She sits on the donkey in a white veil, one hand at her face.
Bible in art · Luke
Saint Joseph Seeks a Lodging in Bethlehem (Saint Joseph cherche un gîte à Bethléem)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Luke says only that there was no room in the inn. Tissot turned this into a street scene in a stone town of steep stairs and arches, like those he sketched in Palestine.
Mary rides a donkey wrapped in a grey mantle and white veil, a hand at her face. Joseph, in a striped cloak and yellow headcloth, raises an arm towards a woman leaning from a doorway above, while people with loads and children pass by below.
From the text
- Joseph goes up from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary (Luke 2:4–5)
- “there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7)
The artist’s own
- Joseph asking at a door — the text tells of no such search
- Mary on a donkey; the Gospel does not say how they travelled
Details
Mary
Joseph
In a striped cloak and yellow headcloth, he raises his arm to ask.
At the top of the stairs
A woman at a doorway above gestures back to them.
In the street
A woman carries a child past them down the cobbles.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.23) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".