Follow the Star: A 2022 Advent Calendar

Glencairn Museum News | Number 11, 2022

Visit Follow the Star: A 2022 Advent Calendar on Glencairn Museum’s website, or follow the Museum on social media (Facebook, Instagram) to receive each day’s artwork in your newsfeed.

This issue of Glencairn Museum News introduces Follow the Star: A 2022 Advent Calendar. The Glencairn collection contains many examples of depictions of the Nativity and infancy of Jesus Christ, including paintings, illuminated manuscripts, sculptures, and stained-glass windows. Collected by Raymond Pitcairn, some of these artworks date to the medieval period, while others are original works commissioned by Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn during the first half of the 20th century. In addition, since 2009, the Museum has collected hundreds of three-dimensional Nativity scenes, made by artists from around the world. This year’s Advent calendar will include representations of the Nativity from a variety of countries and time periods. The calendar is available both on the Museum’s website and in the form of daily posts on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Every day, from December 1 through December 25, a work of Nativity art from the Glencairn Museum collection will appear on the Follow the Star: A 2022 Advent Calendar page on the Museum’s website. You can click on the Nativity that appears each day to learn about its history, imagery, and the artist who created it.

You can also follow the Museum on Facebook and Instagram to receive each day’s artwork in your newsfeed. In addition, our online web resource, Do You See What I See: Imagery in Nativity Scenes, offers a concise introduction to the history and iconography of the Nativity tradition. For a full list of all of the Museum’s 2022 Christmas offerings, click here.

Below is a sample of the Nativity art included in this year’s Advent calendar.

Figure 1: Illuminated manuscript leaf made in Paris, France, c. 1410–1420. Glencairn Museum collection, Bryn Athyn, PA, 07.MS.636. 

This illuminated manuscript leaf on vellum, from a 15th-century French Book of Hours, depicts the biblical story of the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The miniature painting illustrates the portion of the Nativity narrative in which an angel appears to a group of shepherds keeping watch over their flock at night: “Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:10–11). The text (in Latin) on this leaf is the opening of Terce, one of the prayers to be recited at certain hours throughout the day: “Make haste, O God, to deliver me; Make haste to help me, O LORD” (Psalm 70).

Figure 2: Holy family carved in wood by Sepp Kals, Kirchberg in Tirol, Austria, 1953. Glencairn Museum collection, Bryn Athyn, PA. 

Joseph is shown holding an oil lamp. According to the well-known mystical vision of St. Bridget of Sweden (1303–1373), when the Christ Child was born, the cave where the birth took place was filled with an ineffable divine light—a light that completely outshone the earthly light of Joseph’s candle. Beginning in the 15th century, paintings sometimes showed Joseph holding a candle, but in later centuries artists replaced his candle with a lamp or lantern. This Holy Family was carved in wood by Sepp Kals, an academically trained sculptor from Kirchberg in Tirol, Austria. Kals also designed and carved sculptures for several church altars. 

Figure 3: Nativity icon made by iconographer Susan Kelly vonMedicus, 2014. Glencairn Museum collection, Bryn Athyn, PA, 12.OP.466. 

This Nativity icon in the Byzantine style was painted by Philadelphia-area iconographer Susan Kelly vonMedicus. The iconography of the Nativity in Byzantine art has developed over many centuries. The three-fold mandala in the upper right corner of the icon represents the heavens opening and the Trinity descending. The cave of the Nativity represents the darkness into which Christ, the Light of the World, was born. The Christ Child is wrapped in swaddling cloths resembling burial cloths, and the manger resembles a tomb; these elements prefigure the eventual death and resurrection of Jesus. The mountain represents the spiritual ascent and descent of the Holy Spirit. The rose border with buds represents the beginning of Mary’s love for Christ, and the thorns her sorrows.

Figure 4: Nativity triptych made from stoneware by Christina Orthwein, Bryn Athyn, PA, 2018. Glencairn Museum collection, Bryn Athyn, PA.

Christina Orthwein lives with her family in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, where she works in her home studio and teaches ceramics and photography at Bryn Athyn College (see www.ChristinaOrthwein.com). Visual inspirations for this Nativity triptych include the Gothic architecture of Glencairn, the Celtic lettering style found throughout the building, and the General Church Seal, a circular bronze plaque designed in the 1930s by Raymond Pitcairn and metalworker Parke E. Edwards. 

According to Orthwein, “The inspiration for this piece comes from the sacred, cozy feeling of a family circled around the Bible for a Christmas morning worship service. That precious space is echoed in the curve of the tiles around the Bible and by the shepherds, wise men, and Mary and Joseph, all gathered around and bending toward the newborn baby Jesus. Mary is the closest to Jesus, touching Him directly, which represents her direct connection as the one who gave Him human form. Joseph is touching Mary’s hand to depict his absolute support of her and his commitment to their journey ahead. The wise men and shepherds represent a variety of ages and ethnicities to show that the Lord’s birth brings love to the entire human race.”

Follow Glencairn Museum’s social media (Facebook, Instagram) to receive a work of Nativity art each day, or visit our webpage: Follow the Star: A 2022 Advent Calendar.

(CEG)

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