A Thousand Words
Benjamin West's The Nativity
Benjamin West chose an atypical format for his Nativity of 1792: tall and narrow, with the figures of the Holy Family compressed into a shallow space and dominated by the figure of the dramatically uplit angel. Mary cradles the child Jesus at the lower right, while a shadowy Joseph leans over protectively from the left. He holds a candle lantern, which he shields with his hand so that the flame, the sole source of light, is hidden from view. In front of him is a bushel measure, tipped over, and behind it, barely visible, a lamb. Above Mary and Joseph towers the angel, holding in his hand an olive branch; beside him on the rafter to the left sits a pair of doves. He is accompanied by three cherubs, identical in form but seemingly of three different races. How do we make a coherent reading of all these disparate elements?
Light is central to this unusual image. Christ, the light of the world, has been born into obscurity. Like Joseph's candle, the light is hidden, yet it enlightens the whole picture and the whole world. The basket is tipped over: the bushel is lifted and the light revealed. The Lamb of God has entered into the world, though as yet he remains obscure. The light also enlightens the heavens: the majestic angel, with his olive branch and his doves, brings a message of peace to all the races of the world.
The emphasis on Christ's humble origins might have been meant as a gentle reminder to its intended audience. Benjamin West, born a Pennsylvania Quaker of modest means, painted the Nativity as a design for a side window in St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, for no less a personage than King George III. West, who was originally self-taught, caught the attention of a wealthy patron who sponsored a grand tour of Europe so that the young painter might study the Old Masters. One stop was Venice, where West quickly absorbed the coloristic and compositional principles of Titian, Veronese, and especially Tintoretto, which are particularly in evidence in this painting.
While he was in Venice, West met Richard Dalton, King George's royal librarian, who commissioned a painting from the young painter for the king's collection. The picture met with critical acclaim, and West went to England, in hopes of making a short but lucrative stay. He remained in England until he died in 1820. While there, he joined the Anglican Church, and made influential friends among the clergy.
Painting for Windows
For the first half of the eighteenth century in England, religious painting, especially on a large scale, was at a low ebb, and even for his clerical patrons West painted Classical subjects like Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus. A few private chapels of High Church families boasted modern religious paintings, but there were no grand public commissions.
The atmosphere seems to have loosened somewhat after the accession of the Hanoverian George III in 1760. Soon plans were underway for an ambitious program of paintings in St. Paul's Cathedral; both West and Sir Joshua Reynolds were hired to submit pictures. The scheme fell through, however, and instead West was commissioned to design the windows for the Royal Chapel, one of which was the Nativity.
If we look closely at the painting, we might notice several oddities. First, this is an oil painting done on paper, not a very permanent medium. At some later date it was glued to canvas. Second, the artist has squared off the picture in a grid pattern. West would not have painted the design onto the window glass himself; instead, using the grid as a guide, a specialist would have copied the design and fired it, using a secret process to fuse the enamels to the glass. This process allowed for large painted panes with fewer interruptions from lead supports. The new windows were more like paintings than the brightly colored, mosaic-like medieval windows they replaced (which were unfortunately lost).
Vagaries of Fashion & Reputation
The new windows were enthusiastically received when they were installed. The Nativity, filling the tall narrow space left by the medieval window, was in the south aisle, and the brilliant southern sun created a vibrant contrast of light and shadow that was greatly admired.
But alas for the vagaries of fashion; the vogue for late-eighteenth-century painted glass was short-lived. One suspects that the process presented conservation problems, and that the few remaining examples are sadly faded. Even in his own lifetime, Benjamin West recognized the difficulty and expense, and for his home parish of St. Marylebone, he provided a translucent canvas that could be rolled up and down over the window above the altar, instead of an enameled pane.
Mary Elizabeth Podles is the retired curator of Renaissance and Baroque art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the author of A Thousand Words: Reflections on Art and Christianity (St. James Press, 2023). She and her husband Leon, a Touchstone senior editor, have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
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