilation of Classical motif.22
In neoclassical, modernist, and post-modernist vocabulary, the idea of Christian art as
oxymoron suggests that the highest aesthetic impulses cannot be reconciled with the most
profound spiritual aspirations. Such false purism is antithetical to history, where it is likely
that for most of human prehistory and prehistory, an enormous percentage of art has been
undertaken for expressing that numinous other that religion attempts to organize, legislate,
Introduction 3
and probably from which it can even profit. It is more likely that religion—like its close
cousin, myth—calls for both the highest and most sublime inspiration as well as the most
articulate distillation of awe and dread. That art has been handmaiden to religion, and probably chief propagandist for dogma, is inarguable from history. Any survey of art history at
the most elementary level will easily evidence how many surviving works of art from ancient
cultures up to the last few centuries have served in just this capacity, and how the best artists
in Western traditions have generally always been commissioned to portray Christian narrative
in both public and private contexts.
So why study Christian art? To not do so ignores a vast treasury of stories that were so well
known as to be the underlying frame of reference for almost two millennia. Even when the
quality of craftsmanship was not equal to Classical art, Christian art was often rendered with
careful iconographic detail and idiosyncratic genius, especially when so much of the historic
population of the Christian world has been textually illiterate but visually literate. Even during
the Classical Greek Golden Age of fifth century BCE Athens or the Augustan Age of imperial
Rome, it was unlikely that more than 8 percent of the population could read and write at
all. Therefore, Classical art has a canon of formulaic iconography23 or system of recognizing
gods, heroes, and narrative vignettes without the need of text. In the period from the PaleoChristian era to the High Renaissance, roughly fourth century CE to 1500, or roughly more
than a thousand years, the level of textual literacy was likely to be much less than during the
zenith of Greco-Roman culture, while the common familiarity with biblical narrative was
undoubtedly much higher than today. As has been long stated:
We know that by the time that the interpretation of Christianity had established
itself as the artist’s most normal preoccupation, the glossary of Christian symbolism had grown to formidable proportions. And yet symbolism, however elaborate,
can never be a mere agreed system of equivalents.24
Iconography and iconology (“study and interpretation of historical processes through
visual images”25) are currently under siege. They are now understood as more susceptible to
different hermeneutics or not systematic as might have been accepted a few generations ago.26
Nonetheless, art history as a historic discipline still shows coherence to a system of attributes
for decoding Christian art solely by images and without need of words, “an open book that
everybody could read, the so-called ‘Biblia pauperum’ (‘Bible of the Poor’).”27
It would be imprudent and ahistoric to ignore such a long tradition of artistic achievement
in Christian art, or worse, pretend it doesn’t exist, if previous cultures were so tied to the same
systematic visual literacy in developing mythologies and their necessary images. It has long
been maintained with reason that the Age of Faith was very nearly a religious monoculture in
Europe, whether individuals or communities were actually adherents or not. This is especially
ironic in light of the wholesale borrowing of Judaic scriptural narratives by Christians that
were unchanged and only revamped by being called Old Testament stories. While we still
admire Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals as towering edifices of genius in engineering
and architecture, even if we are not ourselves believers, why shouldn’t we also explore and
4 Puer Natus Est
appreciate what is more accessible than architecture in the greater human presence through
depiction of visual narrative in Christian art with the same wonder even if we don’t share its
religious praxis and its common liturgies?
The art of Christmas is perhaps the most focused Christian visual narrative of all, along
with the art of the Passion of Christ and Easter, that makes the greatest distinction from its old
Judaic roots, severing a tradition that was mostly anti-iconic and deliberately visually silent
by commandment. Because it represents the satisfaction of longing in the idea of God made
Flesh, the breakthrough of the divine into the mundane, and an upending of the banality of
evil, Advent art can be seen as developing the new tradition of continual retelling of Nativity
and the gospel angels announcing to shepherds and Magi alike that hope, faith, and worship
have renewed legitimacy.
