Christmas Symbols in Old Master Paintings: Ox, Ass, Lily and Star
Updated: 4 days ago
In Old Master Christmas paintings the ox and ass, the lily, the wheat sheaf and the star are never just decoration; each is a coded sentence from scripture or liturgy. Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece (c.1475-76) packs most of them into one Nativity, which makes it the best single picture to learn the code from.
The facts at a glance
Artist: Hugo van der Goes (c.1440-1482), a Flemish painter based in Ghent
Date: c.1475-76
Commissioned by: Tommaso Portinari, the Medici bank's agent in Bruges
Format: a triptych, with the Nativity in the centre and the donor family on the wings
Today: a Florence collection, where it has hung since the 1480s
Why are an ox and an ass at the manger?
Neither animal is named in the Gospel account of the birth. They arrive through two other texts. The prophet Isaiah writes that the ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib, and early Christian writers read that line as a prophecy of the Nativity. A later apocryphal text, usually called Pseudo-Matthew, places the two animals at the manger and has them worship the child.
Painters kept them because they are readable at a glance. A common reading, not the only one, takes the ox as the Jewish people and the ass as the gentiles, both gathered at the birth. In the Portinari panel their heads appear at the back of the stable, almost in shadow, while the foreground belongs to people.
What do the lilies and irises in the foreground mean?
Look at the vases at the bottom of the panel. One is a glazed jar of the kind imported from Spain; the other is a plain glass beaker. In them stand lilies, irises and columbines, painted with enough botanical care that you can name each one.
Flowers in a Netherlandish Nativity work like a short sermon. The white lily points to the purity of Mary, and red lilies are usually tied to the Passion. Irises and columbines were associated with sorrow, which foreshadows the death that ends the story. Nothing here is accidental, and it is typical of the northern habit of hiding theology in domestic objects, a habit explored in Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait.
What is the wheat sheaf for?
Between the vases, a sheaf of wheat lies on the ground. Bethlehem means house of bread, and the child will later call himself the bread of life, so the sheaf is a quiet reference to the Eucharist. It is the kind of detail you would walk past on a first look and then not be able to stop seeing.
Van der Goes also lays the baby on the ground, naked, on a faint halo of rays, rather than in a cradle. Mary, the angels and the shepherds all kneel around him in a circle. The shepherds are painted with rough, weathered faces, strikingly unidealised, and they push in from the right in a way that feels almost unplanned.
Where is the star?
Here is a fair caveat: the Portinari panel does not make a feature of the Star of Bethlehem. The star belongs to the Gospel story of the Magi, and in Old Master art it usually appears as a bright point above the stable or a sunburst high in the sky. Panels that show the Adoration of the Magi, rather than the shepherds, are where you most often find it. In the Portinari Nativity, the glow comes from the child himself, which is its own theological statement: the light is not in the sky but in the manger.
Want a wider map of the Netherlandish way of seeing? The Northern Renaissance painting guide covers the period and its habits.
How do you read these symbols in other paintings?
Start with the animals, then check the flowers, then the bread or grain, then the light. Ask what each object would mean in a sermon. Most Christmas paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries rest on the same short list, and a few repeated symbols are enough to unlock dozens of pictures. For the wider vocabulary, see The Hidden Language of the Masters.
Christmas paintings as wall art
A Nativity from the Old Masters suits a winter room because its colour is deep and warm rather than glossy: blue and red against gold, with a lot of quiet detail to keep looking at. A smaller print works well on a hallway wall or beside a bed, where you will see it up close.
Zocine Art Design is an independent studio that prints classic paintings as wall art.
Frequently asked questions
What do the ox and ass mean in Nativity paintings?
They come from Isaiah's line about the ox and ass knowing their master and from the apocryphal Pseudo-Matthew text. They are often read as the Jewish people and the gentiles gathered at the birth.
What does the lily symbolise at Christmas?
The white lily stands for the purity of Mary. Red lilies are usually linked to the Passion.
What is the Portinari Altarpiece?
It is a triptych by Hugo van der Goes, painted c.1475-76 for Tommaso Portinari, the Medici bank's agent in Bruges. It is now in a Florence collection.
Does the Portinari Altarpiece show the Star of Bethlehem?
Not as a feature. The star belongs to the Magi story, and in this Nativity the light seems to come from the child himself.
Browse Hugo van der Goes and other classic art prints in the archive at Zocine.
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