Day Thirteen: the man at the back of the stable

 

If you are looking at this man, at the back corner of the stables and thinking to yourself “He looks like he is urinating? Surely not in a holy picture!” then you wouldn’t be alone. Nor would you be wrong.

Quite a few of the Brueghel family’s paintings feature a man urinating in a quiet corner, including several of their nativity scenes, for example, in the detail below, from Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Census in Bethlehem.

It is partly simple realism. Ordinary people didn’t have bathrooms, and people were less reserved about bodily functions than we often are today; they didn’t have much choice about it. Pieter Bruegel the Elder seems to have come from a peasant family, and painted what he was familiar with. His sons simply continued his tradition of painting life as it was, which was very popular (and sold well!)

 

But this man probably also symbolises the “earthiness” of the nativity. Medieval and Renaissance artists were keen to emphasize the humanity of Jesus. He was not some ethereal spirit whose feet never touched the ground, but a flesh and blood human being, who felt all the things that humans feel (and yes, he went to the toilet too…)

 For Reflection

 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. John 1.14

 What does the idea of Jesus, the Word, being truly human – with all the same flesh and body as we have – mean to you?

 How might it change the way we think about our own bodies and the bodies of others?

The whole picture:

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-brueghel-the-elder-the-adoration-of-the-kings