Like all cultures, the calendar year of Christianity was clearly tied to festivity around holy
days, saints’ days, and so-called historic events or events that had the status of history. It
doesn’t really matter that the formalization of celebrating Christmas assimilated the competition of the old Mithraic birthday of the sun on December 25—three days after it could be
proved that the winter solstice of December 22 did not permanently vanquish the sun28—or
that the process of canonization of scriptural texts and the many church councils were convened not by divine fiat but often bickering humanity to streamline and define orthodoxy
when the rejected traditions or Apocryphal material is often far more interesting and colorful. Furthermore, regarding human decisions, the filioque clause of the Latin church referring to who sent the Holy Spirit—God the Father (Eastern) or God the Father and the Son
(Western)—and the subsequent Great Schism between the Latin Catholic and the Eastern
Orthodox tradition is a case in point of how a syntax reading and translation from Greek to
Latin can create permanent religious divisions that continue to develop their own distinct
and competing artistic traditions even in Advent art. Perhaps it matters less who is right
in doctrine but rather more how the narrative is illustrated. Without doubt, the Byzantine
artistic tradition heavily influenced the Western tradition (especially in the thirteenth to
fourteenth centuries),29 even though most Western Christian arts may not always directly
acknowledge the debt. The evolution of Christian art can be seen in the ways through which
the Eastern tradition influenced the Western tradition, and the gradual emergence of the
Western iconography out of the Eastern, with a transition period in the late medieval where
both can be seen side by side as will be shown in this work. This watershed time can be seen
fairly clearly:
At the close of the Middle Ages, that the major breakthrough in the iconography of
the Eastern Church took place. At the same time, one easily discerns the considerable influence that Byzantine art exerted on Latin culture.30
That many if not most of these works of art were often commissioned by patrons such as
churches for public devotion or privately by church prelates and wealthy individuals, rather
than created solely for the artists’ own household or use, does not undermine the faith of the
artist or the commissioner—although none of these were likely to be equally faithful—and
Introduction 5
some artists as well as prelates were no doubt quite skeptical. That the artists were more likely
motivated by financial gain than devotion is also not that important. They had to live, after all,
and depended on this income and the patronage to survive. In the great ages of Christian art
between the fourth century CE to the Baroque era, the consensus of rudimentary Christian
faith, or at least rudimentary Christian ritual practice, ran across the whole of the culture
whose biblical literacy was probably very high even if it was more visual than textual.
Again, although church councils and papal edicts address doctrinal issues and scriptural
canons, the role of Apocryphal stories and commonly accepted legends played a huge role in
developing Christian art beyond the place where the scriptures stopped. As some have stated,
“Images of Christ helped to satisfy the desire of the faithful to more about Jesus than was
spelled out in the Gospels.”31 Additionally, others maintain that Apocryphal material still had
a profound influence on the formulae of visual representation for Christian art:
Although not in the Bible, these popular stories have had a powerful influence on
the church’s traditions and theology, and a particularly marked effect on visual representations of Christian belief… The pictorial art of the church has had such an
influence on its theology and piety that it would not be inappropriate to insist that
this art formed a Bible of its own… The old iconographic dictum that texts are the
influence which led to specific cycles of images and discrete images is undergoing
considerable change.32
Thus, creative human imagination often supplied details in the hands of artists; visual
details that needed additional articulation for Advent to be more humanly realistic and accessible to those who would appreciate the art as well as the elements of worship.
Finally, if we accept the corpus of such artists as Duccio, Giotto, Robert Campin, Rogier
Van Der Weyden, Mantegna, Bellini, Ghirlandaio, Gozzoli, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Leonardo,
Pontormo, Dürer, Giorgione, Titian, Bruegel, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Ter
Brugghen, and many others to be representative of the greatest Western genius, how can we
claim to understand their work if we ignore some of their most highly regarded commissions
in Christmas art? How can we claim to understand art history if we forget a millennium of its
best or most representative works, or relegate such art as meaningful only to an Age of Faith
long since abandoned by the majority in a post-Christian world? How can we even claim
to be educated if we cannot systematically chart the creative path of a different era whose
art, however jettisoned the anchors of belief, is still foundational to subsequent art and myth
imagery?
