Jesus’s Anticipation, Birth & Childhood 

Overview

Prior to Jesus’s birth, prior to the moments the gospels take as their starting places, there was a sense in the Jewish community that there was a Messiah coming, a Messiah that would free the people from the bondage and oppression they had suffered for so long from imperial powers. In this setting, this general sense of things, an angel, a messenger from God, appeared to Mary and invited her to bear God a child. She said yes, in spite of the social and personal risks. This scene is referred to as the Annunciation. After saying yes, Mary goes off to visit a relative, Elizabeth, who is also miraculously pregnant (Elizabeth is an old woman, thought to be barren, who gives birth to John the Baptist). This scene is also popular in the art tradition and is called the Visitation.

Only Luke and Matthew include reports of Jesus’s birth (Nativity) in their gospels and their reports differ. Luke focuses on the miraculous nature of the birth, the physical struggle of the census trip to Bethlehem, and the announcement to the shepherds; Matthew focuses on genealogy, dreams, the star, and the wise men, and the flight into Egypt. Both go on to recount a few episodes from Jesus’s childhood. Luke reports on Jesus’s circumcision and presentation in the Temple and then another visit to the Temple where Jesus talks with the teachers when he is about 12. Matthew tells of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, the massacre of innocents, and the return from Egypt. When these stories are depicted in artworks, they present us with idealizations of family and motherhood, ideals that change from culture to culture and era to era. These idealizations both emerge from and shape the culture of the day in which the artworks are made. 

Historical Notes

In the early Church, this aspect of Jesus’s life was rarely treated by artists. We begin to see images of the magi approaching Mary and Jesus around the turn of the fourth century. Nativity scenes and images of the Madonna and Child are not uncommon throughout the middle ages and are quite popular during the Renaissance, when a broader range of images of the Holy Family are also popular, driven by the humanist interest in Jesus’s human nature and his human context.

The related subtopics can be explored through the links below:

• Annunciation
• Visitation with Elizabeth
• Nativity (Birth of Jesus Christ)
• Madonna & Child
• Holy Family
• The Christ Child in the Temple/Among the Doctors