Until the late 14th century the most important influence on the iconography of the Nativity was the belief that it fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament.1 Duccio's Nativity, for example, is one of many that add portraits of prophets bearing scrolls with what were presumed to be their prophecies of Christ's birth.
![]() It was further believed that the star of Balaam's prophecy was the one that led the Magi of Matthew 2 to the child, so in the 4th century these men are often pictured in a line approaching Mary, who sits on a throne with the child on her lap: ![]()
These Magi images are sometimes paired with another type based on Isaiah 1:3: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib [Latin praesepio domini]." This was seen as a prophecy of Mary's putting the child "in a manger" (in praesepio) after the birth (Luke 2:7). The Gospel of Pseudo-Mathew, for example, says, "the ox and the ass adored Him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, saying: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib" (¶14).
The Adoration of the Christ Child In the last quarter of the 14th century an influential memoir by St. Bridget of Sweden leads to a sharp change in the iconography: Joseph and Mary now kneel before the Christ Child, who lies naked on the ground before them. Often light will radiate from his body, outshining the light of a candle Joseph has brought. All this comes from a passage in the memoir where Bridget recounts a vision she had when she visited the Nativity Cave in Bethlehem:When they [Joseph and Mary] had entered the cave, and after the ox and the ass had been tied to the manger, the old man went outside and brought to the Virgin a lighted candle and fixed it in the wall and went outside in order not to be personally present at the birth. And so the Virgin then took the shoes from her feet, put off the white mantle that covered her, removed the veil from her head, and laid these things beside her, remaining in only her tunic, with her most beautiful hair – as if of gold – spread out upon her shoulder blades.…The rapid acceptance of St. Bridget's account may have been facilitated by its resemblance to the Book of the Infancy of the Savior and its primary source, the Gospel of Pseudo Matthew.4 In both Bridget and the Infancy, Mary lifts her face to Heaven just before the birth and adores the child immediately after. Both narratives note the remarkable cleanness of the child's body, "not begrimed as other infants are when they are born covered in filth," as the Infancy puts it. In all three narratives, the location is a cave and Joseph is away when the birth occurs. Most tellingly, all three compare the light in the cave to the sun. For Bridget the child gives off a light so great "that the sun could not be compared to it." In the Infancy he gives off a "light that outshone the sun" and in Pseudo Matthew the cave is bathed in light "as bright as if the sun were in it." The brilliant light is a detail unseen in Nativity images before Bridget, as is Mary's posture of adoration. The child's nakedness, another feature of the images after Bridget, is explicitly mentioned only in her account, but it is presupposed in the Infancy by the midwife's amazement at the emanating light and the cleanliness of the body. ![]() These details were enormously popular in the art of the 15th century (example, exception) and the 16th (example). They continue to dominate the iconography even today, when most Nativity scenes on Christmas cards have Mary kneeling to the Christ Child. In many of these the baby glows just as in Bridget's vision. In 1570 Molanus (De Historia, 396) condemned picturing the baby as naked, but his influence in this case was of limited effect: the child is completely naked in almost half of the Nativities listed at the Web Gallery of Art for 1570-1670 (example). The representation of St. Joseph was also revolutionized by Bridget's vision. Before Bridget the images usually picture him off to the left or right with his hand held against his cheek (example). But after Bridget he usually stands with the candle mentioned in the vision and/or joins Mary in kneeling before the Christ Child. The 2nd-century Protevangelium of James (¶20-21) tells of two midwives who attended Mary, so from the 5th century onward the two became a staple of eastern Nativities (Schiller, I, 65). In the story the midwife named Salome doubts Mary's virginity and tests it with her finger. In consequence, her hand starts "dropping off as if burned with fire." But upon her praying God for a cure an angel comes and says she can have her hand whole if she just touches the baby. Cartlidge and Elliott (90-93) study images that portray this episode. Most often, though, the midwives are simply pictured washing the baby in a tub. Sometimes the tub may be shaped like a round baptismal font, as in this altar screen from the 11th century. But the notion that the newborn Savior would need a bath was inconsistent with the way writers in the West imagined the virgin birth. As early as 383, Jerome insisted that "No midwife assisted at his birth.