Calvin Synod Herald, 1990 (90. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)

1990-11-01 / 6. szám

CALVIN Mm AI D synod MtrjpLL/

Reformátusok Lapja

Official Organ Of The Calvin Synod — United Church of Christ Founded in 1900

VOL. XC_____________________________NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1990

NUMBER 6.

A betlehemi pásztorok imádják a jászolbölcsőben

nyugvó kisdedet.

(Hugo van der Goes 1475-ben készült örökéletű műalkotása.)

The adoration of the Holy Child by the shepherds in the stable.

(Hugo van der Goes Flemish painter ’s eternal masterpiece from 1475.)

In the rude setting of a stable in Bethlehem the Infant Christ was born. Mary and Joseph had come to be registered for taxation and because the little town was crowded, they found no room at an inn. But Christ’s lowly birth was attended with joy and reverence and this the painter portrayed in an altarpiece, of which the center panel is shown above. While graced with worshipful angels — “Glory to God in the highest,” they chorused — the painting conveys an earthy actuality through the presence of the awed and animated shepherds. Like most other painters of his time, he depicted the miracle as coming to pass in a landscape that was medieval European, rather than pre-Gospel Palestinian. To his contemporaries the effect was of realism.