Night of revelation: The Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans

The tender beauty of this little painting pulls at your heart when you come across it in London’s National Gallery. The artist’s name means 'little Gerard of Saint John', and he worked in Haarlem in the Netherlands. His art seems frozen in religious contemplation. This is a believer’s Nativity. It is a mystic attempt to imagine that holy night. The darkness is illuminated by the child in the manger: the golden glow around the infant Christ lights up adoring angels and the pearl-smooth oval of Mary’s reverent face. Joseph is in the shadows. And all around the stable hangs the deepest dark of a night of revelation
Illustration: Photograph: The National Gallery, London