Twenty-fourth Day of Advent - Come to the Manger

The Adoration, The Huron Carol

"Come kneel before the radiant Boy

Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.

Jesus your King is born,

Jesus is born.

In excelsis gloria!"

Twenty-third Day of Advent

Huron Madonna and Child, The Huron Carol

"The star stopped not far from where Jesus was born
Having found the place it said,
"Come this way"
Jesus, he is born.
(Huron Verses, The Huron Carol)

Twenty-second Day of Advent

Huron Child, The Huron Carol

Is any child in history without some sort of doll or plaything?  Huron children made dolls from corn husks, which were stuffed and padded with leaves, had limbs made from braided husk, were adorned with corn silk hair or real hair, and were clothed with more corn husks, animal hide or cloth. A traditional doll had no face, because of the legend about a beautiful corn husk person who lost her face through vanity.
"There was little formal training for children, but they learned skills from their games. Girls helped their mothers with their work. Boys were expected to be hardy, brave and self-reliant."  Sainte Marie Among the Hurons

Twenty-first Day of Advent

Little Chapel, The Huron Carol

The little girl here is pictured with a cradle board, or baby carrier.  During the day an infant would be wrapped in furs and secured to the cradle board, which stood up on the floor of the lodge inside, or outside was carried on the mother's back or carried in front.  "Wrapped in furs, the babies were carried in cradleboards filled with soft warm down from bullrushes."

This I was pleased to read from several sources, "With their great sense of dignity, the Huron Wendat felt it was wrong to coerce or publicly humiliate anyone, especially a child.  Physical punishment was never used as a discipline." (Sainte Marie Among the Hurons)

"...and even those who were at a distance of more than two days journey met at a given place to sing hymns in honour of the new-born child.."  The Jesuit Relations, 1642

Huron Cradleboard, The Huron Carol

Twentieth Day of Advent

Huron Child, The Huron Carol

"...they built a small chapel of cedar and fir branches in honour of the manger of the infant Jesus"

Jesuit Relations, 1642

Nineteenth Day of Advent

Father Jean de Brebeuf, The Huron Carol

Author of the Huron Carol, Father Jean de Brebeuf, 1593-1649

"An apostle, a brave adventurer, a skilled writer, a careful ethnologist, a man of vision"

With his seven companions, Patron Saint of Canada

Eighteenth Day of Advent

Huron Storyteller, The Huron Carol

"O children of the forest free

O sons of Manitou,

The Holy Child of earth and heaven

is born today for you".

Seventeenth Day of Advent

Angel, The Huron Carol

There is a history to portrayals of the Madonna in art, and it spills over into portrayals of the angels too. It begins, I was taught, with St. Luke's portrait of Mary, and was respectfully copied by generations of artists with only modest changes.

Here is Cimabue's Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets: Inclined head, three quarter profile, straight nose, wide eyes, small mouth, the Infant's profile a mirror image, the angels echoing the Madonna's features and pose.

Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, 1285-86

A hundred years later, here is the Wilton Diptych (1395–1399), in International Gothic style with gorgeous blues, and the same features, profile, pose, and echoing angels.

Wilton Diptych, 1395-1399

 A little later, the Madonna and Child with Angels, by Fra Angelico, 1395/1400-1455. The faces are a bit different but follow the same pattern.

Madonna and Child with Angels, Fra Angelico, 1395/1400-1455

A hundred years later,  Madonna and Child with Singing Angels, Sandro Botticelli 1445-1510. There has been a jump in sophistication; these could be portraits of people we meet today. This Madonna is shown face on, but still with the classic tilt to her head, and the angels' features are echos of each other.

Madonna and Child with Singing Angels, Sandro Botticelli 1445-1510

And that, dear readers, is why I painted the angels in the Huron Carol like this: 

Angel Border, The Huron Carol
"The angel song rang loud and high"

Sixteenth Day of Advent

Kootenay Chief,  The Huron Carol

From very far, a Kootenay chief of the West coast.  First Nations peoples traveled and traded goods, but there were certain geographic limitations - over the Rocky Mountains was too far for this chief, a kind advisor said.  But this is a story about miracles and wonders, the impossible made possible. A few mountains wouldn't get in the way.

Fifteenth Day of Advent

Shawnee Chief, The Huron Carol

From the Eastern Woodlands, a Shawnee chief.
How can an artist know how these long-ago people looked, how they dressed and behaved and interacted with others? The diaries and letters of the Jesuit Relations are a valuable resource, as well as other contemporary records, drawings and diaries that also document the oral history of the First Nations.  In the Huron Carol we are in allegory, that the nativity in long ago Palestine could just as well have happened among any other people, that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" applies to all of humankind.  For the artist, the aim is to represent a common human experience: awe and reverence when meeting true beauty and the divine.

