Nativity History Paintings
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
The Nativity is a scene from the Bible. It takes place just after Jesus is born. In some books, he gets visited by Wise Men. In others, angels and shepherds visit.
The donkey becomes an impure animal because eats the hay of the baby’s bed. The cow is considered sacred because he showed due reverence. I do not know where that story came from.
It is just something I remember from the Bible study I took when I was wee small. Joseph is often shown looking concerned. As for the wise men, they are named after the presents they brought.
That is the meaning of their names in old Aramaic. These names do not appear in the Bible. They come from esoteric text or from oral Catholic tradition. Officially, they are known as Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar.
One of them is an African King. Melchoir is the name that everyone agrees upon, while the other two’s names are sometimes spelled differently. In South America and Spain, they wisemen deliver presents to the children instead of Santa Claus.
The depiction of the Nativity has remain more or less consistent. In the older artworks, there was a presence of a midwife. It makes sense that the Virgin Mary would have a midwife. All women need help giving birth.
In the renaissance, they started dressing the worshipers in modern outfits. The doners of the paintings would have their portraits painted inside the Nativity scenes.
Some churches even added saints that were not contemporaries of Baby Jesus. Above, you can see paintings and sculptures of the Nativity. They range from realistic to abstraction.
I hope you find them both educational and amusing. There is a video of these paintings in my Artsy Sister Youtube channel. Please give a like and subscribe. Bye, bye and God bless.
