The Christmas Story in Art @NationalGalleryofArtTalks

Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

Senior lecturer David Gariff explores how artists have depicted Christmas across centuries. He examines the symbolism, technique, and historical context of works of art portraying the birth of Christ by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Giovanni di Paolo, Sandro Botticelli, Masolino da Panicale, Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Giorgione, Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Savoldo, Adrien Isenbrant, and Gerard David. He includes excerpts from the Bible and other sources that propelled these works.

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$David Gariff on Dada and Surrealism, Part 7 Just as the years before World War I witnessed the birth of abstraction, the war itself brought Dada, equally international movement, but dark and mordant where abstraction was earnest and utopian. The name, plucked from a dictionary in Zurich in 1916, means “rocking horse” in French or “yes yes” in Romanian and Russian. But as the name of a movement it really means nothing at all. Sick of the culture that had produced the carnage of the First World War, Dada challenged every sacred cow, throwing expression and authorship out the window and celebrating chance and absurdity instead. Then surrealism came along to channel the anti-art energies of Dadaists like Marcel Duchamp back into the museum, triggering a wildly successful yet fractious movement that swept Europe between the wars and embraced many media. Artists like Max Ernst, René Magritte, Kay Sage, and Yves Tanguy, to name only a few, would follow the dictum of the movement’s founder, André Breton, and “seek to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.” As part of the series Celebrating the East Building: 20th-Century Art, senior lecturer David Gariff explores the chaos of Dada and the revolution of surrealism. Still haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channels?  National Gallery of Art ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtUS National Gallery of Art Talks ►►https://www.youtube.com/NationalGalleryofArtTalks      ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART    The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.    More National Gallery of Art Content: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart Twitter: https://twitter.com/ngadc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngadc/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ngadc/_created/ E-News: https://nga.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=e894a1837aca4526f7e8a11b3&id=2085ff9475 #ModernSculptureintheNationalGallery #Minimalism #PopArt #TheWashingtonDCColorSchool #PostWorldWarIIEuropeanArt #AbstractExpressionism #AbstractionandPurity #DadaandSurrealism #GermanandAustrianExpressionism #EarlyPicassoandCubism #HenriMatisseandFauvism #AmericanArt #HenriStieglitzandTheirCircles #AmedeoModigliani #ExtendingTradition #FrenchPainting #DavidGariff #Art #NationalGalleryofArt$

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The Christmas Story in Art