Giotto di Bondone: Adoration of the Magi: Christmas Paintings

Giotto though painting during the Late Medieval Period is known as an early Italian Renaissance artist because he broke away from the Byzantine stylization and drew and painted from reality in three-dimensional accuracy.

 His Adoration of the Magi is dated ca. 1305. It is located in the Cappella Scrovegni a Padova also referred to as the Arena Chapel. The name for this particular subject comes from Latin in which the title is A Magis adoratur. It is a Nativity scene, but focuses on the three kings from the Orient and their gift giving and supplication. Thus, the Nativity by itself is a manger or a cave scene with the parents, baby Jesus and farm animals and adoration scenes are a variation on the theme.

This image is in the Public Domain in the U.S.A.

Adoration of the Magi-Giotto-ca. 1305

Shop Amazon - The Electronics Holiday Gift Guide - Gifts Under $50

Christmas Paintings: Yuletide Paintings: Famous

The Christmas season is approaching; it seems appropriate to discuss Christmas paintings. Most Christmas paintings depict the manger scene though the Magi journeying to see Jesus or presenting their gifts to him is another popular scene.

Some of the well-known artists that painted a Nativity painting are Giotto, Michelangelo, Rubens, Daddi, and da Vinci.

The Nativity has been represented in panel paintings, stained glass windows, murals, and illuminated manuscripts.

Depictions of  the Nativity are dated from about 354 A.D. These representations are carved into stone sarcophagus found in Southern Gaul and Rome. Albeit not paintings, but pictorials none-the-less. The early followers of Christ buried their departed in the catacombs where they painted vault paintings showing the first Adoration of the Magi scenes.