Pictures of Western artists about Christmas. Waiting for a miracle: New Year and Christmas in the paintings of artists of the late 19th - early 20th centuries

New Year and Christmas holidays- one of the most popular topics in world art. Unique atmosphere winter's tale, expectations of a miracle, family comfort, recreated in painting late XIX - early. XX centuries., takes us back to an era of great change, so similar to early XXI v.

One of the favorite themes of the Russian artist Boris Kustodiev was festivities during the winter holidays. He often depicts snow-covered villages and provincial towns, merchants and peasants in the streets, fairs and booths. Kustodiev created a nostalgic art world imbued with sun, joy and a festive mood. The plots of his paintings are always fabulous, this is both the Russian province of the early twentieth century, and the fabulous Russia without definite temporal and spatial coordinates.

Danish artist Viggo Johansen - professor of painting, director of the Danish Academy of Arts - often wrote scenes from family life... One of his most magical works is the painting "Happy Christmas". The artist willingly resorted to lighting effects in paintings painted in dark colors... And in this work, against the background of dark silhouettes of people and shadows in the corners of the room, the Christmas tree looks even brighter and more contrasting, sparkling with festive lights. This is the center of the composition, which is highlighted with both color and light. The glare from the lights illuminates the enchanted children's faces, which creates a magical atmosphere for a cozy family holiday.

Even the Grand Duchess Olga Romanova is the youngest daughter Alexander III- painted pictures dedicated to winter holidays. In the imperial family, all the children studied painting, but only Olga did it professionally. In 1920 she had to emigrate first to Yugoslavia, then to Denmark. The painting "New Year's Treat" was created in 1935, far from home, but it recreates the traditional Russian atmosphere of a festive tea party with pie, jam and a samovar.

The family atmosphere of anticipation of the holiday is also captured in Sergei Dosekin's painting Preparing for Christmas. There are no Christmas trees and gifts visible on it, but in the center of the composition are grandfather and grandchildren, who are preparing garlands and decorations for the house.

The State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin has implemented another significant project. In the halls of the Moscow Museum there is an exhibition, dedicated to creativity the outstanding artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio. The exhibition is part of the Year of Italy in Russia.
The exposition includes 11 works by the master from the collections of Italy and the Vatican. The exhibition is small, but rare in its content. Among the works presented are such masterpieces European painting as "The Boy with a Basket of Fruit" from the Borghese Gallery, almost never leaving the walls of the Vatican Palace, "Entombment", "Dinner at Emmaus" from the Brera Gallery in Milan, "Conversion of Saul" from the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo and other canvases.

In the collection dedicated to Christmas, the following paintings are presented:

4. Giorgione. Adoration of the Magi.

5. Rogier van der Weyden. Adoration of the Magi.

6. Rembrandt, Harmenszoon van Rijn. Flight to Egypt.

7. Hugo van der Goes. Christmas.

10. Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov. Nativity.

12 Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin Christmas.

Giorgio Vasari(1511-1574) - Italian painter, architect and writer.

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky(1757-1825) - Russian artist, master of portrait.

Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco better known as Giorgione (1476/1477 – 1510)) - italian artist, a representative of the Venetian school of painting; one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.

Rogier van der Weyden(1399/1400 - 1464) - Van Eyck's rival for the title of the most influential master of early Dutch painting.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn(16-6-1669) - Dutch painter, draftsman and engraver, Great master chiaroscuro, the largest representative of the golden age of Dutch painting.

Hugo van der Goes(about 1420-25 - 1482) - Flemish painter... Albrecht Dürer considered him the largest representative of early Dutch painting, along with Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.

Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510) - the nickname of the Florentine artist Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, who brought the art of Quattrocento to the threshold of the High Renaissance.

Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio(1573-1610), Italian artist, reformer of European painting of the 17th century, one of the greatest masters of the Baroque. One of the first to apply the style of writing "Chiaroscuro" - a sharp opposition of light and shadow.

Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov(1862-1942) - Russian and Soviet painter... Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942). Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941).

Shebuev, Vasily Kozmich- (* 2 (13) April 1777 in Kronstadt - † 16 (28) June 1855, St. Petersburg) - Russian painter, actual state councilor, academician, Honored Rector of Painting and Sculpture of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1832), one of the leading masters of late classicism and academism.

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin(1848-1903) - French painter, ceramic sculptor and graphic artist. Along with Cezanne and Van Gogh, he was the largest representative of post-impressionism.

What bliss that the snow glistens,
That the cold got stronger, and in the morning it was drizzling,
That foil sparkles wildly and tenderly
At every corner and in the shop window.
While serpentine, tinsel, gimp
They rise above the boredom of other possessions,
The languor of the New Year's weeks
endure and endure - what a wonderful fate ...

(Bella Akhmadulina, December 1974)

1. (Illustrator Alexander Dudin, 1953.)

I begin my New Year's review of painting dedicated to the annual celebration of Christmas and New Years with this general symbolic generalized illustration to create an appropriate mood for the reader. This does not mean that I will show reproductions with ordinary decorated Christmas trees and children and adults having fun around them, but I will try to show something non-trivial, but original from this set of paintings on the named topic, of which, as it turned out, not so many artists have written. If we did not collect the entire classical biblical series of paintings written by the great masters of the past, then the title and objectives of our study would be different. But there are modern original exclusive painting subjects that are worth highlighting and showing, as a reflection of the Christmas holiday and the New Year. ...

Naturally, I cannot, in my usual manner, evaluate the New Year and Christmas painting under consideration from the point of view of a doctor, as I tried to do in previous reviews, but I will try to discuss reproductions as an ordinary spectator and an amateur in art. And he has the right in his present review to pick up non-trivial subjects, rare paintings famous artists and images unexpected for some authors, pictures with humor and with exclusive subjects. But they are all written on the occasion of Christmas or New Year's holidays, often combining both celebrations.

For example, completely unusual picture Salvador Dali, written for a French women's magazine"Vogue" (pronounced vogue, with fr. - "fashion") - women's fashion magazine, published since 1892 publishing house Condé Nast Publications, perceived as a joke of a genius.

As far as I could see and understand, it shows two parts of the open arch in the form of a man and a woman bent over, from whose mouths green Christmas decorations- droplets or light bulbs. The split balusters are designed as parts of a person's face. Above, spruce trees with brightly and radiantly glowing lights are visible ...

