Wintry Twist on an Age-Old Tale

choi

Keith Christiansen, Wintry Twist on an Age-Old Tale. Wall Street Journal, Dec 24, 2022, at "Masterpiece" column of page C10 (C is Review section every Saturday).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-w ... e-elder-11671832342

Note:
(a) "Unless you are a miserly curmudgeon, such as Charles Dickens imagined as the protagonist of his famous Christmas tale * * * there is the tale of a pious, 12-year-old girl whose virginal state is entrusted to an old widower, Joseph—a carpenter by profession—who is shocked when he discovers she is pregnant * * * Obliged to make an arduous journey to Bethlehem to be registered by Roman authorities, the poor couple takes refuge in a cave (transformed by medieval sources into a stable), where the baby is born. * * * Word of the miraculous birth reaches the wily tetrarch Herod. Fearing a challenge to his already circumscribed power, he orders a massacre"
(i)
(A) A Christmas Carol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
(1843; Ebenezer Scrooge)
(B) Scrooge: "It does not appear to be a genuine English surname."
https://www.etymonline.com/word/scrooge
(ii)
(A) Mary, mother of Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_mother_of_Jesus
("According to the gospel of Luke, a decree of the Roman Emperor Augustus required that Joseph return to his hometown of Bethlehem to register for a Roman census. While he was there with Mary, she gave birth to Jesus * * * From the age at which Jewish maidens became marriageable, it is possible that Mary gave birth to her son when she was about thirteen or fourteen years of age. No historical document tells us how old she actually was at the time of the Nativity")
(B) Saint Joseph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph
("Joseph's description as a 'tekton' (τέκτων) has been traditionally translated into English as 'carpenter,' but is a rather general word (from the same root that gives us 'technical,' 'technology,' and 'architect') that could cover makers of objects in various materials. * * * The New Testament has no mention of Joseph's death, but he is never mentioned after Jesus's childhood, and Mary is always presented as by herself")

Ancient Greek-English dictionary:
* τέκτων (noun masculine; romanization: téktōn)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/τέκτων
(iii) "Obliged to make an arduous journey to Bethlehem to be registered by Roman authorities"

Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus

section 4 Historical views, section 4.3 Chronology: "The Gospels offer several indications concerning the year of Jesus' birth. Matthew 2:1 associates the birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod the Great, who died around 4 BC, and Luke 1:5 mentions that Herod was on the throne shortly before the birth of Jesus, although this gospel also associates the birth with the Census of Quirinius which took place ten years later [in 6 AD]. Luke 3:23 states that Jesus was 'about thirty years old' at the start of his ministry, which according to Acts 10:37–38 was preceded by John the Baptist's ministry, which was recorded in Luke 3:1–2 to have begun in the 15th year of Tiberius's reign (28 or 29 AD). By collating the gospel accounts with historical data and using various other methods, most scholars arrive at a date of birth for Jesus between 6 and 4 BC, but some propose estimates that include a wider range. " (footnotes omitted).
(iv) "the poor couple takes refuge in a cave (transformed by medieval sources into a stable), where the baby is born"

Nativity of Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus
("In the 2nd century, Justin Martyr stated that Jesus had been born in a cave outside the town [Bethlehem], while the Protoevangelium of James described a legendary birth in a cave nearby. The Church of the Nativity inside the town, built by St Helena, contains the cave-manger site traditionally venerated as the birthplace of Jesus, which may have originally been a site of the cult of the god Tammuz. In his Contra Celsum (1.51), Origen, who travelled throughout Palestine beginning in around 215, wrote of the 'manger of Jesus.' "
(v)
(A) Herod Antipas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Antipas
(20 BC-39 AD; "bore the title of tetrarch ('ruler of a quarter') * * * [f]ollowing the death of his father [Herod I or Herod the Great] in 4 BC" )
did not mention alleged killings of all boys under age of two.
(B) Massacre of the Innocents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_Innocents
(section 2 History and Theology)

