The Private Life of a Christmas Masterpiece

Episodes - The Private Life of a Christmas Masterpiece

• The Annunciation New series exploring the backgrounds of famous artworks. The first programme looks at Flemish painter Jan van Eyck's painting depicting the first meeting between the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. The image had an interesting life of its own, having first been sold by the Soviets against the wishes of the Hermitage, and then bought by a secretive American millionaire who hid it away in a cellar
• Census at Bethlehem Exploring the history of the painting Census at Bethlehem by Brueghel, arguably the work that invented the snowy Christmas card scene. Depicting the arrival of Mary and Joseph in the town, it also portrays a Netherlands village under the grip of a cruel winter as well as the rule of a foreign army
• God's Child Paul Gauguin's modern interpretation of the Nativity, in which the Madonna is his young Polynesian mistress who was pregnant with his child. A departure from traditional nativities, the artwork is said to be more relevant to the contemporary world than other attempts. Last in series