Dressing Mary

One of the perks of being sick for a week and then having a chiquita sick for a little more time, is you get to think. A lot.

So as Christmas cards have begun to arrive I cannot help but notice many of the beautiful and different renditions of the birth of Christ. Most of the cards have the Renaissance images of Jesus, Mary, Joseph. And most of them have them dressed in fine beautiful, flowing robes.

The Renaissance artists were dressing the Holy Family in the clothes and fashions of the day. I cannot help but wonder what a modern day 2008 image of Jesus/Mary and Joseph dressed in today’s latest fashions would look like. First, I imagine that today’s believers would be absolutely scandalized over the images. Second, I imagine it would be quite jarring to imagine Mary/Jesus/Joseph in today’s world looking very much like us. Would we want to put the Holy Family image on our Christmas cards?

I am not an artist, but I would be really interested to see what the best artists today could come up with in a modern imitation of the Renaissance exploration.