NAVIDAD 2010

One of the most frequent themes in history of art has to do with Christmas. This event features in early Christian art. However, it is in the Middle Ages when this hagiographic happening acquires greater focus and attention from artists. This iconography has served as stimulus and devotion with significant echo in general belief.

The birth of Jesus has gone beyond time and art expressions. Not surprisingly, the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles gave a double meaning to the profusion of biblical and hagiographic images of this stage in the life of Jesus thus promoting the great event of the coming of the Saviour amongst believers and recreating it in different forms of artistic inspiration whether it be painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature. But although this Christmas theme has been depicted in many ways by artists of later centuries and even today it is in the Renaissance and Baroque styles that we find the grandest works of art.

It could also be that the Nativity theme, being a symbolically joyous Bible event for Christians with its message of peace, has enjoyed greater significance and sympathy amongst artists from the East and West. Every year Correos, on occasion of the Christmas celebration, issues stamps to commemorate the Christmas festivity depicting works of some of the most representative national artistic heritage or compositions of contemporary artists. This year’s issue features paintings by J. Carrero who symbolically depicts the Christmas theme, showing the endless source of imagination that our craftsmen have developed over time based on the issue of the Nativity.