1. Dali's Christmas design for "Vogue" 1946. The artist depicted an allegorical New Year's landscape with metaphorical details of decor and architecture ...

It is quite natural that artists could not ignore such subjects that were supposed to be transferred to canvases with their magic brushes. Where else can you find pictures for funny images, fabulous, colorful, funny and fantastic in content, if not during the Christmas and New Year holidays?

1. This is one of the old German prints in which children and Santa Claus himself gathered at the Klausbaum tree. An engraving from the German book 50 Picture Fables for Children.

Of course, there are hardly any paintings by the great masters of the past, when there was still no tradition of celebrating these days and painting them in pictures. After all, the first mentions of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ in Russia appeared only at the very end of the XV1 century. And celebrate the new year with a tree even later.

1. Painting by an unknown artist about the New Year in a peasant hut before or in the first years after the October coup.

On December 15, 1699, Peter 1 issued a decree on a new chronology, in connection with which, New Year began to celebrate on January 1. Because of Peter I's passion for Europe, the New Year began to be celebrated in the manner adopted there. The celebrations became a more fun and exciting event for the Russian people. Based on Dutch traditions, people began to decorate their homes with coniferous branches, which were supposed to remain until the birth of Christ. The New Year holiday also has its main character - Santa Claus, fairytale character, who also came to us from Europe in the second half of the 19th century under the name of Santa Claus. In the Russian tradition, he had a granddaughter Snegurochka.

On this bright holiday

On this bright holiday -
The holiday of Christmas
We will tell each other
Nice words.

Quietly the snow falls:
It's winter outside
A miracle will happen here
And will ignite the hearts.

May your smiles
On this wonderful day
Will be our happiness
And a gift to everyone.

The sounds of life are pouring
Happiness and kindness
Illuminating thoughts
With the light of Christmas.
- Khomyakov Alexey Stepanovich (1804-1860)

True, even before Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden, the first guest who came on the New Year was the Snow Woman or Snowman, made up of rolled balls of fresh snow, marked with charcoal facial features, a carrot instead of a nose, a bucket or a saucepan on his head, and brooms in his hands from branches ...

Children are friends with him in the yard.
He loves frost and wind.
Will not go: wherever he wants,
And it stands from morning to night.
He does not eat, does not drink, does not sleep,
And above him a snowball flies ...
He was not used to living in warmth.
From - ha - yes - is it? (Snowman)

(Aleksandrenko Elena)

1. "Snow Maiden" (literally, "girl from the snow").

But the artist Sergei Sviridov decided to diversify the company of familiar snowmen or Snowwomen and drew the Snow Maiden in the form of a small sprout of a snow grandmother in a typical appearance of rolled balls of fresh snow, lined with coals of facial features and buttons, a carrot instead of a nose, a red bucket or a saucepan on her head (all the same , woman!) and brooms in the hands of branches ... And from under the bucket-hat sticks out a blond "tuft of hair" from a chip or twigs of a broom ...

This Snow Maiden - Snegurochka stands in the courtyard near a decorated Christmas tree and waits for a real girl to appear from the window in the morning and smile at her, exclaiming: - "Happy New Year, dear friend!"

Our other guest will be Santa Claus, whom he brought

1. artist Valentin Gubarev in the painting "New Year's". The artist, endowed with a bright personality and a special, non-trivial vision of the world, draws his subjects with great humor. One of which demonstrates the arrival of Santa Claus, sitting on a sled with bent legs. The sleigh is pulled by a long-nosed, not thin lady in a wide coat and a red hat. Probably the teacher of the local school, whom the teachers' council entrusted to organize the New Year. A cheerful red-haired puppy shows her the way, turning his head to her and advising her with sonorous barking where to move on. Santa is driving through a Russian village with a bell tower visible in the distance ...

A different vision of Santa Claus is offered to us in a beautiful image by the Canadian self-taught painter Stuart Sherwood, who loves to paint everything related to the Christmas holidays, not sparing bright red shades and humor, as in this picture without a title. But we ourselves will be able to describe it, as it seems to us:

1. Here he is spread out in a comfortable position in white socks with an uncombed white shock of hair on his head and face, continuing in a long beard, on an armchair with a retractable footrest, and carefully reads the list of gifts and addresses, what and where he has to deliver all this to New year. According to the recommendations in the book "Very good boys and the girls, "lying next to Teddy on the floor.

1. And in this funny 1939 painting by American popular artist Norman Rockwell, Santa Claus sits on a ladder by the map of the world and also reads a list of "very good" children, and develops his route for Christmas night. By the way, many collectors hunt for his paintings. And at Christie’s auction in 2007, they raised $ 2.5 million for their selection (the illustration graced the cover of The Saturday Evening Post). (We'll meet with this artist later in the story.)

Now you can get acquainted with the images of Russian Snow Maidens, which took root only in Russia in the paintings of Russian artists. And among them is the first Snow Maiden in the painting of the same name by V.M. Vasnetsov, painted by him back in 1899.

1. The Snow Maiden - the daughter of Spring and Frost - is a favorite fairytale character of the Christmas holidays, although the libretto of the opera does not say about Christmas and New Year, but reveals the tragic love story Snow Maiden and the shepherd Lelia and her death from the rays of Yarilo - the Sun, for knowing love without being a person. Nevertheless, Vasnetsov painted his picture under the influence of the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" and the opera by Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1881) based on it, written, in turn, based on the play of the same name Alexander Ostrovsky (1873).
   In the picture, as in the scenery of an opera, there is a fabulously beautiful night: a snow-covered forest flooded with moonlight, a starry sky. Her coat, mittens, hat have absorbed all shades of snow, forest, sky. Dazzling White snow, blue-green night, young Christmas trees in the foreground - everything in the picture is shown reliably with extraordinary precision the brush of a great master - a singer of Russian nature.

1. Mikhail Vrubel presented his image of The Snow Maiden (1890). The painting was painted in the manner of post-impressionism. The prototype of the image of the Snow Maiden, his Muse (as well as the Sea Princess and Spring), has always been his wife, actress Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela. Throughout his married life, she was a mystery for the artist with her characteristic attractive force.

