Day One: The story and the artist

 

Most of the daily reflections will be quite short, but it is worth taking a little time today to think about the story ‘our’ painting depicts, and the artist who made it. 

Matthew 2.1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

 

Matthew doesn’t mention the shepherds, or Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem, or a census, or a manger, or having “no room at the inn”. Mary and Joseph are already in Bethlehem, and only end up in Nazareth because they want to avoid going back to the Bethlehem where King Herod had massacred all the male children – the Holy Family fled to Egypt in the nick of time. Matthew also doesn’t say how soon after Jesus’ birth the Magi arrive. (They are probably astrologer priests of the Zoroastrian faith, from what is now Iran/Iraq). Herod has all the children under two killed, so Jesus could be a toddler at this point. But, just as in our Nativity plays today, artists like Breughel took great liberties with the story, and jammed (non-biblical) kings into a (non-biblical) stable, on the same night, the night when Jesus is born, along with the shepherds, with (non-biblical) oxen, donkeys and all sorts of other creatures…

 

A bit about the artist

Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1626), as his name suggests, was part of a large family, where names were often shared. If you come across a painting by ‘Brueghel’ the first question to ask is ‘which one?’ Many of the family were artists, working in what was to some extent a ‘family firm’. ‘Our’ Breughel was the second son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, probably the most famous of the line (who spelled his surname without the “H”). Jan’s older brother Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was also an artist, as were his maternal grandparents. Jan and Pieter were probably taught to paint by their maternal grandmother, Mayken Verhulst, since Pieter the Elder died when they were very young. She was a significant artist in her own right at the time, though no securely identified works of hers survive – some were probably attributed to her husband or other, male, members of the family. There were several artist cousins in the Brueghel family tree too, including like David Teniers the Younger and Jan van Kessel.

Both Jan and Pieter the Younger painted pictures in the style of their father, or even just copied his pictures. In an age when you couldn’t photograph or copy pictures digitally, if people wanted a copy of a picture for themselves, someone had physically to paint it again, using the first picture as a template. Often, though, the two sons also “recycled” characters from their father’s paintings in their own. There are some of these “stock” figures in Jan Brueghel’s Adoration of the Magi. The “Brueghel” style is often very recognisable; crowded village scenes depicting the rural life they were familiar with – Pieter Bruegel the Elder probably came from a peasant family, so was painting what he saw. Instead of the grand, elegant, and formally posed arrangements common among their contemporaries, they painted real life in all its fleshy, raucous humanity, including in their religious paintings. They usually set their work Netherlandish towns and villages they knew.

 

In Jan Brueghel’s Adoration of the Magi, he sets the arrival of these vistors from the East among a plethora of other details, but it would be wrong to think that they are just accidental or random. Painters at this time, and especially the Brueghel family, were fond of using symbols to point to deeper realities, and it is those details, and the messages they convey which we will try to spot in this Advent series. It is the wealth of detail which makes this painting so rich, thought-provoking and so much fun! I have suggested ways of understanding these details, but you may find different things in this wonderful painting, and that’s fine too!

For Reflection:

If you were painting a nativity scene, what would you include? How simple can a nativity scene be, and still be recognisable as a nativity?

 

Have you got a Christmas crib at home? If so, what does it mean to you? Are there any figures in it which are particularly special to you? Where do you set it up?