As told in the fifth century CE, the reputed example of Jerome can be very revealing. The
ultimate scholar and translator of the Greek biblical texts into the Latin Vulgate, Jerome is
said to have given his sermons in the old Constantinian basilica church of the Holy Nativity
in Bethlehem in such a way that his preaching of the Christmas homily from Scripture in
Matthew 2 and Luke 2 could be accompanied by his turning and pointing out to the worshippers just how the story proceeds from the pictures along the wall above them. They could
follow with their eyes what their ears heard and its memorability was thus assured. This is
6 Puer Natus Est
how the visual literacy of Advent developed apace with and even beyond the homiletic of
scripture. Which was more important? The answer might depend both demographically and
numerically on whether you ask clergy or laity. Perhaps it is easier to ask which was more
accessible concerning the same event of Christmas, the written text or the visual art? That
great artists have rendered their vision of Advent for millennia—whether for public or private
consumption, whether for commission as believers or skeptics—requires us to examine this
art for both universal and individual meaning, for both devotion and homage to the highest
creative human spirit.
In this study, although many artists continued the art of Christmas into the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries—for example, pre-Raphaelite versions as in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s
Annunciation33—the iconography becomes diluted and fragmented beyond the Baroque,
and therefore this work stops at that point. Political allegory begins to gain greater importance in the revolutionary eighteenth century as social issues demand more attention and
the Enlightenment leads to the erosion of faith or exposes growing skepticism. That there
is a sharp decline in the volume of Christian art and less fidelity to iconographic formulae
can hardly be disputed. Thus, the rationale here for selecting the following artists within the
following periods is justifiable as offering the optimum range of around fourteen Advent vignettes with the clearest balance between fidelity to iconography and idiosyncratic treatment
of subject. Even with this acknowledgment that there may no longer be a Christian purview in
Western art, the Star of Christmas still burns bright throughout the ages for many even in the
twenty-first century. As G.K. Chesterton’s poetic line reads, “Looms large and low and fierce the
Star” in Advent hope. For those who can find inspiration there, the art of Christmas yet looms
central in the fusion of Western faith and imagination.
Introduction 7
Leonardo da Vinci and Giovanni Boltraffio, “Madonna Litta” ca. 1481–97.
Iconographic
Formulae for
Advent Art
“F
ormulae” are present in the art of Christmas by which not only the figures but the
very scene can be identified by anyone familiar with the history of the narrative
events in the overall story and the biblical texts themselves. There is a consistent system for
visual literacy—a simple definition of iconography—that both literate and illiterate people
can still read. This is especially true for the Biblia pauperum, where the textually illiterate
could still have pictorial narrative. Any such formulae must also account for the dynamic
of change and dynamic evolution of such symbolism through time, in this case nearly two
millennia. As Murray and Murray state about iconography:
It came to mean [since the nineteenth century] the identification of symbolic figures or saints…but it has been extended in the present century to mean the study
of the way in which symbols are transmitted or may change their meaning, or in
particular, meaning in the visual arts.34
Thus, the fourteen or so vignettes of Christmas that can be fairly easily identified and sometimes even dated through these many centuries are the following narrative events, though the
whole cycle is rarely seen in one locale, which makes the Advent frescoes at Castelseprio even
more important because the cycle is nearly intact, even more momentous since it is such an
early date.35
The Annunciation—Primary formula attributes are that Mary usually reads her scriptures or some book in devotion, the winged Archangel Gabriel brings his announcement,
and a descending dove represents the child-conceiving Holy Spirit. Mary most often wears
her trademark outer hooded maphorion (usually blue) in Advent scenes, the “traditional
covering of a Greek noblewoman.”36 One of the earliest known images of the Annunciation
is the Santa Maria Maggiore mosaic (fifth–sixth century) from the triumphal arch,37
although the Catacomb of Santa Priscilla (fourth century) and the Catacombs of St.
Peter and Marcellinus may antedate the Maria Maggiore mosaic if the frescoes there are
of the Annunciation.38 Another image is the seventh–eighth century silk fragment of the
Annunciation in the Vatican Sancta Sanctorum. In this silk roundel on red background,
Iconographic Formulae for Advent Art 9
the haloed angel Gabriel—carrying a herald’s staff—greets an enthroned and haloed Mary
garbed in red maphorion.39 Earlier Renaissance examples show Gabriel carrying a wand
or scepter (or in Byzantine examples, holding the imperial labarum scepter and robed in
the richly embroidered imperial gold loros vestment40) as “the herald of God,” where later
examples show him carrying the white lily (Lilium album or Madonna lily) as symbolic of
the Virgin’s purity.41 Later images include possibly a light receptacle such as a candle or a
water vessel, which may represent the “presence of God” and ritual purity and cleansing
from sin respectively.42 One of the most beautiful, textually provocative—with perhaps the
humblest, most maidenly Mary in art—is Hendrick ter Brugghen’s 1629 Annunciation. The
gospel text is usually Luke 1:26–38.
