UFFIZI Christmas tour - From Annunciation to Nativity

This tour is intended to show some samples of the Christmas story in art.

The Christmas story in art is a rich epic with different moods and tones that speak to different emotional needs. The adoration of the Magi offers artists a spectacle of rich clothes, long cavalcades, rare gifts. The adoration of the shepherds is humbler and more spiritual. But the most introspective and mysterious moment in the story is the annunciation – the appearance of the archangel Gabriel to Mary to tell her she will give birth to the son of God.

Traditionally the angel is posed at a respectful distance from Mary, separated by an architectural detail such as a column . The two may even be placed in separate wings of a polyptych or on opposite sides of a physical arch.
Another nearly universal tradition starting in the medieval period is keeping the dramatis personae to just the two figures of Mary and Gabriel. The rare exceptions to this rule include images in which secondary angels attend, saints or donors contemplate the event.

The Nativity story needs no introduction. It is a widely favored subject for the decoration of churches and for private commissions. The Nativity is typically shown as taking place in a manger, a cave for the shelter and feeding of livestock – and the grotto in Bethlehem is exactly that.
Scenes of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Shepherds are often the simplest and most deeply spiritual, but many of the artists grasped the opportunities they offered to demonstrate their skills in depicting animals and texture. The surrounding details are often as interesting, if not more so, as the central scene. Occasionally these details include the portrait of a wealthy patron or the saint to whom a church is dedicated. Often, beautifully painted landscapes surround the Annunciations to Shepherds and Magi. The Magi are usually represented as Kings, which allows the artist to go to town on rich texture, elaborate gifts and even exotic animals and birds.