Uffizi never misses a chance to impress, when it comes to give to the world a certain resonance about specific moments and ages of humanity as a whole.
During the Christmas period the museum was hardly indifferent to the mood of the moment, by extending hours and making the whole visiting experience even more joyful and deep. Surely nativity is a theme brought up quite often by a rather vast cohort of painters from different ages but a very few managed to create the same perception that Gerrit Van Honthors, otherworldly known as Gherardo delle Notti, managed to release.
His “Nativity” was pictured in the 1620 and it is unanimously considered the most relevant painting of this category. The painter sheds a glowing tinge of intimacy and humility staging a game of lights which still nowadays remains unrivalled for its intensity and simplicity. The faces, the drapes of the fabrics, the amusement and innocence of each character is to set us apart from
the flowing of time and any related distraction, as if all of us are indeed witnessing this newly incredible moment. Whether or not you are a believer, a curious or simply a plain dude from the streets the enchanting harmony of this painting fails not to leave a single person indifferent to a such combination of shadows and chiaroscuro.
The vibration of the feelings exudes magnitude and tranquillity almost to highlight that the saviour has come and nothing can affect us; there is almost
a sense of silence being heard, interrupted by hinted smiles thrown by the eyes. This nativity, now more than ever before, invites us to the meditation, to lose ourself into this enormous wealth of silence and hope where most of things are unexplained and sincerely human.
The modern age imbued with surgical meanings, of programmed emotions and pre-fixed habits has left us empty and stony: might anyone gazing into this divine canvas find all the lack of sense and purpose that sometimes is needed, to refresh within ourself, the meaning hope and strength would bare, which
we lack now, a way more frequently than happened before.