… [Mary] laid him, we are told, in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn, a statement which…refutes the ravings of the apocryphal accounts, for Mary herself wrapped him in the swaddling clothes" (Against Helvidius, ¶10). In the 12th century Honorius of Autun seconded the tradition that "the Blessed Virgin gave birth to him…without pain and without the stain of childbirth" (Speculum Ecclesiae, 817). Molanus condemned the picturing of midwives in 1570 (De Historia, 396). But most effective of all was Bridget of Sweden's personal vision of Mary giving birth alone "in a moment and the twinkling of an eye." This insistence on a "clean" and bloodless birth combines in the 14th century with a changing aesthetic sensibility that emphasizes the beholder's response to the Savior, and in the course of that century the midwives gradually disappear from Nativities in the West. Duccio's Nativity (see above) reduces them to a design element, part of the halo of figures that surrounds and focuses attention on the mother and child. And Giotto's fresco allows only one midwife to poke her head into the frame from the left. Bartolo di Fredi's Nativities of 1374 and 1383 have no midwives at all. The Announcement to the Shepherds The shepherds are often pictured receiving the message about the birth in a secondary scene to the left or right of the manger scene (example) or in an independent image. One of the most moving examples of the latter is Jean Poyet's miniature in The Hours of Henry VIII (Wieck, 102). The shepherds sit on a rise with their backs to the viewer, leaving a space between them so we can enter the scene in our imagination and look with them across the flock below to a vision of the angels singing "Gloria in Excelsis." Most other images of the announcement, however, picture a single angel surprising the shepherds with his message (example). These images correspond to the first verses of Luke's account: "And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them; and they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people" (2:9-10).Some images evoke the shepherds' initial fear through gestures, as in this detail from a predella of the 15th century. But usually the reaction is more neutral, as if in response to the angel's "fear not." (The image at the top of this page would be an example.) In the 15th century dogs are sometimes in the picture. They bark angrily at the intrusion of the angel in Orcagna's fresco at Santa Maria Novella and in this painting in Rome's Musei Capitolini. In Poyet's Hours of Mary of England (Wieck, 26) the dog bays at the heavenly host, but in his Henry VIII (ibid.) it sits contentedly at the shepherds' feet and watches the spectacle with them. The Henry VIII image is quite unusual in that one of the three shepherds is in fact a shepherdess, holding a distaff and wearing a dress and apron. There may be other examples with women shepherdesses, but I have seen none as yet. The Adoration of the Shepherds More common than the announcement images is the type usually labeled as the Adoration of the Shepherds. This type often echoes the Adoration of the Magi, with precisely three shepherds differentiated by age – a youth, an old man, and one in middle age. Like the Magi, shepherds from the 14th century onward may bring the child a gift. In the English mystery plays the gifts are small and humble, but in paintings the men are more likely to bring a lamb (example).Unlike the midwives, the men pictured adoring the Christ Child can be made to model the joyful response that many late Gothic and Renaissance Nativities strive to inspire in the viewer, for example in this sculpture group from the 15th century and this painting from the 16th, where the smiling shepherd in blue appears to be carrying a bagpipe on his back. Bagpipes and other instruments amplify the emphasis on the joy of the savior's birth. In Bronzino's Adoration an old shepherd has a bagpipe on his back, and in this sculpture the instrument is a flute. In the Shepherds Play at Chester it is a horn, and in the York play the shepherds respond to the angels with song of their own.5 Unfortunately many medieval images of the shepherds tend to reflect the prejudices of the age, making them look like crude yokels and blocking them off architecturally from the central scene, as in this Nativity from the 15th or early 16th century. But from they begin to be accorded more dignity the mid-16th century (example) into modern times (example).
Prepared in 2014 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University, revised 2015-12-03, 2016-09-17, 2016-11-12, 2017-10-26, 2018-02-27, 2020-01-29, 2020-05-20, 2020-08-08, 2020-10-18, 2021-03-22, 2021-03-30 2021-12-19.
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SHOWN ABOVE:
A detail of the so-called Sarcophagus of Stilicho, 3rd century. See the description page for details. MORE IMAGES ![]() Wall painting in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome: Balaam on the left points to a star above Mary and the baby. (See the description .)
MORE IMAGES: ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
NATIVITY TEXTS RELEVANT TO THE IMAGES
ALSO SEE
NOTES
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