In the guise of the Snow Maiden, the artist showed the girl's snow-covered loose curls, sparkling large snowflakes on them, like precious jewelry. Her face, which he always liked, captures a languid, slightly surprisedly detached look and still feels some childishness in her closed lips. Snow-covered spruce branches cast patterned shadows with a bluish tinge. As the mistress of a fairy forest, the Snegurochka-sorcerer is not afraid of cold and frost, and her childish, delicate bare hands just want to hide in a sleeve or put on mittens ...

But this picture, like the previous one, only in its name refers to Christmas or New Year, symbolizing their arrival and our custom to generalize them.

But we were distracted by the people of the New Year's celebrations and forgot to buy Christmas trees! We immediately go to the Christmas tree bazaars in order to have time to acquire this important and beautiful attribute. new year holiday... Here is one such painting by Henry Manizer. And it would be a pity not to show her, because she has all the breadth and character of the Russian soul, the long fur coats of women and the sheepskin coats of men, scarves and winter fur hats, the hubbub and unrestrained fun on their faces.

1. Henry Manizer "Christmas market". As it is written in the footnote under the picture - “Before Christmas, three days before, in the markets, in the squares, there is a forest of fir trees. WHAT ARE FIR-TREE! As much as you want in Russia. It used to be a forest on Teatralnaya Square. "

And one more Christmas tree bazaar, painted by the provincial Russian artist Alexander Bukchuri:

1. Buchkuri Alexander Alekseevich (1870 - 1942) in 1906. At this bazaar, a calmer audience, obviously from wealthy families, with children chooses a tree that they like and other attributes to decorate the tree and the house. The goods are placed around separately so that the buyer can appreciate the beauty of the Christmas tree, they are already fixed on the crosspieces. Buy, take it home and immediately put it on the place in the room prepared in advance.

And now everyone is on the "Christmas market" drawn ten years later. B.M. Kustodiev, unfortunately, was already chained to a chair due to the growing paralysis of the legs ...

Folk holidays and festivities were one of the artist's favorite themes. And Christmas, of course, had a special place in his work. The picture shows what happens somewhere in Russia on New Year's Eve. Crowds of buyers, carts with horses loaded in them, beautiful Christmas trees carried to the sleigh. Sell ​​Christmas trees for home decoration, for the fun of children, for festive mood, for the not easy, but fascinating process of dressing the tree, which the whole family does, as shown in the next picture.

1. Boris Kustodiev. "Christmas market", 1918. Krasnodar Regional Art Museum. F.A. Kovalenko.

I remember the previous excitement with the purchase of a Christmas tree in advance and its temporary placement on the balcony. As well as boxes of old toys pulled out of wardrobes, dressers removed from the mezzanine. The emergence of new ones, especially German ones, distinguished by beautiful colors and weightlessness of the material ... Smells of old cotton wool, toys, especially soft ones, which have absorbed and preserved them, traces of confetti or any powders and the crunch of broken fragments underfoot, which will be swept up, but will not disappear until the end of the New Year holidays ...

Christmas
My calendar is semi-disgraced
bloomed with a crimson figure;
palms and opals on glass
conjuring frost brought.
Feathered like a pattern,
arched with a radiant arc,
and tangerines and boron
the living room smells blue.
- Vladimir Nabokov, 23 September 1921, Berlin

1. Sergei Vasilievich Dosekin - Preparing for Christmas, (1896). The picture does not yet show the Christmas tree and gifts, but the family got together to make garlands and decorations for the house. It's not like going to the store and choosing toys at the Christmas tree bazaar that suit your liking or ordered by kids, whose fantasies sometimes exceed the capabilities of retail chains and parents. And advertising is often to blame for this. Like this one:

On the advertising canvas, in in this case paintings American artist Nicky Boehm, you are invited to see how best to arrange and decorate everything in the house on its section in a series of bright and colorful paintings: "A BEAUTIFUL WINTER TALE FROM NICKY BOEHME".

1. The “spectators”, fascinated by the show of the interior, have already gathered and are ready to sign a press release with recommendations for consumers and retail chains. Everyone is delighted! And penguins, and a squirrel, and a cat with a dog, as well as a gazelle ... People have not yet gathered, and our younger brothers have already smelled and rushed in early.

The tree is also decorated alone, if something does not work out, or in front of the crown in a white wedding dress, as this charming girl with a sad, as it seems to me, face is worn. Although sadness is calm, temporary. And tomorrow her face, perhaps, will light up with a cheerful, joyful smile, and Christmas-tree rainbow lights will be reflected in her eyes ...

1. 
   Alexey Mikhailovich Korin - Christmas tree, 1910

But there is also a sad decoration of a Christmas tree by two lonely women, perhaps a mother with a reckless or abandoned (divorced) daughter, who has a handkerchief in her hands, perhaps she is crying ...

1. Jozsef Ripl-Ronai. " Winter evening... Decorating a Christmas tree "1910. One of the women prepares another candle, attaching it to the tree. Her face is sad and pensive, for she is experiencing an even more sad state of the second woman sitting at the table and covering her face with her hands. This condition is denoted by the term "Facepalm" (English face - face, palm - palm). This is a physical gesture - “face closed hands ", which is a manifestation of disappointment, shame, despondency, irritation or embarrassment." This gesture is sometimes called "rukalitso" or "chelolan") ...

   I first met such terms ... So, this is her adult daughter, her child, because under the picture there is such an entry - "Child-facepalmite" ... Maybe. They don't argue with the author.

And in the next picture by the same Hungarian artist again the same gloomy setting on Christmas evening, in which one, a younger woman, writes something on an open secretaire. An older woman, perhaps a mother, stands waiting in frustration and waits for the letter to be finished. Both are wearing coats and hats and are about to leave the house. The elderly lady seems to have a stick in her hand for support when walking ...

1. Joseph Rippl-Rone. Christmas. 1903.

On a bedside table in an earthen pot against the background of a carpet is a modestly decorated small Christmas tree. On the sides are two unlit candles under burgundy lampshades ... Not everyone has a fun and carefree holiday.

