Merry Christmas

- Angels Worshipping (left side) by Benozzo Gozzoli

Merry Christmas, everyone :)

I was looking at nativity scenes today and here are a few I liked best (click to enlarge them) ....


- by Petrus Christus, c. 1465. I like the miniature angels in this one, especially their wings, but I don't like this style of everybody standing back from the baby Jesus as if he was radioactive :)



- by Fra Diamonte, 1465-70. See the lizard?



- by Bernardino Luini, 1520-25. This one seems so warm and it's one of the few where Joseph doesn't look old enough to be Mary's grandpa



- Concert of Angels and Nativity by Matthias Grünewald, c. 1515. Here's a bit about the painting from The Web Gallery of Art ...

"This panel, also known as "Concert of Angels and Mary in Glory", is the central panel of the second view of the Isenheim Altarpiece. In the iconography relating to Mary, the concert of angels can accompany the Glorification as well as the Nativity.

The musician angels are crowded into the Gothic chapel which fills the left half of the painting. In fact only three of them have instruments in their hands, and only one of them stands out, a blond-haired angel dressed in pale violet robe kneeling and playing the viola da gamba. His exalted expression and his beautiful instrument, however, fill the entire picture with music. The peculiar position of his hand, the way he holds the bow at the wrong end, is certainly not in accordance with contemporary practice; it is merely a compositional solution employed by the master. Behind him we can see one of his mates playing the viola da braccio, and on the left, behind the column, another bird-like, feather-covered angel who also plays the viola da gamba. Grünewald no longer makes the distinction between the nine orders of angels, but refers to their former hierarchy by depicting them as different.

A long-haired female figure, wearing a crown and surrounded by a halo, appears in the doorway of the chapel. She is perhaps a female saint or, according to more recent interpretations, Mary herself before giving birth. The crystal jug on the steps symbolizes her, and the tub and towel refer to the bath to be given the newborn.

Mary, lovingly embracing her child, occupies the right half of the painting. She is flooded with heavenly light originating from God the Father, in which angels flutter around. In the rear on the right we can see the two angels bearing the news to the shepherds. The garden in which Mary sits is a walled-in "hortus conclusus" (enclosed garden) with closed gates. The plants - the rose and the Tree of the Knowledge, the fig tree - also symbolizes Mary.

This altarpiece inspired Paul Hindemith, one of the most significant German composers of the 20th century, to create his opera and symphony entitled "Mathis the Painter". "



- Angels Worshipping (right side), by Benozzo Gozzoli