10 CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE EYES OF PAINTERS “BORN OF THEFATHER, NOW IN FLESH APPEARING…” For centuries, untiringly, Christians have sung about Christmas. And for centuries, in their wake, artists have depicted the Nativity of Christ. Rarely has a subject been treated so often and been such a favorite; rarely has a subject awakened so much resonance in the imagination and in faith. Christmas, a feast fraught with tenderness, celebrates something quite simple and very mysterious: the birth of an infant. Christmas, a feast fraught with hope, announces that the coming of this little child into the world concerns not only his parents, relatives, and friends but all humanity, towhich it provides access to the divine life. “Oadmirable exchange,” the feast-day liturgy proclaims: God becomesman so as “to make us share in his divinity,” he comes to dwell in our mortal flesh so as to give us a share in his eternal life. Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day...a Savior.... These unfathomably new and glad tidings were brought first to simple shepherds, according to the Gospel of Luke (2:1-20); then to wise men who had come from the East, according to the Gospel of Matthew (2:1-12). At the origins of Christianity, the two times of this “manifestation of God” on earth among men were celebrated on the same day, although on various dates depending on the region. The memory of this is still preserved in the Byzantine icons that gather the heralding angels, the shepherds, and the Magi together in praise of the Child. From the 4th century on, however, two concurrent traditions spread, since Eastern Christians tended to celebrate the birth of Jesus on January 6, the day of the Epiphany, and Western Christians on December 25, Christmas day. Finally, after the two feasts had been adopted by all the Churches, the Christmas liturgy crystallized around the passage fromLuke (the birth of Jesus and the visit of the shepherds)
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