Away in a manger

From Rembrandt's shepherds, startled by an angel's appearance, to Gauguin's mother, exhausted after giving birth to her green-haloed child, the Nativity has inspired some of our greatest artists, finds 

- Michael Prodger

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.