The Visitation—Primary formula attribute is two pregnant women together who are often
embracing. Elizabeth is recognizable as the “much older woman” who may be doing the actual
greeting43 and Mary is the younger woman, her cousin. The secondary attribute is that their
wombs are touching so that Elizabeth’s child inside ( John) can leap on contact inside her
womb. One of the earliest examples of the Visitation is the eighth–ninth century fresco at
Castelseprio in Italy, which also has almost the whole Advent cycle represented.44 Perhaps
the most sanguine and realistic rendition is Pontormo’s c. 1528 The Visitation, San Michele,
Carmignano (Florence). The gospel text is usually Luke 1:39–56 and the “womb leaping”
passage is vv. 41 and 44.
The Journey to Bethlehem—This is a rare vignette whose primary attributes are a woman
riding a donkey without a child and a man (possibly with his son) leading or following. More
familiar in the Eastern tradition, it is not often painted except as in Bruegel’s combining the
journey with the enrollment or census taxation. The circa ninth century Pope Paschal enameled reliquary also shows the journey “with a boyish figure leading.”45 Many of the known
representations occur in Byzantine manuscripts, as in Paris in the Bibliothèque Nationale
Manuscript gr 74, folio 108. Another Byzantine fresco of this motif is found at Karanlik Kilisse.
The gospel text is Luke 2:4.
The Taxation in Bethlehem—Another Christmas vignette variant that can be depicted in
the Advent art cycle may include the Journey of Joseph and Mary by donkey from Nazareth to
Bethlehem where they are enrolled in the census, also called the Enrollment in Bethlehem as in
the frescoes of the fourteenth century Karyie Church of the Chora Monastery, Istanbul,46 or a
scene combined with their arrival and turned away from the Bethlehem inn (Luke 2:1–5 and
7c). Other examples include the Vatican Library Manuscript gr 1156 folio 277 and the Mount
Athos Manuscript Dionysiu 587, folio 129. One medieval church fresco of the Enrollment for
Taxation can be found at Curtea-de-Argeş, Church of St. Nicholas. Although more common
in the Eastern than the Western traditions, this is an uncommon motif47 and its iconographic
representation does not suggest an easy vignette to formulate. Bruegel’s 1566 painting, Census
at Bethlehem, also noted above is perhaps the best known work from this vignette. The gospel
text is Luke 2:1–5.
The Nativity—Primary formula attributes are Mary and the baby Christ Child in a manger
or food trough along with an old Joseph, who may be sleeping or just a little distant from
Mother and Child. Secondary attributes are that they are usually in some form of a Roman
10 Puer Natus Est
Albrecht Dürer, "Adoration of the Magi," ca. 1504
ruin as a stable (although the Eastern tradition “favors a cave” in the wilderness and the
Western tradition favors a stable,48 and transitional tradition can merge the two together in a
stable over a cave, or has the Holy Family moving from one to the other as in Pseudo-Matthew
13–14.49 It is likely that the cave locus for the Nativity tradition derives early in part from the
second–third century Protoevangelion of James 19.2, where it figures prominently,50 although,
in fact, as Murray and Murray point out, the gospel narrative of Luke 2 does not actually
mention a stable, only a manger.51 Usually an ox and an ass lean down somewhere nearby
over the child. The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art maintains this motif of ox and ass is
derivable from Isaiah 1:3 “the ox knows his master and the ass his masters crib.”52 Cartlidge
and Elliott show the “ox and ass” visual motif already present by at least the sixth century from
an ivory plaque at John Rylands Library of Manchester University, and later easily seen in the
eighth–ninth century from the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew 14, and also possibly
extrapolated visually from a circa third–fourth century sarcophagus cover in the Ambrosian
Church of Milan, now used as a door pediment.53 Hay or wheat is in the food trough under the
baby, and angels are usually present along with a star overhead. Carolingian images of Nativity
Iconographic Formulae for Advent Art 11
often conflate the crib and an altar,54 as also seen in the Vatican treasure of the enameled cross
reliquary of Pope Paschal (c. ninth century). Sometimes what may be recognized as Joseph’s
carpentry tools are present. When a ruined building is shown conflated within the Nativity
building or in a palatial ruin alongside, it can either be a Roman spolia of Christian triumph
over Classical paganism or, if Bethlehem is emphasized, the remnants of Davidic glory as in
Hugo Van der Goes’ Portinari Altarpiece (c 1475), an Adoration of the Shepherds, now in the
Uffizi in Florence, where a Davidic harp is shown on the portal just above Mary’s head.55 Piero
della Francesca’s 1475 Nativity in the National Gallery, London, is one of the most celebrated
images of this vignette; another is a detail of George de la Tours’ New Born Christ (Nativity), c.
