31. okt. 2014

Vatican City State skriver:

This year’s Christmas postage stamp series produced by the Philatelic and Numismatic Office is a joint issue with Argentina and consists of a 0.85 cent value in a sheet of ten. The theme chosen to represent the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ is taken from paintings by Argentinian artist Raúl Soldi (1905-1994), who produced the works in the church of Saint Anne in Glew (Buenos Aires).

One day in 1953 Soldi noticed that the door to the church was open.
He went inside and discovered that the walls were completely white, without any paintings or artwork. He worked out an agreement with the parish priest and began to paint them. From that year onwards, Raúl returned to Glew 23 consecutive summers to complete the 250 square meters of frescoes. 

On the stamp, the baby Jesus is at the center of a complex composition: the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and the Magi, and above in the depiction of the sky, there are two angels who dominate the scene together with a number of knights. The following words of Raúl, already famous at the time, help us appreciate how much he enjoyed returning to the church to paint:

“23 summers where I spent some of the happiest moments of my life gratified with the images and unique atmosphere surrounding me - the sound of the harmonium played by Fr. Domingo, the dull pounding on the walls by Fr. Girolamo, the uproar of the hens, the calm and silence of the dusty roads of Glew during the afternoon rest.”