choi

(b) This story has resonated across the centuries and inspired compelling works of art, ranging from medieval mystery plays to Berlioz's 'L'Enfance du Christ,' and an incomparably rich pictorial tradition. There are moving depictions of the shepherds' adoration, extending from Giotto's magisterial fresco in the Arena Chapel in Padua to Caravaggio's altarpiece in Messina and Georges de La Tour's magical painting in the Louvre in which a group of peasants from the artist's native Lorraine gather in silent devotion around the swaddled newborn, illuminated by a candle held by old Joseph. With their emphasis on poverty, rusticity and ennobling tenderness, these paintings offer a striking contrast with depictions of the magi, in which the insatiable curiosity of Europeans with luxury goods and distant, exotic cultures is given free reign. Already in the 1260s, Nicola Pisano depicted black Africans as camel drivers on his marble pulpit for the cathedral of Siena. A century later, the painter Altichiero included a pig-tailed Mongol wearing a conical hat. For the Duc de Berry, the Limbourg brothers imagined costumes suggestive of the Byzantine court and added collared cheetahs suitable for a royal menagerie. Over the course of the 15th century, Balthazar, the youngest of the magi, was increasingly represented as a splendidly attired African king"
(i) "Berlioz's 'L'Enfance du Christ' "
(A) Hector Berlioz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Berlioz   
(1803 – 1869; French composer)
(B) L'enfance du Christ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27enfance_du_Christ
(1854)
(C) French-English dictionary:
* enfance (noun feminine): "childhood"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/enfance
   ^ Child is enfant (noun masculine or feminine, depending on the child) in French and niño/ niña in Spanish (which has infante/ infanta as prince/ princess). English noun infant is derived from Latin noun masculine or feminine infans infant.
(ii) "Giotto's magisterial fresco in the Arena Chapel in Padua"
(A) Giotto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto   
(c 1267 – 1337; full name  Giotto di Bondone; Italian painter)
(B) Scrovegni Chapel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrovegni_Chapel
("is also known as the Arena Chapel because it was built on land purchased by Enrico Scrovegni that abutted the site of a Roman arena. * * * The Arena Chapel was commissioned to Giotto by the affluent Paduan banker, Enrico Scrovegni. * * * Giotto's work thus falls in the period from 25 March 1303 [the year church construction was completed] to 25 March 1305")
(iii) "Caravaggio's altarpiece in Messina"
(A) Caravaggio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio
(1571 – 1610; full name Michelangelo MERISI; "Caravaggio, a town 35 km to the east of Milan" (where the painter spent childhood) / Italian painter' photo caption: "The Raising of Lazarus and the Adoration of the Shepherds. Regional Museum of Messina, Sicily, Italy")
(B) Messina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messina
(iv) "Georges de La Tour's magical painting in the Louvre in which a group of peasants from the artist's native Lorraine gather in silent devotion around the swaddled newborn, illuminated by a candle held by old Joseph."

Georges de La Tour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_de_La_Tour   
(1593 – 1652; 1593 – 30 January 1652; painting caption: "Nativity, 1644, Louvre")
(v) "in the 1260s, Nicola Pisano depicted black Africans as camel drivers on his marble pulpit for the cathedral of Siena."
(A) Nicola Pisano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Pisano
(c 1220/1225 – c 1284; Italian sculptor)
(B) Siena Cathedral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siena_Cathedral
(photo caption: "The pulpit and the mosaic floor")
(C) Siena
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siena
(section 1 History, section 1.1 Antiquity: name origin)
(D)
• File:Nicola, giovanni pisano e altri, pulpito del duomo di siena, 1265-68, adorazione dei magi.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicola,_giovanni_pisano_e_altri,_pulpito_del_duomo_di_siena,_1265-68,_adorazione_dei_magi.JPG
• imageBROKER/Martin Jung (photographer), Adoration of the Magi and Flight into Egypt, detail marble pulpit, 1266-68, sculptor Nicola Pisano, Siena Cathedral, Duomo Santa Maria Assunta. A;amy, Sept 29, 2020. https://www.alamy.com/adoration- ... image426274074.html
(vi) "A century later, the painter Altichiero included a pig-tailed Mongol [some commentators say Tatar] wearing a conical hat."
(A) Altichiero
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altichiero
(c 1330 – c 1390)
is his given name, whose last name is at best uncertain and probably unknown.
(B) Altichiero, Adoration of the Magi (detail)/ 1378-84/ Fresco/ Oratorio di San Giorgio, Padua. Web Gallery of Art.
https://www.wga.hu/html_m/a/altichie/1/2christ3.html
• Click image to enlarge.
• Oratory of San Giorgio, Padua
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oratory_of_San_Giorgio,_Padua      
(Italian  Oratorio di San Giorgio)
• English dictionary:
* oratory
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oratory
has two definitions with two etymologies, both of which descended from the same Latin verb orare.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orare
(vii) "For the Duc de Berry, the Limbourg brothers imagined costumes suggestive of the Byzantine court and added collared cheetahs suitable for a royal menagerie."
(A) Duke of Berry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Berry
("Duke of Berry (French: Duc de Berry) or Duchess of Berry (French: Duchesse de Berry [when the title was conferred to a woman]) was a title in the Peerage of France. The Duchy of Berry * * * ")
• Section 1 House of Valois (1360-1505) showed the first title-holder was John (French: Jean) starting in 1360. You need not click his (John's) icon, for you will learn about him next.
• "The name of Berry, like that of its capital, Bourges, originated with the Gaulish tribe of the Bituriges, who settled in the area before the Roman armies of Julius Caesar conquered Gaul ['effectively' in 51 BC: en.wikipedia.org for Julius Caesar]. The name of the tribe gave name to the region, often mentioned in Medieval Latin sources as: Bituria."  en.wikipedia.org for "Berry, France" (footnote omitted).

