128 CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE EYES OF PAINTERS with his hands raised in a gesture of respectful wonder. His neighbor with his arms crossed on his chest, a muscular shepherd painted from a low angle like Correggio’s but spiritualized by his intense recollection, seems almost to fly away despite his feet being firmly planted on a rock. The third shepherd, an old man who faces Mary, has knelt down, his toes curled up as though he hardly dared to come near, his back gnawed by the outer darkness, but his hands joined in ardent supplication and his profile illumined by the divine brightness. This old man who seems aware of his unworthiness—the painter’s standin?—nevertheless allows himself to be transfigured by the magnetism that irresistibly draws him toward the little baby. Joseph, on the left, is an integral part of the circle of adorers. His body, unbelievably lengthened and twisted beneath the violet and yellow draperies that clothe him, forms a counterpart to that of the old man. His face, which is struck directly by the light of the Child, and his movement back from the revelation of the divinity show that he is confronted with amystery that is beyond him. But the dazzled separation of his two hands frames the white cloth held byMary and visually completes the exposition of the Child. Corresponding to these bodies that stretch out toward the Son of God like burning flames are the long figures of the angels in the sky who participate in their ecstasy. Theirmission as heralds is diminished in favor of their office of giving praise: Once the Good News has been transmitted to the shepherds, they have nothing more to do than to enter with them into thismystical round of adoration, and to let themselves be carried away by the joy of the Gloria that they brandish with delight. As in the painting by Botticelli, heaven and earth meet around the Childwho is the connecting link. But the clashing colors, the explosion of forms, and the neglect of draftsmanship in favor of stark contrasts between darkness and light are far removed from the graceful style of Botticelli. El Greco is indeed the son of that violent Spain he adopted when he left his native Crete to settle in Toledo. Toledo, where he breathed the same air as Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, his contemporaries.
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