Nativity at Night

Early Netherlandish painter Geertgen tot Sint Jans (sometimes known as Geertgen van Haarlem) painted this masterpiece in about 1490, after a 1470 composition by Hugo van deer Goes, the more famous (and longer-lived) Flemish painter. Clearly the author was influenced by the visions of Saint Bridget of Sweden, a very popular mystic: Shortly before her death, she described a vision of the infant Jesus, lying on the ground and emitting light immediately after his birth. 

Yesterday we mentioned that there is a difference in how artists depicted the traditional themes of the Nativity of Jesus and the Adoration of the Magi. Nativity scenes, such as this one, are often devotional objects representing a particular aspect or attribute of the Virgin Mary or Jesus (or both). In contrast, depictions of the Adoration of the Magi show three richly garbed men, often represented as kings in the West and symbolic of the world and of earthly authority. Having found Jesus by following a star, they lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (symbolic respectively of kingship, priesthood, and death), and worship him.