That is, the Latin name for the region (Bituria) gave rise to both Berry and Bourges (in Modern French).
• Bourges
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Bourges
(pronunciation)
(B) Limbourg brothers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbourg_brothers
(fl[ourish] 1385 – 1416; Dutch; 3 brothers)
(C) The painting at issue:

Limbourg brothers, The Adoration of the Magi.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wi ... ion_of_the_Magi.jpg
, which is folio 52r in
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Très_Riches_Heures_du_Duc_de_Berry
("English: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry * * * It was created between c 1412 and 1416 for the extravagant royal bibliophile and patron John, Duke of Berry [1340 – 1416], by the Limbourg brothers. * * * the book is now MS 65 in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, France")
(D) Modern French-English dictionary:
* très (adv; from Latin preposition trāns across, beyond): "very"  (In Modern Spanish, tres is a numeral meaning three, derived from Latin numeral trēs three.)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/très
* heure (noun feminine; from Latin [noun feminine] hōra hour, from Ancient Greek ὥρα ([romanization:] hṓra time): "hour"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heure
* riche (adj; plural riches): "rich"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/riche
(E) I googled for an hour and finally came up with one that explained name of Condé Museum:

Zoran, A Spectacular Walk Through History And Art O=of The Chateau de Chantilly. Trip101.com. updated on Nov 3, 2015
https://trip101.com/article/a-sp ... hateau-de-chantilly
("Chateau de Chantilly, located at the outskirts of the homonymous town to the north of Paris * * * offers to its visitors chance to enjoy outstanding architecture, interior decoration, the second largest collection of paintings in France (only behind Louvre) * * * Although the beginnings of the Chateau de Chantilly date back to the 14th century, its history is mostly related to Anne de Montmorency (the 16th century), Louis de Bourbon, better known as the Great Conde (the 17th century) and Henri Eugene Philippe Louis d’Orleans, the Duke of Aumale (the 19th century). Anne had the chateau commissioned, while the Great Conde altered the initial design of its gardens, entrusting the work to famous Andre Le Notre, Louis XIV's chief gardener. The Duke of Aumale contributed with an impressive collection of paintings, books and other works of art, and had the Grand Chateau erected, using the foundation of the 14th century fortress, destroyed during the French Revolution (1789 – 1799).   Being left without heirs, who died prematurely, the Duke of Aumale bequeathed the estate to the Institute of France in 1886; the Conde Museum [within the chateau] was open to the public in 1898" never alternating its original 19th century appearance.")
• homonym (n):
"1 a: HOMOPHONE  <the homonyms there and their [and they're]> * * *  
2: NAMESAKE [ie, eponym]"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym
• "homonymous town" in the page of Trip101.com

Château de Chantilly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_de_Chantilly
("located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Paris. The site comprises [note the present tense] two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency and the Grand Château * * * Chantilly was entirely rebuilt, between 1875 and 1882, by Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822–1897) ")

You might have guessed correctly which is Petit:
File:Château de Chantilly-Aile ouest du Petit Château-20120917.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Château_de_Chantilly-Aile_ouest_du_Petit_Château-20120917.jpg

"1560 for Anne de Montmorency"?  Then, why did Trip101.com say that "the beginnings of the Chateau de Chantilly date back to the 14th century"?
History. Château de Chantilly, undated
https://chateaudechantilly.fr/en/history/
Click "A Domain That Is Central to History."
• Anne de Montmorency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_de_Montmorency
(1493 – 1567; English name: Anne, Duke of Montmorency (title of Wiki page is French name); "was born at Chantilly to William of Montmorency and Anne St Pol"/ table: House  Montmorency)

