Adoration of the Shepherds by François Boucher (1703-1770)
The British Encyclopedia says the religious leaders chose December 25 as the birthday of Christ because the date coincided with the pagan Roman feast known as the "birth of the invincible sun." In fact, it is about the so-called winter solstice. The ancient images of the Nativity of Christ have arrived to our day through the Palestinian illuminated oil ampoules dating back to the 5th-7th centuries. In the frosty night in which the Savior was born, an angel told the shepherds: "I declare great joy to you: in Bethlehem the Savior was born, the Lord Christ, and you will find the Baby in the crib." After eight days they baptized the newborn Jesus.
Adoration of the Kings by Giuseppe Chiari (1564-1727)
Then his parents carried him to Jerusalem to present him to God, and the sacrifices of Moses to be made. In Jerusalem lived a man named Simeon, who was foretold that he wouldn't die before seeing the Savior. He went to the temple just when the parents of Jesus brought him in, took the child in his arms and said, "Are you now releasing your servant, Lord? "" Here I saw the Savior! "" Joseph and Mary were astonished at these words, but there was Anna the Prophetess, an 84-year-old woman who approached the Child and began to speak to all that He was the Savior. The Bethlehem star actually rises in the middle of the 12th century. According to astronomers, this is the proof of this is the Raspberry nebula in the constellation Taurus.
Adoration of the Shepherds by Jacob van Oost (1603-1671)
The reliable astronomical date of the Bethlehem star is 1140 plus-minus 20/30 years. About 1150, the comet Galleia appeared. In the Gospel you can read that "the Bethlehem star moves, led by the mercenaries," which in fact today is interpreted as a comically plausible "behavior" of the comets. Curiously, everything that we now receive as a knowledge of increasingly evolving sciences has found its artistic image in the paintings of the most remarkable brush makers of the past.
Adoration of the Magi by Jean Jouvenet (1644-1717)
Many artists paint the Bethlehem star as a comet. In Giotto's "Adoration of the Shepherds ", we will see the Bethlehem star as a comet ... The painter has painted a comet rather than a star in a traditional form! In the paint of Albrecht Altdorf "The Nativity" there are two glowing bodies of heaven - one is the Bethlehem star and the other one is an angel. An analogous representation of two glowing celestial bodies is also on the medieval altar of Paumgartner, created by Alfred Dürer in the XVI century. Look at the details of these images and you will find much more than what you are writing in the Bible.
Adoration of the Shepherds Bernardo Cavallino (1616-1656
Adoration of the Kings by Gerard de Laresse (1641-1711)