1646 in Rennes. The primary gospel text is Luke 2: 1–7 (also see Matthew 1:18–25).
The Annunciation to the Shepherds—Primary formula attributes include a night context
with a flock of sheep and a few shepherds looking up at angels in the sky with great light
(see next vignette immediately following). The shepherds are also often afraid. Secondary
attributes include a dog for the task of shepherding or, if allegorical, symbolizing faith. A few
black goats may be present as well (or even a wolf) to represent sin or doubt. One of the most
memorable is the Limbourg Brothers’ Annunciation to the Shepherds (ca. 1402–08) from the
Duc de Berry’s Très Riches Heures at the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The primary gospel text is Luke 2:8–15.
The Adoration of the Shepherds—Primary formula attributes include all the same elements
in Nativity, since the Annunciation to the shepherds often appears in the background of a
Nativity.56 More commonly, this vignette is presented with the shepherds in the foreground.
The shepherds are signified not only by their worship (possibly in kneeling or bowing down)
and their poverty, but also by their sheep and possibly shepherds’ tools such as a staff or crook.
Secondary attributes may include the ages of the shepherds as old, middle-aged, and young
for the three ages of man. One of the most arresting and realistic images is that of Caravaggio’s
Adoration of the Shepherds at the Museo Regionale at Messina, Sicily. The gospel text is Luke
2:15–20 (or 2: 8–15 if also including the Annunciation in a small detail).
The Journey of the Magi—Primary formula attributes include usually three wealthy men
laden with gifts. They are represented as magi[cians] until the church frowns on magic, after
which their Phrygian caps are replaced with crowns.57 For Ferguson, a biblical passage that allows for them to be kings is found in Psalms 72:10–11: “The kings of Tarshish and of the isles
shall bring presents…all kings shall fall down before him.”58 They may at first be watching a
star, or they may already be in transit, walking or riding donkeys or horses (or in later versions,
camels) across an exotic landscape following a star. Secondary attributes may include the ages
of the Magi as old, middle-aged, and young for the three ages of man, and they wear rich and/
or exotic clothing, often Ottoman or what may be interpreted as Persian. The sixth century
mosaic from Ravenna’s Sant’Apollinare Nuovo is not only one of the earliest but clearest images of the Magi following the Star of Bethlehem. The gospel text is Matthew 2:1–2.
The Adoration of the Magi—Primary formula attributes include what is also found in
the Nativity but with the presence of the Magi or Wise Men now in turns bending knees
or bowing to the Child and presenting the three gifts in vessels as gold, frankincense, and
myrrh. Secondary attributes may include the ages of the Magi as old, middle-aged, and young
12 Puer Natus Est
for the three ages of man and often include a star over the child. Horses, donkeys, or camels
may also be present as their steeds and the Magi normally wear rich and/or exotic clothing,
perhaps what may be interpreted as Persian in earlier images or Ottoman in later images. One
Apocryphal text elaborating the iconography is seen in Protoevangelion 21.3. The child is also
shown not as an infant (neonate) but sitting up.59 A further exotic attribute may be that one of
the Magi can be rendered as African or very dark-skinned. One of the earliest recorded images
of the Adoration of the Magi is found in Siracusa, Sicily (Paolo Orsi Museum), on the marble
Sarcophagus of Adelphia (c. 340 CE) just under the tondo of the consular couple Valerius and
Adelphia.60 The three Magi process with their gifts wearing Phrygian caps before the Virgin
and Child, but there is no differentiation between them. Another early image of the Magi is
a mosaic on the Triumphal Arch at Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, circa fifth–sixth century.61
The old Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 celebrates the Magi on the ecclesiastic calendar,
now mostly in the East. Perhaps not surprising, this vignette is the subject of more than
almost any other visual representation and this may be partly due to the rich commissioners
of this subject who often have themselves painted in as wise and wealthy magi in as much
self-reference as devotion. Contrast this to the far fewer frequency of images showing the
adoration of poor shepherds! Bruegel’s Adoration of the Magi (1564) at the National Gallery,
London, is certainly one of the most idiosyncratic yet beloved images of this vignette. The
primary gospel text is Matthew 2: 9–11.
