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Sources of the Imagery, Christmas Tableau

This post is a continuation of a series begun on June 21 about my nativity quilt for my school. If you’re really curious scroll down to get to the beginning, or just start here! Thanks for surfing in!

Fra Angelico’s paintings and altarpieces form the basis of the scenes presented in my school’s Christmas program, and the show is called “Tableaux” after the “tableau” or “scenes” from Fra Angelico’s paintings. To begin at the center, my madonna is a composite of a seated Madonna (position and face) and Madonna della Stella (click on the hotlinks to see the original images on the internet…I just love the web!). In the latter, I absolutely LOVED the way the baby schlumps against his mama, just like a true newborn would. Instead of having the baby Jesus in the manger, I wanted Mary to be holding him just like new moms do.

I was torn as to how to show the people. I really wanted to picture the people the way the would have looked in the time of Jesus: middle Eastern! But Fra (also known as Beato) Angelico’s paintings are peopled with folks that (not surprisingly) look like they stepped out of early 1400s Italy. In the end, I chose to remain true to his works, and I’ll just have to do another nativity piece with more eastern Mediterranean looking folks another time.

Joseph, standing behind Mary and the manger, and the kings (on the right) are taken from various figures in Angelico’s works. The kneeling king is directly taken from a painting with Saint Lawrence.

The two kings on the right are from adoration of the magi paintings here (dark-haired king in black garment, and here (the white-haired king) ,

while Joseph is modelled after the figure of Jospeh in The Presentation at the Temple.

The donkey came from a wonderful piece, Armadio degli Argenti. If you look at the bottom left corner, you’ll see Mary holding her baby, seated on a donkey. I just turned the donkey around so I could place him next to the kings.

The shepherds are composites from Fra Angelico’s paintings and photos of my sons. The shepherds would have been dressed in humble garments, much like the brothers in the Coronation of the Virgin. Since this also made my life easier in terms of creating the figures, I dressed my shepherds in cloaks. The older boy to the far left, and the man behind him, are modelled after my son Joshua, now a (gasp!) 7th grader (or should I say shudder? teen-hood looms….or is here even if the calendar says he’s still 12 1/2). I darkened his hair from its usual sandy blond-brown, and also aged him and gave him a beard for the older figure. The young boy playing a flute or recorder for the Holy family is modeled after my son Eli. Here’s the picture of him in his karate ghee (he’s the one standing on the left):

and some of my initial sketches of both Joshua and Eli:

And that picture of me over in the sidebar, on the right of your screen…that thing I’m holding up by my face is one of the sheep! I was visiting with one friend at Marriner’s, in town, for a coffee and mom’s escape morning, when another friend (Kathy from Studio in the Woods blog!) popped in and took my picture. I was glueing down the seam allowances on the underside of the sheep while I sipped and yakked …grin!

That’s plenty for today!

2 Responses to “Sources of the Imagery, Christmas Tableau”

  1. Brenda Says:

    Congratulations Sarah Ann. Your tableau has come together beautifully.

  2. :-D eirdre Says:

    The quilting looks stunning! Beautiful job! I can’t wait to see a full (clickable) photo – hint hint….