Christmas romance ...
Your New Year in dark blue
Wave among the city sea
Floats in inexplicable melancholy,
As if life would begin again
As if there will be light and glory
Have a good day and plenty of bread
It's like life is swinging to the right
swinging to the left.
(Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (1961)

1. Edvard Munch, Christmas in a Brothel, 1904.

The Expressionist painting "Christmas in a Brothel" by the famous and talented Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was completed in 1904/05. and is housed in the Munch Museum in Oslo. The painting was created at a difficult time for Munch. As a result of various troubles, Munch suffered from anxious mental conditions which he tried to cope with with alcohol and drugs. He had to periodically undergo treatment in a psychiatric clinic.

A visit to a brothel in Lübeck, around Christmas, caused him a state of "mild melancholy" due to the impressionability of the situation when the "workers" girls had just finished decorating the Christmas tree. , and later he will create a whole series of paintings, The Green Room.

But we are again distracted from the main task - to prepare for the New Year, and the toys are not all hung on the numerous trees. Some of them are on the table, as shown in the painting by the contemporary artist T.V. Bessonova.

1. Bessonova Tamara Vladimirovna "New Year", 1955

From under the mask of the sad Pierrot, beautiful Christmas tree paws are visible, and between them is a colorful masquerade mask, all in sequins, and a simpler one at the feet of a monkey. And fans for masquerade masks and different large balls, which little Parsley in the foreground gazed at with surprise ...

1. Unknown artist presented "Festive other table of gifts for a girl" for Christmas, (1840) ... “Table of Christmas Gifts for a Girl,” unknown artist.

The girl, a doll, sitting at the table, against the background of a sparsely decorated Christmas tree, shows few objects, possibly gifts. There are yellow shoes, a white blouse with a blue belt, garlands of pink paper flowers, a basket of apples and a vase ... strange picture replaces the doll ... What the author wanted to show. There is no one to ask, since we do not know him.

And if there are still few toys in the pictures presented hitherto, then the shops are still open and the metro is still working and it looks something like the one Natasha Villon painted them: Escalators are overcrowded, barely accommodating all customers with bags, bags, children with toys in their hands. Everyone rushes home to have time to decorate the tree and prepare goodies and outfits. Christmas has begun and the New Year is coming soon ... The picture of the New Year's subway is filled with noise and movement. Everyone is in excitement and humor is visible in each of the passengers descending the escalator into the subway. The hat - the cap has almost dropped on the girl's face, and from under the cap - the "airfield" only black antennae are clearly visible. Two loaves, like the ears of a hare, accentuate the face of a woman in a black kerchief, standing with her eyes closed and not afraid to fall because of the belaying density of the crowd ... A funny girl with a big bear smiles at a dark-skinned small boy with big skis.

Soon the escalator will be freed from the people we already know who will disperse in different directions... And others will fill the miraculous staircase until they finally run out ...

1. Artist Natasha Villon, "New Year's Eve Metro"

Sometimes the grandmother, who has more free time while she is still at work or at school, begins to decorate the tree herself, looking at the toys and remembering each one, what it is called and where it will need to be hung ... It is possible that grandmother suddenly begins to remember the Christmas holidays or celebrating the new year in your younger years. And the toy in her hand lingers until the kaleidoscope of episodes or specific persons from the memories of distant childhood or youth passes ... Let's not interfere with her.

1. Egor Zaitsev "Christmas tree", 1996

I would like to hope that another grandmother, somewhere in Ukraine, has previously prepared everything from treats for the arrival of her grandchildren and children. In any case, when you look at the tables in the kitchen and what is set on them, salivation flows by themselves, and when you try, you lick your fingers. I know for sure that Ukrainian buns, donuts, dumplings with anything are the most delicious. In makitra, grated poppy seeds and kutia, Under towels - slices or a piece of bacon, fried pig in sour cream with a crispy crust, and in jars of various pickles. In general, you can't list everything, but, judging by the picture, everything is provided for by a caring grandmother and is ready to be served.

1. Nadezhda Poluyan-Vnukova (Ukraine) - “At Grandmother's Before Christmas”.

Did the same The grand duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova, who became an artist in Soviet Russia. In her picture, she also prepared a New Year's treat and a festive table, laid under a decorated Christmas tree, is ready to receive guests.

1. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova (sister of Emperor Nicholas II) "New Year's Treat". (1935).

In the imperial family, all children were taught painting, but only the Grand Duchess Olga (the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexander III) became a fairly well-known artist.

It seems to me that the colors in the picture are faded. They either faded from time to time, or the princess did not have the opportunity to buy the best. After all, she was deprived in Soviet times and was no longer a princess ...

And now you can invite guests and start celebrating Christmas and the coming of the New Year, which was painted by the artist A.F. Chernyshov.

1. Scenes from the family life of Emperor Nicholas I.
   Christmas tree in the Anichkov Palace.
   Artist Chernyshev A.F.

In the picture of a woman in smart ball gowns, men in tailcoats and uniforms, children in elegant and fashionable by age dresses and suits. The Christmas trees in the hall are decorated, and there are huge chandeliers on the ceiling. Everything is solemn and dignified, for one can feel the presence of royal persons or members of his family, or even the emperor of Russia himself.

Charles Green (?). "Christmas only happens once a year" (1896). Charles Green, “Christmas Comes But Once A Year,”

Wealthy family. Christmas dinner (another name for the painting). Guests are served by a maid or cook (cook, cook) in a cap and an apron. She brings a platter of steaming baked turkey to which the gaze of the guests is drawn. Although some are indifferent and engaged in conversation. Obviously, the owner stands and keeps order on the table and in service ...

This is all that I could find out about this picture, moreover, it has been shown on the Internet several times. Even about the artist, it was not possible to find any information, except for the name, but the picture corresponds to the idea of ​​describing the chosen theme.

1. Viggo Johansen Happy Christmas (1891) Viggo Johansen. Happy Christmas, 1891. HIRSCHSPRUNG Museum.
   The Danish Viggo Johansen, a representative of the Skagen Artists group and director of the Danish Academy of Arts, could not resist the temptation to portray Christmas.

A beautifully dressed up Christmas tree shines brightly in a darkened room. Around her, mothers or older sisters of the children staged a round dance, in which all the participants, holding hands, dance, lead a round dance and sing in Danish ...

