Gerard van Honthorst was not an Italian - a slightly weird thing for a painting from the 17th century on a Christmas card. Coming from the Netherlands, he joined a horde - should that be palette - of painters who painted 'The Adoration of the Shepherds.'
In truth the Christmas story offers limited scope for painters and preachers alike, so its rather down to what you do with the inevitable scene. What Gerard liked to do, and the reason that he was described as a tenebrist, was compose (in layman's terms) very dark pictures with contrasting light. As it happens, this scene is one of his classics. But this is a chopped version.
The original painting is bigger - and all that which has been chopped off is wodges of dark. It suits Christmas tastes to have a light picture, but van Honthorst was really making the point that the very bright baby is in a very dark place. The editing loses this point, while making a nice picture for a card.
On Christmas Day at church we prayed for those who are not as blessed as we are on Christmas Day. We prayed for those who suffer for their faith on Christmas Day. And later the Soup Kitchen provided an amazing Christmas dinner.
We tried to keep some dark in.
We tried to keep some dark in.
Because Christmas is more about the darkness than this cropped picture might have us believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment