Tuesday 23rd December - Christmas Eve...

Things I learned in the course of yesterday include (a) All sense of human feeling goes out of the window in a packed supermarket approaching Christmas.  Really, if the Zombie-Rage plague hit Tescos at 4pm on Christmas week, how would you be able to tell?  (b) On that theme, you  will both maim and be maimed in said supermarket so make your peace with that.  I got several people in the ankles with my trolley and was, in turn, hobbled by the cauliflowers; and (c) If the underwire goes horribly wrong in your support garment and you are forced to pull it down of the sleeve of your cardigan in the Toys R Us car park like a saucy magic trick, don't be surprised if the kids in the car next to you find you hilarious and clap.  Especially if you shout 'tada!' because you think no-one can hear. Apparently.  Valuable life lessons for all. Moving on...

Today is the last of the picture posts for Blogvent as tomorrow I will be posting the Christmas Eve story that Lily and I wrote.  I best make it a proper seasonal one then...

Christmas Eve and there was no room for them at the Inn (1900-1904) Arthur Melville

Here we have Mary, Joseph and Little Donkey not having a lot of luck finding somewhere to stay at Christmas (it is a busy time of year).  I'm rather taken with the purple robes that Mary is wearing, very fetching and makes a nice change from the blue. You know, like this one...

The First Christmas Morn (1899) Raymond Lynde

Yes, this is what she tends to look like, including in my nativity scene from the Sacre Coeur, or 'Mary Jazz-Hands' as she is known.  Can I just say that is a massive Jesus, plus Joseph looks like a gysy fortune teller, but other than that, it's a fairly standard nativity scene.  I like Melville's more because of the roughness, the sandy tones. All very appropriate.

Mary Jazz-Hands and family, including Gloria the Angel

 I was having the typical conversation for a Pre-Raphaelite fan at this time of year, about portrayals of the Holy family in Victorian art.  It is difficult to appreciate now how revolutionary William Holman Hunt's approach to them was, but if you consider his Brother, Millais', picture Christ in the House of his Parents, with the ginger Christ and the all-very-Anglo family, then Hunt's Jewish pictures are a shock.  The idea that Jesus was not like an English chap, that he was a man from the Middle East, is obvious but contrary.  For a Victorian (and maybe modern Western society too) to think that God would appear in the form of an olive-skinned person of a Hebrew persuasion was frightening.  How can God be not like us?  How can God not appear on earth as a nice chap from Henley on Thames?  Even if he chose to appear in 'The Olden Days' (TM) it seemed that he had to be like us: nice, white, middle class, that sort of thing.  Hunt opened the door for more realistic portrayals, for Mary and Joseph to look like they came from the Holy Land and they were (*whisper*) Jewish.  Still, almost half a century after Hunt set that precedent, there still existed the two Marys: One draped in blue with rosy cheeks and golden hair, and one, dark and dusty, tired and less than exalted.  On the whole, I'd rather have the realism than the idealism, especially when it is so beautiful rendered as Melville manages.

My present suggestion is obviously not one for Christmas, given the late date, but for 21 January.  Should you have a few thousand pound hanging around (look down the back of the sofa, you never know), then possibly you might like this...

Portrait of Jane Morris (1873) D G Rossetti

Priced at £20,000 - 30,000, this pen and ink drawing of Jane Morris is included in the Bonham's 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art sale on 21st January 2015 at 2pm.  For further details look here and plan how to spend your Christmas money...

See you tomorrow for a special Christmas Eve story...