Christmas in art: 12-13-11

The other evening my bride and I stopped by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to have a look at the Rodin exhibit currently featured there in the new Bloch Building (shown in my east-looking photo of it above).

When we finished, we walked through an area in the older building where lots of religious art is displayed, including various representations of what gets shorthanded as "Madonna and Child," depictions of Mary and Jesus.

The Christmas story is, as we know, quite remarkable for the way it combines our love of babies, our need for hope, our attraction to a story about overcoming obstacles, our admiration for parents trying to do the right thing for their child and our openness to the incarnation.

Aside from artwork depicting Jesus himself, it's hard to think of a religious topic that has been explored more often than the relationship between Mary and the baby Jesus -- or just Mary and Jesus of any age.

We somehow want to make this story ours by imagining it in specific detail, even if those details are wildly representational and not especially realistic.

What baby and mother, after all, sit around in a cave or stable with halos over their heads?

Anyway, I found this interesting collection of this kind of Nelson Gallery art at Present Magazine's online site and I invite you to have a look.

And, by the way, this subject interests not just Christians. As you may know, Muslims honor Jesus as their second most important prophet and the Qur'an contains many references to Mary, including an account of what Islam acknowledges was a virgin birth.

(The Madonna and Child painting shown here is an oil on wood panel by Hayne de Bruxelles done about 1454 or 1455.)

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SOME CONTRIBUTORS TO VIOLENCE BETWEEN MUSLIMS

How do we begin to understand the Muslim-against-Muslim violence that grows out of the Shia-Sunni split in Islam. It's complicated and ever-changing, but a Harvard law professor makes some good points about it in this Bloomberg piece. Strong states, he argues, have kept the violence in check. Which does not foretell good things in Syria. Sigh.

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P.S.: It is now possible to register for both of my 2012 Ghost Ranch classes,  "As Death Nears: Preparing for the End of Life," to be taught July 8-15, with Dr. Nancy Tilson-Mallett,  and "The Questions of Forgiveness: Writing Toward Wholeness," to be taught July 16-22, with Douglas Hundley. For more details and to register, click here. And don't wait long. I expect both classes to fill up rather quickly. Ghost Ranch is a beautiful retreat center in northern New Mexico.