Sandro Botticelli,
'Mystic Nativity', 1500.
London, The National Gallery.

Kingdom Come: Botticelli's 'Mystic Nativity'

19 November 1999 - 6 February 2000
Room 1

To celebrate the Millennium, the 2000th anniversary of Christ's birth, the National Gallery devoted a small exhibition to Botticelli's 'Mystic Nativity', one of its best-loved paintings. Assembling a selection of pictures, medals, drawings and prints, the show aimed to evoke the historical context in which the 'Mystic Nativity' was painted and to illuminate its many-layered and complex meanings.

The Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli painted the 'Mystic Nativity', dated 1500, at the turn of the half-millennium. At first glance the painting seems to show a conventional Nativity scene. Shepherds and wise men have come to visit the new-born king, while angels in the heavens dance and sing hymns of praise. However, the text at the top of the picture, veiled in scholarly Greek, provides a key to further layers of meaning.

Botticelli's words relate the image both to contemporary events and to the New Testament Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse. This predicts Christ's return to earth amidst a series of catastrophes, heralding the end of the world, the Last Judgement and the reconciliation of devout Christians with God. The reference explains the unusual inclusion in the picture of angels and men embracing, the abundance of olive branches symbolising peace, and the seven devils fleeing underground. The 'Mystic Nativity' is therefore a unique synthesis of Christ's birth, as told in the Gospels, with a vision of his Second Coming.

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