Christmas - The Census at Bethlehem (Brueger) Holiday Card
The cover of this Christmas card is Pieter Bruegel the Older's "The Census at Bethlehem" The back of the card has a little write-up to that piece: This depiction of the nativity scene transmogrified into a 1500s Brabant (region in the Netherlands now part of the Flemish speaking side of Belgium) was painted during the artist's years in Brussels. Is the chaotic (note the pig-riding and -slaughtering) and crowded scene a critique of Habsburgh Spain (rulers of the Low Countries from 1482 until several Dutch provinces shook them to form The Dutch Republic in 1581)? Of bureaucracy? Of the Romans in first century Palestine? Or is this just a typical winter day in 1566 Netherlands plus the Virgin Mary riding a donkey to the census? What are we to make of this magical combination of realities? Imaging temporally and spatially distant biblical stories as taking place in your own time and place can help to bring them to life. But none of us now live in a small Dutch village in 1566. So then what happens? We're removed and removed again; we drift off into space, spinning slowly against a starry infinity.
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