Рождество, ночь {2931}
Nativity, at night
история:
This picture is attributed to Geertgen by analogy with works given to him in 17th-century sources.
It may derive from a lost altarpiece; at this period large-scale compositions were frequently adapted for domestic devotions.

The subject of this magical little panel is vision:

The divine radiance is not embodied in costly expanses of gold and rare pigments crafted into a precious object. It is made visible to us through Geertgen's patient modulation of darkness, the winter's night barely pierced by distant stars, hardly warmed by fire, only faintly lit by the candle Joseph once held (probably lost when the panel was trimmed at some time in the past). Through Geertgen's mastery of naturalistic description, with only a shorthand notation of thin rays of real gold beaming from the holy infant, this winter's night as it was before the birth of Christ can now be seen to have truly been, as is written in the Gospel of St John, a night in which 'if a man walk ... he stumbleth, because there is no light in him' (11:10).

автор:
Геертген
Geertgen tot Sint Jans
место:
Лондон: гал. Нац.
London: NGA
оформление:
1484...90.
Дуб, масло.
Oil on oak.
250х340.
предмет с изображением:
посвящённый предмет:
сайт Web Gallery of Art
Virgin museum
Mycrossof
Valenik
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