The Presentation in the Temple—Primary formula attributes are Mary and Joseph and the
Christ Child—who is not necessarily now a newborn—in a religious structure that could be
variously interpreted as a temple or a cathedral with a presiding priest (or priests) who may
be in the act of circumcising or washing the Christ Child. The oldest known image may be
the fifth century Santa Maria Maggiore mosaics.62 The famous ninth century Vatican enamel
reliquary cross of the Sancta Sanctorum with a probable Pope Paschal inscription,63 which
also contains Annunciation, Nativity, Journey, Magi, and Baptism scenes, includes a Temple
Presentation just below the central Nativity scene where a priest (or Simeon, or both personae
in one) steps forward to bless and consecrate the child in a scene not necessarily including
circumcision in this more Catholic period.64 Secondary attributes may include an old man,
Simeon, who blesses the child, as well as doves to be offered. Sometimes there is a Jewish
prayer shawl (talit) under the child. The talit is often white with a border of blue stripes, and
sometimes an old woman prophetess, Anna, who is also present and who may be blessing the
child. The Rogier Van Der Weyden Presentation in the Temple (St. Columba Altarpiece from
Munich is one of the most exquisite images of this vignette. The primary gospel text is Luke
2: 29–39.
The Dream of Joseph—Primary formula attributes include old Joseph—a widower in the
Apocryphal writings with prior children like James65—who is sleeping with his head in his
hands and an angel (Gabriel) who is somehow communicating with him, possibly by a hand
on his shoulder. Sometimes the angel is insubstantial or somehow translucent to show he is appearing in a dream rather than in live form. Secondary attributes may include a sleeping Mary
and the Christ Child and some form of house or poor dwelling structure as background. There
are technically three dreams of Joseph in the Apocryphal narratives—two clearly scripturally
Iconographic Formulae for Advent Art 13
based: one where he is encouraged by the angel not to abandon the pregnant Mary, and a
second warning him to flee Herod. The third “dream” may be telling Joseph he can now return
upon Herod’s death to Nazareth (Matthew 2:19). The early Protoevangelion of James (second–
third century) and the History of Joseph (fifth–sixth century) enlarge upon Joseph’s narrative
and are later incorporated into the thirteenth century Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) of the
Dominican priest Jacobus de Voragine.66 Rembrandt’s 1645 Berlin painted sketch of Joseph’s
Dream is unforgettable. The primary gospel text is Matthew 2:13.
The Flight into Egypt—Primary formal attributes include Joseph, Mary, and the child, along
with some form of exotic landscape, possibly with a date palm tree to show the context of
Egypt and the “Miracle of the Date Palm Tree” where Jesus commands the tree to bend down
and feed Mary, as in the painted wooden ceiling panel (c. 1120) of the Church of St. Martin,
Zillis, Switzerland.67 One of the most unique examples may be by the sculptor Ghislebertus
at Autun, a column capital of the Romanesque Cathedral of St. Lazare.68 Mary, holding the
child Jesus, may be riding a donkey possibly led by Joseph. Sometimes Joseph is walking with
a staff that may be budding, which follows a tradition that says each of the fourteen-year-old
Mary’s suitors left a staff at the temple and the favored suitor’s staff budded,69 and sometimes
a staff with a lily as symbolic of his chastity.70 His son, James, sometimes follows Joseph in
the Eastern tradition, or they may all be resting along the way.71 According to some, “always
shown in the same way, with the Madonna and Child seated on an Ass, led by St. Joseph.”72
Secondary attributes may include an angel who guards or leads them. Sometimes Joseph is
looking for food or picking fruit (especially cherries in England 73) or nuts. In Rome, the Santa
Maria Maggiore Triumphal Arch (c. fifth–sixth century) shows this scene in an early version.74
One of the most stunning and yet controversial visual images of this vignette is Caravaggio’s
c. 1594 Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome. The gospel text is
Matthew 2:14–15.