Christof Rolker, Sir Anne and his daughter Anne – unisex names in the Middle Ages. Hypotheses.com, Nov 23, 2016 (updated on Dec 12, 2016)
https://intersex.hypotheses.org/4372
("people did not call their sons 'Anne', did they?   Except they did. Anne de Montmorency (1493-1567), son of Guillaume de Montmorency and his wife Anne, was called so after his godmother Anne de Bretagne; he later called one of his daughters Anne, too. So four times Anne – for three women and one man")

Brittany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany
(section 1 Etymology)

For Anne de Bretagne, see Anne of Brittany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Brittany
• Louis, Grand Condé
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis,_Grand_Condé
(1621 – 1686, "known as the Great Condé [in English; my guess is the Wiki page title comes from French] (French: Le Grand Condé) for his military exploits"/ table: House  Bourbon (Condé branch) )

Click "Bourbon (Condé branch)" and you will learn (title of new Wiki page: Princes of Condé) that the branch was "named after Condé-en-Brie," a place or commune of fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. Specifically a castle in Condé-en-Brie (Brie is a region where Brie Cheese is made): Château de Condé
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_de_Condé
(F) How are the three persons (Anne de Montmorency, Grand Condé, and Duke of Aumale) related to one another?
• Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_d%27Orléans,_Duke_of_Aumale
(1822 – 1897; the fifth son of King Louis-Philippe I (reign 1830-1848) of France; last name was d'Orléans; table: House  Orléans; "At the age of eight, he inherited a fortune of 66 million livres (approximately £200 million today), the lands and wealth of his godfather, Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the last Prince of Condé. This inheritance included the famous Château de Chantilly")
• Click "Orléans" and you will reach

House of Orléans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Orléans
("The house was founded [in 1661] by Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger son of Louis XIII and younger brother of Louis XIV, the 'Sun King' ")
• Orleans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orléans
("is a city * * * about 120 kilometres (74 miles) southwest of Paris. * * * In the late 3rd century AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian rebuilt the city and renamed it civitas Aurelianorum ('city of Aurelian') after himself.[19] The name later evolved into Orléans")

Just like New Orleans in state of Louisiana, the French city Orleans can have accent placed in the first or second syllable.
(G) Condé
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condé
itself is not found in French dictionaries (though the word is found in French place names).
• Condé Nast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condé_Nast
is an American publishing company founded in 1909 by an American of the same name. In short, the company has nothing to do with France. But at least you know, from this Wiki page, how Americans pronounce Condé.
• The English noun count (a nobleman; from Old French noun masculine comte, which in turn came from Latin noun masculine or feminine comes companion) has cognates: Spanish noun masculine conde and (Modern) French noun masculine comte. But Condé in French has nothing to do with conde in Spanish.
(viii) "Over the course of the 15th century, Balthazar, the youngest of the magi, was increasingly represented as a splendidly attired African king -- a tradition that has continued to this day. Exotic costumes and artifacts and non-European peoples give 18th-century Neapolitan creche scenes such as that at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, their enduring fascination."
• magi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magi
(from Latin of the same spellings (both singular and plural); "were priests in Zoroastrianism * * * [about magi in Gospel of Matthew] this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as 'kings' and more often in recent times as 'wise men' ")
did not mention any of their names.
• Neapolitan nativity scene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_nativity_scene
•
Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The Met, 2018.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibi ... 2018/christmas-tree

Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The Met, 2022.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibi ... 2022/christmas-tree
(ix) crèche (n; Did You Know? / [from Modern] French [noun feminine crèche Nativity], from Old French [noun feminine; note absence of the accent] creche manger): "a representation of the Nativity scene"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crèche

