I am of the opinion that no painting on the theme of the birth of Christ symbolically depicts the Son of God in that Jungian "dichotomy of God and man" as is evident in Portinarius Altar Flemish Early Renaissance master Huga van der Gesa's thoughts. The name of this complex masterpiece of the “unfortunate genius” was given after its commissioner, an Italian banker. Tomasz PortinariIt was intended for the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence. Today it is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The central part of the three-part composition presents a scene of worship of the little, newborn Jesus Christ in an atmosphere of sincere and deep piety. The impressive simplicity and strength of the painter's expression create a sense of immediacy in which the profane and the sacred are uniquely intertwined. In the history of painting, there are few known works of this theme whose compositions are structured in this way. The epicenter of the painted scene, the energetic center of the painting, is the naked body of Christ laid on the ground. It summarizes all the elements of the composition and at the same time emanates the divine atmosphere of the sacred event. The unusualness of this formal arrangement of the figures, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and angels, creates the impression of Christ's loneliness. It is as if the Son of God, although present, is still far from those present. In Van der Ges's painting process, in that characteristic Flemish sense of realism, in the context of the theme that the painter is working on, this makes this work exceptional. In this way, the artist's subtle method, precisely by painting realistic elements, meticulously processed down to the smallest details, expands the effect of the scene, giving the work a dimension of a kind of mystical symbolism. The impression of the loneliness of the newborn Christ's body seems to reflect that mysterious distance, that conditional separation from the earthly race that suggests the heavenly origin of the fruit of Mary's womb. This child is God who descended among people from whom he will suffer by being crucified on the cross. Bethlehem and Golgotha are two fateful places of one mission. With the gift of his imagination and the deep penetration of the mystical meaning of the motif, Van der Ges suggests the Savior's earthly life path, introducing the thought of death into the joyful event of his birth. Although we know, unlike the depicted characters, the earthly path of the Son of God, Van der Ges's unusual talent subtly hints at this in the minor details of this composition. In the scene of prostration, details were introduced that, on a symbolic and metaphysical level, create a quiet disturbance precisely in the foretelling of the Messiah's fate.
In the foreground, at the bottom of the composition, a sheaf of wheat is placed, a sheaf of the mystical body of Christ. Thus, not far from each other lie the newly born body of the Savior and its symbolic and mystical equivalent. The germ of death is planted by birth. Wheat “cut by human hands dies”. When crushed, it becomes flour. Bread is made from flour. “Take and eat, this is my body” Christ will say to the apostles in the Eucharist. The painter has placed two vases of flowers next to the sheaf of wheat. This decorative detail is not without its precise symbolism. The white lilies stand out in particular as a symbol of the immaculate conception, the flower carried by the archangel Gabriel in the scenes of Mary’s Annunciation. A red peony flower is also painted as a symbol of the redemptive sacrifice, with an emphasis on resurrection to a new life. Blue and white irises with sword-like leaves suggest swords and suffering, Mary's sad fate with the prophecy: "A sword will pierce your soul". Small flowers of dark violets symbolize the humility of Christ and Mary as well as the humility of the Messiah in the incarnation, because he comes and gives himself to man as a child laid on the ground. The body of the born New Adam lies naked on the body of the earth, the element from which God created the first man. There is also a red carnation, which signifies God's love revealed in sacrifice. Above these subtle details of symbolic meaning, the viewer's attention is most captured by the expressiveness of the Virgin Mary and the group of shepherds who worship the child. The way in which the protagonists of the holy scene are depicted confirms Van der Ges's exceptional ability to psychologically nuance the characters of the painted figures. Some interpreters of this masterpiece tend to see in the painter's ability to convincingly express the characters of the depicted persons, the artist's psychological hypersensitivity and spiritual fragility. He suffered from depression and so-called religious anxiety. or melancholic psychosis. Such opinions are linked to facts from Van der Ges' biography according to which the painter, a few years after he painted Portinario Altar He fell into a severe psychological crisis, had suicidal urges, and withdrew into monastic life.
Regardless of the attempts to apply a psychoanalytic key in analyzing the artist's creative sensibility through his pathography, our attention is focused on what is painted, that is, on the work itself and on the complexity of its reception. Unlike the idealized Madonnas of Italian Renaissance masters inspired by the ideal of classical beauty, such as those Raphael's, Van der Ges's Virgin Mary is a deeply contemplative figure that expresses a certain ascetic self-restraint. Although she does not show maternal tenderness towards the newborn holy child, as the Madonna is most often depicted in paintings of this theme, her kneeling position and the position of her hands in prayer express a deep feeling of simultaneously suppressed joy and worry. Her face is thoughtful and unsmiling. Her eyes are slightly lowered as if she is looking not only at her child but also at his destiny. She is imbued with the awareness that Christ is not her only son. Mary is a witness to a mystery that transcends human happiness. Joy and suffering fill her maternal being. Mary does not hold her child in her arms, does not hug him or gently lean over him. She does not approach the child with her hands. This physical distance confirms her emotional maturity and the awareness that the newborn child belongs to both his heavenly Father and her God. Also, Mary's being is equally in a mother's true emotion towards her beloved son and awareness of his divine nature and redemptive mission. One gets the impression that the Virgin Mary is in some kind of contemplative devotion, which makes her a kind of icon of melancholy.
Van der Ges' ability to nuance the characters' characters in the scene we are observing is particularly evident in the group of shepherds who are worshipping the newborn child. They are not pastorally idealized characters, their faces are rough-featured and almost vulgarly naturalistic, which strikingly demonstrates the aforementioned Flemish sense of realism. It is precisely this sense that gives the depicted characters a strong persuasiveness. Also, the shepherds seem sincerely moved to the core of their being by the miracle that illuminated their simplicity. One holds his hands in prayer, another spreads them wide, a third curiously leans over them with his mouth half-open in order to better see the body of the newborn son of God. The shepherds' movements are spontaneous and strongly imbued with the emotional state they evoke. They are witnesses to an epiphany. In this way, the Flemish master achieves an extraordinary psychological effect of the action in the painting. The shepherds are a contrast to Mary's quiet meditativeness. In their distance from the child, they express amazement, surprise, confusion, and emotion. The sacredness simultaneously attracts and inspires awe in them. The serene peace of the angels brings harmony between the heavenly and the earthly in the image of the Bethlehem event. Yet it seems that the realism of the world is what subtly pulsates with the energy of this Van der Ges masterpiece. The King of Heaven is born. The world has begun to weave a crown of thorns.
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