"The Mystical Nativity" For our continued Advent journey to Christmas, we revisit one of our original commissions from our 2019 production.

Inspired by Botticelli's Renaissance masterpiece, the work was composed by Rachel Clemente, Steve Gibb and Ailie Robertson and performed by Clemente (harp), Gibb (guitar), Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf (cello), Paul Woodiel (fiddle), Susie Petrov (piano), Mark Verdino (bass) and Wes Ostrander (percussion). Here is how the work was introduced at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on Saturday, December 14, 2019: Come Thou and dwell with me, Lord of the holy race; Make here Thy resting-place, Hear me, O Trinity. "So wrote Muireadach O’Daly, the 13th century Irish poet who was exiled to Scotland, and became the name-father of the MacMhuirich bards – The Learned Kindred of Currie. Four centuries later the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli painted The Mystical Nativity, a depiction of just that – the Lord of all creation, making his resting place in a manger that is a cave, wrapped in linen that is at once swaddling cloth and burial cloth, surrounded by all of the created order in various postures of worship. And angels – angels rescuing men from the clutches of the underworld, and angels dancing in celebration above under the gold dome of heaven. In its beauty and symbolism the painting evokes the mystical layering of the coming of Christ – looking both forward to his return at the end of all time, and back to his birth two millennia ago. Dancing with the angels, bowing with the shepherds, gazing with Mary and Joseph in love, we, the viewers, are invited in to find our place by the manger." About the painting: The Mystical Nativity is a painting dated c. 1500–1501 by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. The Virgin Mary is shown kneeling before the Christ Child in the center, in the presence of the shepherds and Wise Men who are visiting him. At the bottom of the work, three angels embrace three men, while seven devils behind them flee to the underworld. The painting uses the medieval convention of showing the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus larger both than other figures, and their surroundings; this was certainly done deliberately for effect, as earlier works by Botticelli use correct graphical perspective. The painting depicts a scene of joy and celebration, of earthly and heavenly delight, with angels dancing at the top of the painting. The infant Christ reaches up towards the Virgin Mary, oblivious of his visitors – the Three Kings on the left and the shepherds on the right. And there are dark premonitions – the helpless child rests on a sheet that evokes the shroud in which his body will one day be wrapped, while the cave in which the scene is set calls to mind his tomb. The Kings on the left bear no gifts, but their own devotion. At the top of the painting twelve angels dressed in the colors of faith, hope and charity dance in a circle holding olive branches, and above them heaven opens in a great golden dome, while at the bottom of the painting three angels embrace three men, seeming to raise them up from the ground. They hold scrolls, which proclaim in Latin, "peace on earth to men of goodwill". Behind them seven devils flee to the underworld, some impaled on their own weapons. In Renaissance times Last Judgment paintings showed viewers the reckoning of the damned and the saved at the time of Christ's Second Coming. The main theme is one of peace. Christ came and peace was to reign. According to art historian Jonathan Nelson, "in echoing this kind of painting The Mystical Nativity is asking us to think not only of Christ's birth but of his return".