Rembrandt: The Christmas Story

This beautiful, 72 page book is a great gift for art lovers and Christians. Its introduction explains Rembrandt's possible inspiration and some details for each work. The text of the KJV Bible gives the book a devotional quality. Both text and art make for good meditation during a busy Christmas season. My favorite is the drawing on the book's cover, shown in full on page 27. It's a tender portrait of Mary and Jesus, possibly modeled by Rembrandt's wife and first child. I think knowing that the child died after two months makes this drawing all the more poignant to me. Jesus, God Almighty incarnate as a human, was just as frail as Rembrandt's first born.

This volume is a wonderful marriage of art by Rembrant and text from the Gospel infancy narratives. Thus the book revolves around well known episodes: the annunciation, Mary's visit to Elizabeth, the birth of John the Baptist, the birth of Jesus, the angel appearing to the shepherds ... etc. Some of the texts have multiple paintings and etchings associated with them; this has the effect of allowing the art more than the word to tell the story. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in religious or biblical art.