choi

(c) " 'The oration of the Kings in the Snow' was painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563 and hangs in the marvelous Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterthur, Switzerland. * * * People bundled up against the cold trudge through the snow, intermingling with marauding soldiers, for like ancient Judea, the Netherlands was then occupied by foreign troops. * * * It is in the cluster of loitering men in the lower left where Bruegel has depicted two heavy-laden equines that the real theme becomes apparent. At their head is the figure of an African looking on as his two elderly companions kneel to pay homage to a woman holding a small child within a dilapidated structure, the thatched roof of which has collapsed in places. A hole has been made in a frozen stream nearby and two oblivious youths carry buckets to draw water while a child happily propels himself on the ice on a makeshift sled. It is Jan 6, the feast day of Epiphany, in what Christina Rossetti so beautifully called 'the bleak midwinter.' "
(i) First and foremost, the painting:
(A) The review article of WSJ gives the painting a good resolution.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-w ... e-elder-11671832342
(B) Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Adoration of the Kings in the Snow 1563. Am Römerholz
https://www.roemerholz.ch/sor/en ... gs-in-the-snow.html
(C) Fileieter Bruegel the Elder - Adoration of the Kings in the Snow - WGA03466.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fileieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_Adoration_of_the_Kings_in_the_Snow_-_WGA03466.jpg
, where WGA stands for the direct source of this image: Web Gallery of Art (WGA; created in 1996 by Hungarians created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx from artworks that lost copyright).
(ii) Pieter Bruegel the Elder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder
(c 1525–1530 – 1569; Dutch)
(iii)
(A) For Oskar Reinhart Collection, see Am Römerholz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am_Römerholz
("formed by Oskar Reinhart [1885 – 1965, a Swiss art collector, born in Winterthur] is now held in a museum in his old house, 'Am Römerholz' in Winterthur, Zurich Canton, Switzerland")
(B) There is nothing in the Web to explain the meaning of Am Römerholz.

The original building. Am Römerholz, undated (Homepage-->Museum-->Architecture-->The original building)
https://www.roemerholz.ch/sor/en ... ginal-building.html
(" 'Am Römerholz̕' was built from 1915 to 1918 on a hillside site at the edge of woods for the Winterthur industrialist Jakob Heinrich Ziegler-Sulzer (1859-1930). * * * Oskar Reinhart acquired the villa in 1924. A year later he commissioned [the same architect Maurice] Turrettini to add a picture gallery")
(C) German-English dictionary:
* am (contraction): "at the, on the)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/am
* Römer (noun masculine; plural Römer, feminine Römerin; from [proper name] Rom [Rome] +‎ -er): "Roman"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Römer
* Holz (noun neuter):
"1: wood (material)
* * *
4: (literary) grove; woods; small forest"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Holz
(iv) "the Netherlands was then occupied by foreign troops"

This will be discussed in a companion posting.
(v) Epiphany (holiday)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(holiday)
("commemorating the visit of the Magi * * * The traditional date for the feast is January 6. * * * In many Western Churches, the eve of the feast is celebrated as Twelfth Night (Epiphany Eve) [night of Jan 5 or 6; Shakespeare had a play by that name]. * * * the holiday emphasized the visit of the magi. The magi represented the non-Jewish peoples of the world, so this was considered a 'revelation to the gentiles' ")
(A) epiphany (n): "general literary sense of 'any manifestation or revelation' appeared 1840, first in De Quincey."
https://www.etymonline.com/word/epiphany
(B) Thomas De Quincey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_De_Quincey
(1785 – 1859; English writer)
(C) The English name Quincy (variants Quincey, De Quincey) is: "(of Norman origin) * * * from any of several places in France deriving their names from the Gallo-Roman personal name Quintus meaning 'fifth(-born)' + the locative suffix -acum."
• Compare John Quincy Adams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams
("was born on July 11, 1767, to John and Abigail Adams (née Smith) in a part of Braintree, Massachusetts that is now Quincy. He was named after his mother's maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named, who died two days after Adams's birth")
• The Quincy in John Quincy Adams and (presently) City of Quincy both have c pronounced z.
• On the other hand, Quincy, Illinois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy,_Illinois
(view map only) was named after John Quincy Adams, see Quincy's History. Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce, undated
https://www.quincychamber.org/quincys-history
("Quincy was named after President John Quincy Adams [presidency 1825-1829]. Early in 1825, the Illinois Legislature created a new county in West Central Illinois and named it Adams. A commission named the existing village as county seat, calling it Quincy, and to complete the use of his name, the public square was called 'John' Square' ")
(vi) Christina Rossetti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti   
(1830 – 1894; English (her father was a political exile from Italy); "She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Britain: 'In the Bleak Midwinter [google the poem],' later set by Gustav Holst, Katherine Kennicott Davis, and Harold Darke, and 'Love Came Down at Christmas' ")
but has its c pronounced s.

choi

—------------------------------text
A Wintry Twist on an Age-Old Tale
Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s ‘Adoration of the Kings in the Snow’ is a nativity scene unlike most others

Unless you are a miserly curmudgeon, such as Charles Dickens imagined as the protagonist of his famous Christmas tale, the likelihood is that you have a favorite Old Master painting that depicts the birth of Jesus and his veneration by shepherds or those mysterious “wise men from the east.” These are among the most frequently painted subjects of Western art; illustrations of a story that has proved irresistible.

