The Nativity window

The Nativity window tells the story of the birth of Christ, as recorded in Gospel of Luke. 

The scene takes place in a cave rather than the more modern interpretation of a stable.  There were many caves around the hills of Bethlehem, which were used for housing animals, or people in some cases. There are no animals near the baby Jesus, such as cattle or sheep. This was a stipulation of the benefactor Emma Villers Wilkes, who also stipulated no oxen in the scene at all.

The shepherds are placed in the upper half of the scene, above the cave. While they were outsiders in their society, Burne-Jones has placed them in this position, showing that with the Coming of Jesus, the world is turned upside down, as it says in Matthew 20:16  “So the last will be first, and the first will be last”. 

In Luke 2:8-10, it says: ^“there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people”.

The angel of the Lord stands above the sheep surrounded by other angels filling the top left of the scene, in line with the reference from Luke 2: 13-14, which says “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest…”

A section of wintery woodland between the angels and shepherds has a very similar look to Burne-Jones’ painting of ‘Dark Wood’ which can be found at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Burne-Jones and Morris were very well versed in scripture due to their religious upbringing. Rather than showing the Magi, who arrived to the Messiah much later, angels are shown worshipping baby Jesus, alongside an elderly Joseph.

An interesting (and probably accidental) feature of the design is that when the sun is low in the sky during the winter months, the sun shines through and illuminates the baby from both inside and out at different times of day. Since the conservation of the windows in 2023, the new external grilles enable this to be even more visible from the outside.

A crowd of scarlet-robed angels curve around the top left of the window. Their pale faces and golden hair are framed by halos as they look down onto the rustic scene below. Through the crowd some hands are visible and some of the faces partially obscured by a mass of red wings. An angel at the forefront of the crowd wears jewels, and bright pink robes, speaking to the Shepherds below who shield their eyes to look upwards. Three shepherds stand curved around the right hand side of the scene in distinctively coloured golden, deep purple and navy blue robes. Two shield their eyes and a third leans on his staff. Their flock of sheep is to the left below them – a mass of small white creatures said to resemble ‘maggots’ by visiting school children!

Between the angels and shepherds, a wintry forest of light brown tree trunks contrast against a twisting mass of dense dark brown branches. Each branch is divided by complex lead cames to give the image depth.

There is a wonderful sinuous quality to this image because the dividing line is not horizontal but formed by the slope of the cave, with lines of yellow-brown stones dividing the upper and lower parts of the scene. Below we see the baby Jesus, his mother, father and more worshipping angels in a dark cave.

Mary, clothed in dark blue robes, kneels on a flat ledge of small rocks, leaning tenderly over the baby. Her head is veiled in white, framed by a scarlet halo patterned with delicate roses. She holds her clasped hands just under her chin. Joseph, depicted as an older man, is to the left dressed in red, bending reverently over the tiny new-born baby. He is flanked by three angels worshipping the baby. One angel is dressed in pale red, one in blue and one in emerald green. Each has a small jewel on their heads.

Jesus lies on the rock floor, tightly wrapped in white swaddling bands, his pink arms emerging, and his tiny rounded face framed with golden curls and a halo.