Nativity by Giovanni Bellini (c.1433-1515)
Merry Christmas to you all…peace and goodwill and all that stuff. Here’s the Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini’s Christmas card to us all and, below, my favourite choir, The Sixteen, perform one of my favourite pieces of Christmas music, Palestrina’s Hodie Christus natus est. You don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy either the painting or the music or the spirit of Christmas.