The Slaughter of the Innocents—This is not a common vignette, perhaps due to its subject
matter.75 Primary formula attributes include soldiers seizing and killing children in a variety
of ways but usually by sword or spear, often in an outdoor setting of a village (Bethlehem).
Mothers (and sometimes fathers) usually plead with the soldiers to no avail. Secondary attributes may include a carefully watching King Herod, caricatured as either evil and depraved in
a rage as he commands or even blithely enjoys the scene. Several ancient versions—especially
of escapes—are seen in a terracotta ampulla from Bobbio (fifth–sixth century), the Santa
Maria Maggiore mosaic in the triumphal arch (fifth–sixth century),76 and the Castelseprio
frescoes77 that may be dated around CE 800.78 One Apocryphal text is Protoevangelion 22:3.
Bruegel’s famous 1565 Massacre of the Innocents is both hauntingly sad and chilling. The gospel
text is Matthew 2:16–18.
The Holy Family—This is probably the most common representations in Christian art
and may just be simply titled “Madonna” or “Virgin and Child” if Joseph is not present. It
is by no means necessarily even a Christmas motif, thus should not be limited to Advent or
Christmas narrative unless Joseph is part of the image, as there is no direct textual source from
either Scripture or apocryphal writings and traditions. There are no formulae either other
than having Mary, the Christ Child, and Joseph. The venue may or may not be in Egypt. On
14 Puer Natus Est
Lorenzo Lotto, "Nativity," 1523
the other hand, perhaps more interesting in source representation, the Madonna and Child
motif (without Joseph) has an antecedent in Egypt. The source may be the iconography of the
goddess Isis, who wears cow horns that encircle a solar disc and cradles her infant son HorusHarpocrates at her breast. This is readily seen in early and late New Kingdom bronzes, e.g.,
Iconographic Formulae for Advent Art 15
the British Museum, London, Isis Suckling Horus statuette79 and subsequently in Ptolemaic
and Hellenistic variants without the cow horns and solar disc.80 In the late examples, she is
indistinguishable from the Madonna and Child whose iconography she may have inspired.
This is especially significant as early Christians in Egypt might have conflated the two females
by thinking that the Hellenistic images without horns, and therefore ambiguous, were derived from Mary’s stay in Egypt during her sojourn there. The famous Giovanni Bellini 1500
Madonna of the Meadow in the National Gallery of London is one of the most tender tellings
of this relationship between Mother Mary and the infant Jesus. There is no direct scriptural
reference for this vignette but it could be crystallized from Luke 2.
The criteria of selection of the following artists may seem out of balance when so many great
artists are not chosen, and when some of the vignettes appear over-represented while others
appear under-represented. That there are more Annunciations, Nativities, and Adorations of
the Magi here is actually a fair indication of the volume of choices for these vignettes. As
mentioned previously, it is more likely that many wealthy patrons who are painted into the
works they commission would prefer to be shown as Magi, Wise Men, and Kings rather than
as poor shepherds, though in this study it is quite often assumed that two vignettes (for example, Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds) are often combined, which might skew the
representative volume of each individually. On the other hand, there are relatively far fewer
examples to be found anywhere of the Journey to Bethlehem and Taxation in Bethlehem or
Dream of Joseph vignettes than the preferred vignettes just mentioned.
What is perhaps most inspiring in Puer Natus Est: Art of Christmas is to see how each artist
chooses to either contemporize or archaize the setting, and how each incorporates the formulaic elements into the work or what is emphasized for meaning, symbolism, and reflection as
well as for worship. An indivudual artist’s idiosyncrasies of style or composition make what
could otherwise be monotonous extremely rich and varied instead by the depth and breadth
of imagination each artist brings to the scene.