So, the New Year and Christmas days have come and continue. In the course of the celebrations, new ones arise or all sorts of imperfections and worries are remembered. For example, these two adorable girls (and maybe the eldest is a gentle boy - the viewer will figure it out) decided to light additional decorative scented candles under the Christmas tree on the roof of a beautiful medieval castle. Or put a flag on the tower ...

1. Felix Ehrlich "Christmas", (1889) "Christmas" Felix Ehrlich (1866-1931) a German artist beautifully and subtly painted this tender childish picture. What a nice and Beautiful face the older girl (boy?) has soft pink, white hands, she is all in a natural pose. Like the youngest, frozen by the impression and watching with attention what her sister is doing. I also look and can not tear myself away from these adorable children ...

Karl Olof Larsson was considered a "redneck" by some of his critics for his passion for portraying rural subjects. (Carl Olof Larsson, 1853-1919). Swedish artist and author of frescoes, oil paintings and watercolors, considered one of the most revered Swedish painters. Larsson's mother was a laundress, and his father was a simple worker.

1. Carl Larsson dressed the girl in a distinctly country attire in a typical folk style. This colorful blouse and a bright red apron on a black skirt are very suitable for the same colored hat, which is dashingly put on the head of a beautiful teenager, which is impossible to admire. It was not for nothing that they put her on a chair, probably not for empty gazing, but for the performance of poetry or a song. Although she seems to be attaching a candle to a branch of a Christmas tree. But at the same time, the girl is shy and, blushing, lowered her head ...

In another picture by the same author, a boy in a Santa Claus hat and funny oversized boots either adds toys, or reads out a text, and one of the older girls or his mother looks and listens to the boy. And Karl Larsson exclaims in his painting:

Now it´s chirstmas again! Now it's Christmas again!

Children will go to bed early
On the last day of December,
And wake up a year older
On the first day of the calendar.
The year will begin with silence
Unfamiliar from past winters:
The noise behind the double frame
We can barely catch it.
But the guys are calling outside
Winter day through the ice of glass -
Into the refreshing cold
From cozy warmth.
We will remember with a kind word
Years old care,
Starting early in the morning
New day and new year!

(Children will go to bed early ... S. Marshak)

1. Early in the morning, children, not even dressed yet, hid at the door of the room, where there is a decorated Christmas tree, looking out if there was a bag with gifts under the tree ...

American artist Henry Mosler in the painting "Christmas Morning" (1916) depicted a moment of anticipation of pleasure and an exciting expectation from the possible receipt of familiar and long-awaited gifts from Santa Claus, who never forgets about them. He won't forget!

It is not for nothing that he protects the pre-dawn New Year's dream of a girl in a painting by another American artist, admiring her and the serene expression on her face ...

1. Santa Claus, (1921). The work of American artist and illustrator Norman Rockwell.

Wise, kind Santa Claus tweaks his beard and looks closely at the expression on his face and listens to the breathing of the sleeping girl, trying to guess her dream and guess her future. And on her beautiful and gentle face you can see a slight kind smile. Probably one of the pleasant ones, which are often morning dreams, when you don't want to wake up at all ...

Another Christmas morning in a large family.

1. 
   Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller Christmas Morning, (1844). Belvedere, Wien. Father, mother, grandmother, still a married, possibly childless couple - all are busy with a family (I haven’t counted anymore) with children of different, but close ages, who are not quite dressed yet, but are already active, cheerful and cheerful. This mood is transmitted to adults and gives them joy and satisfaction on this bright festive Christmas morning.

Another painting by the same master shows a cheerful mise-en-scene of the arrival of the whole family with grandchildren to grandmother with Christmas greetings and gifts.

1. Norman Rockwell depicts a stormy and noisy moment when a family comes to a grandmother, living separately. And the grandson shouts at the top of his voice: We have arrived, granny! Merry Christmas! We arrived in our new Plymouth! Merry Grandma ... We Came in Our New Plymouth! (The picture was painted in 1951)

It seems strange to me the number of gifts, but we do not know the composition of the grandmother's family ...

And on the road there are several pictures of animalists, depicting the moments of preparing cats for the new year.

1. Painting of the talented successor of the dynasty of artists of Neftekamsk - Alexander Mokhov, 2005.

The author of the picture tells about a curious ginger cat with white spots on its face, swinging its paw big ball hanging on Christmas tree "paws" inserted into a vase. The cat admires the changing highlights of color on it as the ball rotates. On the table are the remnants of a meal with orange peels, a burning candle in a glass and a wine glass. Not far away is a dark bottle of wine.

1. I. Demina "New Year's table" from the album "Soon New Year" 2013. Contemporary young artist. She was born in 1988. Her picture of a mischievous and serene dirty-gray-brown cat is hard not to notice and appreciate. Leaving on festive table his leftovers, neatly folded on plates, he lies in a serene position, propping his head on his paw, insolently looks at the stunned hostess, expecting a thrashing from her, but continues to suck wine from a glass, thinking: "Well, what will be will be!" ... Like, it’s not the first time ... Mewing at them at all….

   Cute and funny kittens are very careless with the doll, tearing off a wig with a scythe, reclining on it ... And the tree is barely visible, since there are kittens in the mise-en-scène of the plot.

   But it's already midnight on the clock, which means that the New Year has already come and we should celebrate this as it should be with a glass of champagne in hand, which helped us to do on last picture offered to your attention:

   

   1. 
      The work of the world famous artist - illustrator Inge Löök. Inge Look is a well-known Finnish artist who became famous for her cheerful lady aunts, and in Russian translation - for old laughing women. Pictures with their images have long been settled in in social networks... So in this picture, the aunts, gluing on their mustaches, marked the coming of the New Year with a cake and a glass of champagne ...

   That I wish you all to do this, when a fiery (or "roasted") rooster - a symbol of the future 2017, will bite you in ...

07.01.2015

There are much fewer bright and joyful subjects in religious painting than tragic ones. art affects the viewer sharper and stronger through tragedy, pain. To modern man accustomed to superficial perception, such a dialogue is understandable and close. A completely different story with plots requiring quiet contemplation, involvement in joy and deep awareness. The Nativity of Christ is one of such delicate, light themes, imbued with hope and love.