Already by the second century, the account found in the Gospels had been fleshed out to create a narrative that resonated on multiple levels. On the one hand, there is the tale of a pious, 12-year-old girl whose virginal state is entrusted to an old widower, Joseph—a carpenter by profession—who is shocked when he discovers she is pregnant and considers what action he should take to avoid the disgrace that will inevitably follow.

On the other, there are miraculous interventions by angels whose messages contravene common sense and the conventions of society and transform a story of potential social censure into one of divine revelation. These entwined narratives -- outdoing even Frank Capra and 1940s Hollywood -- acquire a disturbing edge by being set in a minor province occupied by the armies of Imperial Rome. Obliged to make an arduous journey to Bethlehem to be registered by Roman authorities, the poor couple takes refuge in a cave (transformed by medieval sources into a stable), where the baby is born. Despite his obscure birth, the child's divine status is recognized not only by three exotic sages arriving from distant lands but by local shepherds interrupted by angelic hosts while herding their sheep in the hills. Word of the miraculous birth reaches the wily tetrarch Herod. Fearing a challenge to his already circumscribed power, he orders a massacre from which the Holy Family narrowly escapes.

This story has resonated across the centuries and inspired compelling works of art, ranging from medieval mystery plays to Berlioz's "L'Enfance du Christ," and an incomparably rich pictorial tradition. There are moving depictions of the shepherds' adoration, extending from Giotto's magisterial fresco in the Arena Chapel in Padua to Caravaggio's altarpiece in Messina and Georges de La Tour's magical painting in the Louvre in which a group of peasants from the artist's native Lorraine gather in silent devotion around the swaddled newborn, illuminated by a candle held by old Joseph. With their emphasis on poverty, rusticity and ennobling tenderness, these paintings offer a striking contrast with depictions of the magi, in which the insatiable curiosity of Europeans with luxury goods and distant, exotic cultures is given free reign. Already in the 1260s, Nicola Pisano depicted black Africans as camel drivers on his marble pulpit for the cathedral of Siena. A century later, the painter Altichiero included a pig-tailed Mongol wearing a conical hat. For the Duc de Berry, the Limbourg brothers imagined costumes suggestive of the Byzantine court and added collared cheetahs suitable for a royal menagerie. Over the course of the 15th century, Balthazar, the youngest of the magi, was increasingly represented as a splendidly attired African king -- a tradition that has continued to this day. Exotic costumes and artifacts and non-European peoples give 18th-century Neapolitan creche scenes such as that at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, their enduring fascination.

One picture wholly rejects this tradition. Measuring just over 13 by 21 inches, "The oration of the Kings in the Snow" was painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1563 and hangs in the marvelous Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterthur, Switzerland. At first glance, the theme of the picture might seem to be merely a snowy day in the outskirts of a nondescript town in the Lowlands. People bundled up against the cold trudge through the snow, intermingling with marauding soldiers, for like ancient Judea, the Netherlands was then occupied by foreign troops. The ruins of a large stone building and brick archway lead into the town proper. It is in the cluster of loitering men in the lower left where Bruegel has depicted two heavy-laden equines that the real theme becomes apparent. At their head is the figure of an African looking on as his two elderly companions kneel to pay homage to a woman holding a small child within a dilapidated structure, the thatched roof of which has collapsed in places. A hole has been made in a frozen stream nearby and two oblivious youths carry buckets to draw water while a child happily propels himself on the ice on a makeshift sled. It is Jan 6, the feast day of Epiphany, in what Christina Rossetti so beautifully called "the bleak midwinter."

The grayness of the winter sky, the dreariness of the town, with evidence of an oppressive military presence and the general disregard of the miraculous birth, are somehow magically transformed by winters first snowfall. Bruegel transposes the story to the realities of his time and place and gives us his meditation on a white Christmas.

Mr Christiansen is curator emeritus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

painting caption: It is a nativity scene unlike others.