16 Puer Natus Est
List of Paintings
These paintings, mosaics, sculptures, or other media are examined in the following selections,
not all of them, however, are illustrated here:
I THE ANNUNCIATION
Pietro Cavallini
Duccio
Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi
Jacquemart de Hesdin
Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle)
Fra Angelico
Caravaggio
Ter Brugghen
II THE VISITATION
Giotto
Fra Angelico
Pontormo
III THE JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM
Byzantine Chora-Istanbul Church
IV THE TAXATION IN BETHLEHEM
Pieter Bruegel
V THE NATIVITY
Byzantine Palatine Chapel (Palermo)
Conrad von Soest
Sano di Pietro
Piero della Francesca
Botticelli
List of Paintings 17
Gerard Horenbout, Sforza Hours
Matthis Grünewald
VI THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE SHEPHERDS
Pol de Limbourg
Gerard Horenbout, Sforza Hours
Flemish Master, Houghton Miniatures
VII THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
Bartolo di Fredi
Robert Campin
Ghirlandaio
Pinturicchio
Giorgione
Caravaggio
Georges de la Tour
VIII THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI
Ravenna Mosaics (St. Apollinaire Nuovo)
Sassetta
Rogier Van Der Weyden
Gozzoli
IX THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
Gentile da Fabriano
Andrea Mantegna
Filippino Lippi
Joos van Cleve
Pieter Bruegel
Rubens
X THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
Andrea Mantegna
Raphael
Phillip de Champaigne
Rembrandt
XI THE DREAM OF JOSEPH
Rembrandt
Gaetano Gandolfini
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XII THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
Ghislebertus
Vittore Carpaccio
Melchior Broederlam
Sano di Pietro
Albrecht Dürer
Caravaggio
XIII THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
Giotto
Matteo di Giovanni
Cornelis van Haarlem
Pieter Bruegel
XIV THE HOLY FAMILY
Giovanni Bellini
Leonardo da Vinci
Andrea del Sarto
Michelangelo
Titian
List of Paintings 19
villagers clustered against the building in the back center, warming themselves by a fire whose
smoke rises against the brick house. A pig being slaughtered lies in the left foreground as its
blood is caught in a frying pan, and another squealing pig is being pulled by its ear and against its
will out of the house. Chickens peck futilely in the snow in the foreground and alongside other
children who throw snowballs at center, as other villagers search for food or fuel—stripping old
carts for wood or searching through the remnants of frozen gardens for roots—in the recent
snow that even covers the wagons pulled up to the buildings.
As if winter isn’t bad enough, the villagers and newly returned outsiders gather like a flock
of sheep in front of the town’s inn (or rathuis), marked by its sow-dusted wreath hung from the
gable over the crowd. A nicely dressed burgher has one hand out for the guilder tax from a villager and writes it down in his ledger with his other hand. Other villagers beside the counting
table watch, converse, or count out money under the bare tree dominating the left side of the
painting. The crowds around the inn with all the people in the doorways suggest it is already full.
How do we recognize Mary and Joseph arriving for the
census and taxation? Just at lower center between the
wagon tuns of beer and the frozen pond, a bent
Joseph pulls the tow rope of the traditional gray ass
with the brown ox alongside, and a very pregnant
Mary sits on the donkey in her blue maphorion
cape—here thick wool—that covers her against
the cold. She apparently carries a basket of their
earthly belongings and Joseph also carries a smaller basket.
As a carpenter by trade, Joseph carries a long saw over his left shoulder. This family hardly looks
Davidic in lineage, but then no one else in the village does either.
This entire village is oblivious of who has arrived in their midst. Not a soul appears to have
noticed the weary couple. This is unusual for even distant cousins and relatives in a small village—usually known for their small-town nosiness and xenophobic hostility—but here we
see total indifference. This may be caused by the
distracting excitement of the census, or to the villagers’
concentration on surviving in winter or, most likely,
due to Joseph and Mary’s residing in Nazareth far to the
north. As Stechow noted, the squalid hut at the center
right may be the place where Mary is relegated to give
humble birth, finding no room at the inn at bottom left,
as Luke 2:1–5 and 7c mentions, thus doubling both
aspects of this Bethlehem narrative. Evidence for this
small isolated hut as the context for the Nativity may
come from its small cross fixed to the front left eave.
This would be just like Bruegel to doubly suggest the
future with a tiny detail.
(Musées Royaux de Beaux-Arts, Brussels)
60 Puer Natus Est