FOR such a key moment in the Bible, it is perhaps surprising that the story of Christ's Nativity is described in only two of the Gospels. The birth does not appear in Mark and John's accounts and those of Luke and Matthew differ in numerous particulars. Luke alone includes such key details as the Annunciation to the shepherds in the fields and their Adoration around the manger, whereas it is Matthew who describes the Magi following the star and the Massacre of the Innocents.
Nevertheless, the Nativity is one of the Bible's great set-piece scenes, with every episode-the journey to Bethlehem, the stable, the Virgin birth, the gathering of shepherds, Wise Men and animals an invitation to artists. From Giotto and Bruegel to Caravaggio and Gauguin, some of the world's greatest painters have picked from its many incidents.
A compulsive artist such as Rembrandt, for example, found in the events surrounding the Nativity something to test his abilities in every emotional register, from dramatic to tender. He would return to its themes again and again, always with insight and originality. One of his greatest etchings shows the Annunciation to the Shepherds (1634) as a moment of not only revelation, but terror. It is a large print, in which the angel emerges from a cloud lit by a glowing orb surrounded by a swirl of cherubim. Their appearance is so unexpected and so startling-literally otherworldly that it has the effect of an explosion, sending men, cattle and goats stampeding in abject fright. A moment before, they were peacefully watching their flocks by night, all seated on the ground; now, they are either fleeing or poleaxed. It is, of course, a more likely interpretation of the episode than the more traditional one, where the rustics simply look at the apparition in mild surprise and take in the message.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 13 - 20, 2023 (Double Issue)-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
