Christmas art hasn’t always been kitsch. Before we started sleighing off gift cards stamped with little Santas of seasonal affection and stuffing shop windows with Styrofoam reindeer, art focussing on the birth of Christ was highly revered.
Artists have been depicting ‘Christmas’ (that is to say, early Christian art) since the Byzantine era, when the first Madonnas started to appear and remained a popular artistic subject throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods. You can find renderings of the Madonna in art galleries across the world, with some of the most revered masters turning their brush or chisel to the birth of Christ.
