Last year I was drawn to Giotto’s breathtaking expressions of the Madonna and child.
This Christmas I am marveling at the beauty of Van Eyck’s take on the symbolism of the Birth and the Mother’s Love for her child.

This one is the “Madonna at the Fountain” from 1435.

complemented with this beautiful motet from Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, composed about 150 years later.

Pulchra es, amica mea,
suavis et decora, sicut Jerusalem
terribilis ut acies ordinata. Averte oculos
tuos a me, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt.

Thou art beautiful, O my love, fair and comely as Jerusalem: terrible as an army with banners. Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.