A Christmas Theme

Antoniazzo Romano (attributed to) (1430/5-1510)  

Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist (triptych, centre panel)

c.1460–1480

Oil on panel

55 x 32.9 cm

The Courtauld Gallery, London 

The infant John the Baptist gazes intently at the Christ child but with Love 

Filled with Love, Mary gazes at the viewer and with her hand gestures the viewer to look on Christ and come forward to him

A Loving Christ gazes into the distance at someone and raises his hand in blessing

The background is gilded. The setting is  Heaven

Mary and Christ both wear tunics of gold. However her veil and cloak is blue adorned with a star. His  cloak is red, symbol of the Passion

John is wearing the sack clothes and ashes of his later years

Mary acts as the throne of Christ, a living throne

If one could go back two thousand years and looked at Mary, Christ and the Baptist, one would not see much to look at. Easily passed over and forgotten about

Without faith, one would simply see a Palestinian mother holding her child accompanied by another gurgling infant

With faith, the scene changes into a glimpse of the Divine and that is what Romano is depicting. 

Hence what would have been a portrait painting becomes an icon

Pope Benedict XVI on 4th January 2012 explained in his catechesis on the Nativity of the Lord:

"God becomes so close that it is possible to see and touch him. The Church contemplates this ineffable mystery and the liturgical texts of this Season are steeped in wonder and joy; all Christmas carols express this joy.  

Christmas is the point at which Heaven and earth converge and the various expressions we hear in these days stress the greatness of what has came about: the remote — God who seems very remote — has become close,  

“The inaccessible wanted to be accessible, he who exists before time began to be in time, the Lord of the universe, veiling the greatness of his majesty, took the nature of a servant” St Leo the Great exclaimed (Sermon 2 on the Nativity of the Lord, 2.1). 

In that Child who needed everything as all children do, what God is — eternity, strength, holiness, life and joy — is united with what we are: weakness, sin, suffering and death. 

The theology and spirituality of Christmas use a phrase to describe this event, they speak of an admirabile commercium, that is, a wondrous exchange between divinity and humanity. 

St Athanasius of Alexandria says: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God” (De Incarnatione, 54, 3: PG 25, 192), but it is above all with St Leo the Great and his famous sermons on Christmas that this reality became the object of profound meditation."

You may wish to consider this when you buy your second class stamps for your Christmas cards this year. The work is part of Royal Mail's 2013 Christmas Stamp Issue 

Antoniazzo Romano

Antoniazzo Romano  (1430/5-1510)  

Triptych: Bust of Christ, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Peter. 

Closed: Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Colombe

Ca. 1495

Distemper on panel

94 cm x 132 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Antonio di Benedetto Aquilio, called Antoniazzo Romano,  (1430/5-1510)  was the leading painter in Rome during the later fifteenth century, one of the three founders of the Compagnia di San Luca, the guild of painters in Rome, for which he signed the statutes in 1478.

From the 1470s until his death, he garnered some of the most prestigious commissions in Rome

Over decades he was called to decorate the most important holy places in the city:  the Basilicas of the Twelve Holy Apostles of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and  St. John Lateran, the Pantheon, the Janiculum, the churches of San Pietro in Montorio and San Onofrio

He was known in his day as  "Pictor Urbis"  - Painter of the City

Considering that his contemporaries and competitors included Benozzo Gozzoli, Piero della Francesca, Domenico Ghirlandaio,  Melozzo from Forlì, Piermatteo of Amelia and Perugino, this was no mean feat

His style and composition are said to be "conservative". This was probably due to the fact that the commissioners and audience for his works were mainly senior prelates of the Roman Curia, religious communities and members of the Roman aristocracy

As he was the favourite of court of Alexander VI (the Borgia pope), his popularity went into decline when the court of the Borgias fell

In this painting the central figure is an icon painting of Christ in the Byzantine style

In the interior he is flanked by Saint Peter, with his keys, and Saint John the Baptist

Both have ribbons praising Christ

On the outside (when closed) are Saint John the Evangelist holding a feather and his Gospel, and Saint Colombe (a ninth century saint), accompanied by the bear that miraculously saved this Spanish nun from being raped

Likewise they hold ribbons praising the Lord

In this work the backgrounds are gilded

The work is reminiscent of the triptych in the  Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies) chapel now  a side chapel from the Scala Sancta  of the Lateran Palace, Rome. 

The name of this chapel is now the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Palatio ad Sancta Sanctorum

In medieval times this was the private chapel of the Popes

The centre of the work in the Lateran palace is a 5th century depiction of Christ: the Acheiropoieton:  "Not painted with (human) hands"