Fourteenth Day of Advent

Sioux Chief, The Huron Carol

Sioux Chief, of "chiefs from far". Neither the French, English nor Huron verses stipulate how far the "men of authority" would have traveled. I gave it my best shot, choosing near, not so near, and very far.  The Sioux were well to the west of Huronia, on the Great Plains.

Thirteenth day of Advent

The Chiefs from Far, The Huron Carol

Day by day the Wise Men get closer, on their long journey from their homelands as they follow the signs in the sky.
Brebeuf's Huron verses read,

"Three men of great authority have left for the place of his birth

Tiscient, the star appearing over the horizon leads them there

The star will walk first on the path to guide them 

Jesus, he is born.

Twelfth Day of Advent

Deer, The Huron Carol

A detail from the border of deer, antlers and swirling snow. There were four tribes or nations in the Huron confederacy, the Bear, the Cord, the Rock and the Deer tribes.

The Eleventh Day of Advent

The Lynx, Constellations, The Huron Carol

The Lynx, another faint constellation in the northern hemisphere and not usually associated with any myths. In First Nations stories the Lynx is the name of the daughter of the Sky Woman, she who fell to Earth through a hole in the Sky World and for whom the Elder Creatures of the Earth prepared a safe place to land, Turtle Island (North America).

Tenth Day of Advent

The Ram, Constellations, The Huron Carol

Aries the ram, "a rather inconspicuous northern constellation". I don't know if there is an Iroquoian or First Nations name or legend for the constellation or the first point of Aries, the location of the vernal equinox.  I placed the ram  here, galloping across the starry firmament, as one of many northern creatures with a heavenly counterpart.

Ninth Day of Advent

Ursa Major, The Huron Carol

The Great Bear, Ursa Major. A detail from the big border of stars and heavenly creatures. I wanted to match constellations with northern wildlife and started with the Great Bear.

Eighth Day of Advent

Spirits in the sky, The Huron Carol

The Northern Lights, the heavenly dancers.  I remember my mother waking me up one night to walk under the  blue-green lights flickering across the sky. In later years I slept under the  Northern Lights on canoe trips.  They had to have a place in the book.
There is no reference for them in the English verses by J. Edgar Middleton but there is this in Brebeuf's original verses in Huron:

The okie spirits who live in the sky are coming with a message, 

They're coming to say, "Rejoice!

Mary has given birth. Rejoice!

Jesus he is born."

Seventh Day of Advent

Hunter Braves, The Huron Carol

Here are the hunter braves, the first to hear the angels' song.

Sixth Day of Advent

Angel over the Longhouse, The Huron Carol

Earth and sky again, linked by smoke rising from hearths to heaven. The angel song is for the children by the stream and the hunters deeper in the forest, for all who have ears to hear, 

"And as the hunter braves drew nigh

The angel song rang loud and high"

Fifth Day of Advent

Huron Longhouse, The Huron Carol   
"Within a lodge of broken bark..."

Not a stable but a longhouse, in this version of the nativity.  And connecting earth and sky, mortals and immortals, is the rising smoke from the hearth, the heart of the family.

Fourth Day of Advent

Young Hunters, The Huron Carol
"Before their light the stars grew dim,
and wond'ring hunters heard the hymn."

Coming home from play in blue-shadowed snows was a frequent scene of my Quebec childhood.  The snow squeaked under our boots while the first stars came out in the blue and gold of twilight. When I visited Sainte Marie in the wintertime 9 years ago it was very like this picture - white snows, blue shadows, iron-cold flakes of snow landing on our faces, and  the sound of the wind in the trees.

The Third Day of Advent

Angel Choirs - The Huron Carol
"Before their light the stars grew dim"

I loved the art history classes in my art student days. One lecture in particular was about the influence of St. Luke's* portrait of Mary on succeeding generations of artists - the pose and facial features repeated in reverence and extending even to the angels and minor characters. It's a moving thing, to set out to paint holiness.  A tradition of reverent iconography is a welcome place to start.
(*or ascribed to St. Luke)

The Second Day of Advent

"...Mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead"

When I do a presentation of the Huron Carol to school groups I like to take them through the book like this:  (Advent picture 1) "Here we are above the forests; see the snowy tree tops and frozen waterways, with the birds flying away."  Then I show the whole picture, (Advent picture 2 and full picture below) "That Mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead", the earth and heavens and heavenly host.

"Twas in the moon of wintertime"
from The Huron Carol by Father Jean de Brebeuf