For the first time, the Nativity of Christ was celebrated in Rome in the second quarter of the 4th century. Scientists attribute the oldest surviving service of the Nativity of Christ to the 5th century. The essence of the holiday is perceived as an affirmation of the truthfulness of the incarnation of God the Word, who came to Earth in the flesh for the salvation of mankind from the slavery of sin.

The paucity of written sources did not influence the formation of a strong artistic tradition of this plot. The evangelists cover this solemn occasion without details. The Apostle Matthew says: “Rising from sleep, Joseph did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife. And he did not know Her, how at last She gave birth to Her firstborn Son, and he called His name: Jesus ”(Matthew 1: 24-25). Among the evangelists, only the Apostle Luke mentions a number of important historical circumstances of the appearance of the Holy Family in Jerusalem. Also the artists were served additional sources apocrypha and revelation.

The origins of the iconography of the Nativity of Christ go back to images in the catacombs and on sarcophagi. They use the types of images of a woman in childbirth, shepherds, an ox and a donkey, a manger that have already developed in ancient art. Quite early, the nativity scene began to be combined with the composition of the adoration of the Magi or shepherds. A remarkable example is the painting of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua by the artist Giotto di Bondone, 1305-1313.

Giotto was recognized during his lifetime as the greatest phenomenon in the field of art. He managed on the basis of Greek and Latin art schools create a completely new and modern style... Giotto wrote compositions in which a tangible pictorial space, volume, depth and emotional experiences first appeared. In this mural, the artist focuses on contemplation maternal love Mary. The monumentality, integrity of the figures creates the impression of peace, strength and spiritual support. Although Giotto, as usual, does not depict the feelings of his characters on their faces, there is so much warmth in Mary's movement that it is easy for the viewer to understand and imagine the feelings that gripped Her. Mary gives the baby into the hands of Salome to wash Christ. The ablution scene, unknown in early Christian art, is associated with the story of the Apocrypha - the proto-Gospel of Jacob about the midwife Salome, who did not believe in her virgin birth, was punished for that with a withered hand and was healed by touching the Divine Infant. The image of Salome bathing the baby Christ and helping her by a servant (or another midwife, who is sometimes called Zelomiya), usually pouring water into the font, once again emphasizes the truth of the coming of God in the flesh, testifies to the actual Incarnation. In the bathing of the Infant, one can see the prototype of the sacrament of the Baptism of the Lord.

One of the most amazing works in terms of conveying Mary's contemplative love - Correggio's painting "Holy Night" (1528-1530, art gallery, Dresden), in which Mary rocks the Baby in her arms, not noticing everything that is happening around Her - the flying angels, Joseph. The artists who portray Mary in exactly the same way seem to break into a great mystery, about which the evangelists are reverently silent - into the intimate dialogue of the Mother and the Son, behind which lies the mystery of God's love for each of us.

El Greco in the Nativity Scene (1603-1605, private collection) leaves only the Baby, Mary and Joseph. The center of the composition is Emmanuel, who is swaddled by Mary. The manger is also a type of the deathbed for the body of the deceased Lord, and the infant swaddling clothes are the burial swaddling clothes. John Chrysostom says that the manger represents the Throne of Heaven, and the cattle represents the coming of angels. Animals closest to Christ are depicted - an ox and a donkey. They are not mentioned in the Gospel, but the interpreters of this plot agree that the ox is a symbol of those born in the law, Israel, and the donkey is a symbol of the Gentiles. And between them is depicted the divine Child, freeing them from the yoke: some from the yoke of the law, others from the worship of idols. Some are the chosen "remnant" of the Old Testament Church, which will enter the Church of the New Testament; others are those to whom the possibility of true knowledge of God is just opening up.

On Russian soil, due to the loss of understanding of the original meaning of this image, the ox and donkey are often replaced by the cow and horse, which are common in rural use. El Greco depicts the ox in the foreground in a manner and foreshortening characteristic of Menerism, behind Maria the donkey's head peeps out. Here the theme of salvation and the joy of Christmas is filled with the consciousness of the redemptive purpose of the Incarnation.

Western European art of the 20th century deviated from the canons in everything: color, composition, plane, space and interpretation of the plot. The search for truth in painting led artists to archaic, simple forms close in the embodiment of plots on sarcophagi, that is, to the origins.

Paul Gauguin devoted himself to reflecting on the true nature of humanity. He explored the primitive nature, freeing himself from civilization. The result of his searches turned out to be very interesting, distinctive and expressive. However, in the predominance decorative side painting, its subtle psychological reading is lost. In the painting “Child. The Birth of the Tahitian Christ ”(1896, Hermitage), an unusual point of view was chosen, the viewer becomes an outside observer, the colors and images create the impression that the plot is, on the one hand, mystical, and on the other, too realistic and everyday. In the stable, the artist depicts livestock, and not the symbolic ox and donkey. We do not see the face of the Infant, but his posture reminds of sacrifice. Gauguin attached great importance creative imagination artist.

In Russia at the same time, artists were also looking for new artistic and expressive means. However, the legacy of Byzantine art, classical education and deep traditions did not allow such daring incarnations. The painting of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev caused a resonance in society at the end 19th century... The images created by the artists departed from the canon ones, but remained deeply spiritual and sublime. In the painting of the altar wall of the southern side-altar in the choir of the Vladimir Cathedral, M.V. Nesterov connects the scene of the Nativity of Christ (1890-1891) with the Adoration of the Shepherds. The Mother of God and Joseph are in the cave. The cave is mentioned in some of the apocrypha. The mountain in which we usually see the cave is traditionally associated with Mary, but the cave, in this case, can be interpreted as Her womb. The cave also symbolizes the fallen world, in which the “Sun of Righteousness” Christ shone.

