A nativity scene featuring a turban unveiled in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on December 7 by Bethlehem-based Palestinian artists Johny Andonia and Fatan Nastasi Mitwasi (Faten Nastas Mitwasi) Design. (\u00a9Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nOn December 7, Pope Francis attended the opening ceremony. Bethlehem Christmas 2024,<\/em> Nativity scene exhibition in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. One scene shows an olive wood sculpture of Mary, Jesus and Joseph by two Palestinian artists from Bethlehem, Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi. Mitwasi) design. Jesus is wrapped between the kneeling Mary and the standing Joseph. scarf<\/em>a black and white scarf that symbolizes Palestinian heritage and resilience. He lies beneath a round mother-of-pearl starburst symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, which is inscribed with the words “Glory to God in the Highest, peace on earth, and goodwill to all men” in Latin and Arabic.<\/p>\nAfter photos of Pope Francis visiting a nativity scene circulated online and sparked outrage, news outlets reported this week that the manger and turbaned baby Jesus had been removed from the Vatican display. The hijab itself has also gained widespread support in the past year and been the target of scrutiny, with human rights groups arguing that genocide is taking place in Gaza. Some social media users on platforms such as<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nYet to condemn the nativity scene is to deny centuries of history by artists who have depicted the Holy Family in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank, as a marginalized, forcibly expelled and diasporic people.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nThe place of Jesus’ birth and those present are of profound significance in early Christian paintings by Byzantine artists, which depict the infant Jesus with a donkey and an ox under a “turugium” or tiled roof structure inside the Nativity Cave in Bethlehem, e.g. The Births of the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel (1308-11) by Duccio di Buonisenia. <\/p>\n
However, Renaissance and Baroque artists began to place Jesus’ birth among Greco-Roman ruins\u2014same ruins, explains scholar Andrew Hui, that were also the ruins of the religious and political systems into which Jesus was born and doctrinally overthrown Jesus. <\/p>\n
Likewise, the race of the Magi, the three kings who followed the Star of Bethlehem to worship Jesus and bring the three gifts, and the clothing and behavior of the shepherds all reflect the growing popularity of Christianity through colonialism and forced conversion. Over the last century, artists have often used the Magi and Shepherds as tools to reimagine the Nativity during times of war, bigotry, and genocide.<\/p>\n
During World War I, artists reimagined the Nativity against a backdrop of nationalism and mass destruction\u2014soldiers in military uniforms acted as shepherds, and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph took refuge in bombed-out stables or trenches. Linoleum print “Kriegsweihnacht” by German artist Sella Hasse <\/em>(1914) Claudia Siebrecht explains in her 2013 book Reimagining the Nativity as a Scene of Mourning Lost Aesthetics: The Art of German Women During World War I<\/em>. A medieval knight bows his head to Mary’s left, as the naked bodies of dead soldiers rise behind them into the afterlife. <\/p>\nArtists were also displaced during World War II, including Polish artist Stanis\u0142aw Przespolewski, who recreated images of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in traditional folk costumes. Przespolewski crafted an elaborate 1943 nativity scene featuring Mary dressed in Polish folk patterns and the Winged Hussar, a 16th-century Polish soldier in armor protecting his family. A contemporary WWII Polish soldier also stands outside the manger holding a rifle. <\/p>\n
In 1968, a group of American artists led by Joey Skaggs built a Vietnamese nativity scene in Central Park. Vietnamese Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus sat in a manger covered with bamboo curtains, next to There’s a paper pig wearing a police hat and a gun. and badge. Dressed as American soldiers, they attempted to burn the pig to protest the war. Skaggs and several other protesters were ticketed for the “Vietnam Christmas Burn.” Skaggs told new york times<\/em>\u201cI want to make it clear that Christmas in Vietnam is not wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tBanksy, Scars of Bethlehem (2019) (photo courtesy of Bisher Qassis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nOver the past decade, the number of politically and socially influential nativity scenes has only grown. In 2019, Banksy unveiled a creche in Bethlehem depicting the Holy Family next to Israel’s West Bank separation wall, which is pierced by star-shaped bullet holes. The article is titled “The Scars of Bethlehem.” That same year, the Claremont United Methodist Church in California staged a metal cage containing statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, which the pastor said represented the “thousands of nameless families being separated” in U.S. Border Patrol detention centers. Artist Kelly Latimore\u2019s Birth of Tent City (2022) depicts <\/em>Jesus, Mary and Joseph are in an uninhabited tent community, a metal fence separating them from the bustling city behind them. <\/p>\nLast Christmas, the Vatican displayed more than 100 nativity statues, including a scene created by a Ukrainian artist with bomb shrapnel embedded in the statue.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t2023 Nativity Scene at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Nativity (Photo by Pastor Dr. Munther Isaac, used with permission)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nLike the long history of the nativity scene itself, Pope Francis\u2019 recent call for an end to the war in Gaza is neither new nor surprising. Just last month, he called for an investigation into last year’s bombing by the Israeli military, telling author Hernan Reyes Alkaid that “according to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide \u201d<\/p>\n
Most powerful is the pope’s visible interaction with the Nativity, praying before the infant Jesus and sharing a message of peace. It was reminiscent of last year’s nativity scene at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: Jesus turbaned, his cradle a heap of fragments. St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., launched a similar display this year. On December 8, as Gazans spent their second holiday under siege by Israeli forces, Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Nativity, wrote: \u201cThis is beyond symbolism. \u201cOnce again we find ourselves reflecting on the meaning of Christmas through the image of Christ among the ruins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/aside>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nativity scene featuring a turban unveiled in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on December 7 by Bethlehem-based Palestinian artists Johny Andonia and Fatan Nastasi Mitwasi (Faten Nastas Mitwasi) Design. (\u00a9Vatican Media) On December 7, Pope Francis attended the opening ceremony. Bethlehem Christmas 2024, Nativity scene exhibition in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. One<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artist"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14037,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016\/revisions\/14037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}