The shepherds who were the first of all people to know about the Nativity of the Savior are simple, artless souls, "worthless of this world." But the Lord, after His Coming, exalted the image of the shepherd, saying about Himself, “I am the good Shepherd”. The shepherds in the images of Christmas express that amazing childish delight, the ecstasy of a miracle, which only the “pure in heart” and “the poor in spirit” are capable of. Above, we see an image of a star in a segment of the sky, from which a ray is emanating. Often the attention of several groups of characters is focused on the star: the Magi point to it as their guide to Christ, shepherds marvel at it, angels glorify it around it. The star, thus, defines the axis of the composition, and the ray falling on the Infant's manger indicates the main miracle of this moment - the Birth of “That which is before the ages”, the position in the manger of the Vast, the wrapping of the One Who covers the sky with clouds. Subtle color shades, the beauty of the surrounding nature: fragile blades of grass, mother-of-pearl sky, graceful young trees, purity of flowers growing near the cave; the fragile and loving image of the Virgin Mary, the emotional worship of the shepherds - all this allows the viewer to empathize and be involved in the sacrament of Christmas.

In the same 1890 the master psychological portrait I.E. Repin wrote his own version of Christmas (State Tretyakov Gallery). Centerpieces became the Infant Christ and Mary, embracing him. IE Repin fills the picture with eschatological consciousness. The central position in the compositions of the Nativity of the Mother of God emphasizes her place and role in the dispensation of human salvation. In pre-iconoclast art, she is depicted either sitting by a manger or lying on a bed. Sitting at the manger Mary is the image of the painless birth of Christ, the incomprehensible virgin Nativity of the One Who "before Christmas is the Virgin and in Christmas the Virgin and after Christmas the Virgin".

Andrey Rublev.
"Nativity".
1405 year.
Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin.

Since ancient times, the celebration of Christmas in Russia began on the night of December 25. On the eve of the holiday, when the early winter sunset burned out in the frosty air and the pink light on the snow became colder and colder and somehow completely imperceptibly turned blue, people left their houses, leaving the pre-holiday preparations, and looked at the darkening sky, waiting for the first, Christmas star ... On this day, until the star was not supposed to eat anything, and in the evening the food was not very satisfying, but special and long-awaited - bread grains steamed in water with dried berries. It was called “syrup”, and the whole day of the prefeast was called Christmas Eve.

The night of Christmas was approaching, time was receding, and in the holiday of overcoming it through the snow-covered Russia - every person, old and young, was preparing to become a participant in the meeting of a newborn baby on earth. That evening, the first Christmas carols - carols - were conceived along the village and city streets. Their singing in ancient times was widespread throughout Russia. The first recordings of North Russian carols have survived from the 17th century, but the chants themselves date back to ancient times. The carols sing of the past as if it were happening today, on this night, and the singers themselves are witnesses and participants in the events. Under the moonlight of Christmas Eve, Russian children, creaking with frosty snow on the windowsills, talked in carols with shepherds going to bow to the newborn Savior of the world.

Christmas was depicted by artists who lived at least 1,100 years before Rublev. According to the historian Eusebius of Caesarea (III-IV centuries), no later than the 330s, by order of Emperor Constantine, the Church of the Nativity was built in Bethlehem, where, undoubtedly, there was an icon of this holiday. The oldest images of the Nativity have survived to this day on silver ampoules, into which oil consecrated in Palestine was poured. They belong to the 5th-7th centuries. For more than a millennium, this iconography took shape, developed, before it took on the form in which Rublev's predecessors wrote and he himself followed them.

Valery Sergeev. "Rublev". ZhZL series No. 618.

"Nativity".
1745.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

As for the dating of the advent, it is not so simple here either. If a supernova explosion, the "Star of Bethlem", was not inserted into the Bible later, because it lit up and became visible in 1054 from the birth of Christ, then the masters of the world have written down an extra millennium in our heads. Trent church cathedral in Constantinople (Constantinople) definitely added an extra millennium ...

Vladimir Pyatibrat. "Deep Book".

Gandolfino da Roreto (Gandolfino d "Asti).
The Nativity of Christ.
Late 15th - early 16th centuries
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

When it was time to give birth — it was around midnight on Christmas Day — Mary got up and leaned against the pillar that was there. Joseph sat next to him, saddened, probably because he could not prepare everything needed for the birth. He got up, took hay from the manger, laid it at the feet of the Virgin Mary, and turned away. At that moment, the Son of God left the womb of the Mother without causing her any pain. So He ended up in the hay at the feet of His Mother. After washing Him, She wrapped Him in Her veil and laid Him in a manger.<…>the ox and the donkey bowed their heads over the manger in order to warm the Baby with their breath, as they understood that in such a cold a barely sheltered Baby needs warmth. The mother, however, kneeling down, prayed and offered thanks to God: I thank You, Lord and Heavenly Father, for giving Me Your Son, and I pray to You, the Eternal God, and You, the Son of the Living God and My Holy One.

Pseudo-Bonaventure. "Reflections on the Life of Christ." Around 1300.

"Nativity".

Icon "Nativity of Christ".
Mediterranean.
Second half of the 15th century.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Icon "Nativity of Christ".
Russia.
XVI century.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Icon "Nativity of Christ".
Russia.
End of the 17th century.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Icon "Nativity of Christ" in a carved frame.
Palestine.
Between 1801-1860.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.
"Nativity".
1890.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Birth of Jesus

In those days, a command went out from the Roman Caesar Augustus to make a census of all the earth.

And everyone went to enroll - each to his own city. Since Joseph was from the city of Bethlehem, he went there with Mary.

It was time for Mary to give birth in Bethlehem. She swaddled the baby and put it in the cattle feeder, in the manger, because there was no room for him and Joseph in the hotel.

Meanwhile, an angel appeared to the shepherds, who were guarding the cattle at night, and said:

I proclaim great joy to you: in Bethlehem, the Savior was born - Christ the Lord. You will find a baby in a manger.

The shepherds came running and found Mary, Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. Then the shepherds told everyone about the knowledge and about the baby.

Eight days later, the baby was named Jesus.

Then they carried it to Jerusalem to present the baby to God and sacrifice two turtledoves or two chicks of pigeons, as stated in the laws of Moses.

There was then a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. It was foretold to him that he would not die until he saw the Savior. Simeon came to the temple at the time when the parents brought Jesus there, took him in their arms and said:

Now you let your servant go, Master, according to your word in peace, for I saw the Savior.

Joseph and Mary were very surprised at such words.

There was also Anna the prophetess, eighty-four years old. She did not leave the temple at all - she prayed to God day and night. She went up to the baby and glorified the Lord, and began to talk about him to everyone in Jerusalem.

Biblical legends. Derbent, Interekspress. 1992 year.

"Nativity".
1503.
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Mathis Gotthart Grunewald.
"Nativity".
Insenheim Altarpiece.

THE STAR OF BIFLEEM REALLY FLASHED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE XII CENTURY. (ABSOLUTE ASTRONOMIC DATING OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST)

We will use the fundamental work of I.S.Shklovsky "Supernovae and related problems". In it, the third chapter is almost entirely devoted to the "star of 1054". The remnants of this outbreak is the modern Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus.

Let's say right away that the date "1054" is taken from old chronicles, in particular Chinese and Japanese. Which I.S.Shklovsky fully trusts. But we have no reason to do so. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to involve such dubious information. It turns out that this supernova explosion can be DATED PURE ASTRONOMICALLY, and with high accuracy. This is exactly what was done by American astronomers in the XX century.

The reliable astronomical dating of the Star of Bethlehem is as follows: 1140 plus or minus 20-30 years. That is, the MIDDLE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

ADDITION ABOUT GALLEY'S COMET. Today it is known that the return period of Halley's comet is about 76 years ... Since the penultimate time Halley's comet appeared in 1910, it is easy to calculate that around 1910 - 760 = 1150 Halley's comet should have also appeared. Good or bad she was visible that year - we do not know. But if it really did appear in the sky as spectacularly as in XVII-XX centuries(for example, as in 1910), then for several years two bright phenomena could be observed in the sky - a star burst around 1150 and Halley's comet around 1150. Which, of course, should have further strengthened the impression of people. Subsequently, the two phenomena could be confused, combined. The Gospels say that the star of Bethlehem MOVED, leading the Magi. Which reminds the behavior of the comet: "And behold, the star that they saw in the east WALKED BEFORE THEM, HOW FINALLY COME AND STOPPED over the place where the Child was" (Matthew 2: 9). In fig. 1.7 shows one of the old images of the Gospel Star of Bethlehem in the form of a "tailed star". This is how comets were previously depicted.

We see an even more frank image of the Star of Bethlehem in the form of a comet in Giotto's painting "The Adoration of the Magi" ...

Giotto di Bondone.
"Adoration of the Magi".

The tail of the star is stretched to the left upwards - it means that the artist most likely painted a comet and not, say, a star with a ray pointing to the baby Christ.

Albrecht Altdorfer.
"Holy Night (Nativity of Christ)".

It is curious that in the medieval painting "Christmas" by Albrecht Altdorfer, at the top left, there are TWO HEAVENLY LIGHTS, marking Christmas. One of them is the huge star of Bethlehem in the form of a ball flash. And a little lower - a more elongated and swirling luminary, inside which a small angel is depicted.

We see a similar image of exactly two heavenly "flashes" announcing the birth of Christ on the famous medieval Paumgartner altar, created by Albrecht Durer allegedly in the 16th century.

Albrecht Durer.
Altar of Paumgartners.
1503.

We see a globular flash of the Bethlehem star, and just below (as, by the way, in Altdorfer's painting) - an elongated swirling luminary with an angel inside. In both of the above pictures, a pair of celestial bodies is depicted in a bright yellow, golden color, immediately striking the eye against the darker background of the rest of the landscape.

Thus, such medieval images convey to us, apparently, an old tradition to associate with Christmas both the flash of a star and the comet that appeared at that time.

Vasily Shebuev.
"Nativity".

Let us turn to the "Lutheran Chronograph" of the 17th century, which describes world history from the creation of the world to 1680. It says, in particular, about the celebration of the medieval Christian "Jubilees", which were celebrated in the Vatican in the years 1299-1550. Jubilees were established in memory of Christ, since they were celebrated on the days of the January calendars. Christmas was celebrated, close to the January calendars, and not another Christian holiday ...

The years of the Jubilees were appointed by the popes. As the "Lutheran Chronograph" informs, in 1390 the "Jubilee after Christ's Vece" was appointed by Pope Urban IV as the THIRTY ANNIVERSARY of the Nativity of Christ. Then he became ten years old, and since 1450, at the behest of Pope Nicholas VI, - FIVE YEARS OLD.

Let's make a simple, but very interesting calculation. Note that if the Jubilee from the Nativity of Christ in 1390 was celebrated as THIRTY YEARS (that is, a multiple of 30 years), and in 1450 - as FIFTEEN YEARS (multiple of 50 years), then by simple calculations we come to a complete list of possible - from the point of view medieval popes - years of the Nativity of Christ. Namely: 1300, 1150, 1000, 850, 700, 550, 400, 250, 100 A.D. and so on, with a step of 150 years into the past (150 is the least common multiple of the numbers 30 and 50). Strikingly, the resulting list of dates does not include the year AD where historians place the Nativity of Christ today. It turns out that the popes who arranged the Jubilee did not at all think that Christ was born at the beginning of our era, as the later chronologists of the 16th-17th centuries stated. The date of the Nativity of Christ was for the popes of the XIV century, obviously, something completely different.

Among the indicated dates, located quite rarely, we see a date that falls exactly in the middle of the XII century. This is 1150. WHAT AGAIN PERFECTLY AGREES WITH THE ASTRONOMIC DATING OF THE VIFLEEMSK STAR 1140-M YEAR PLUS-MINUS 10 YEARS.

G.V. Nosovsky, A.T. Fomenko. "Tsar of the Slavs".

Giovanni Battista Ortolano.
"Christmas".

Giulio Pippi, nicknamed Giulio Romano.
Christmas and the Adoration of the Shepherds.
1531-1534.

Domenico Beccafumi.
"Christmas".

Lorenzo Lotto.
"Nativity".

Master from Moulins.
The Nativity of Christ and Cardinal Rolen.

Master of the Louvre Christmas.
"Christmas".

Piero della Francesca.
"Nativity".

Rogier van der Weyden.
Altar of Bladlen (Middelburg Altar).
"Nativity".

"The Nativity of Christ (Adoration of the Shepherds)".
First half of the 17th century.
1650?
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Federico Barocci.
"Nativity".

Hans Baldung.
"Nativity".

El Greco.
"Nativity".

Elizaveta Merkuryevna Boehm (Endaurova).
"For the Feast of the Nativity of Christ!"