Christmas 2013 stamps from Royal mail…

 

Date of Issue : 5 November 2013

Here are new stamps  issued by Royal Mail for this year’s Christmas. Royal Mail has been issuing Christmas Stamps every year since 1966, and  they are now a much-loved part of the festive season. Royal Mail has chosen  a Madonna and Child theme for Christmas 2013. These have been created using details taken from Madonna and Child paintings down the ages and across many cultures, including the newly commissioned Neo-Coptic style stamp, painted by Fadi Mikhail. The other two stamps shown above feature paintings by children selected from a Christmas stamp design competition of children between 4 –11.

Date of Issue : 5 November 2013

 

The Miniature Sheet features all seven Christmas Stamps, which include Large First and Second Class values, all set on a glorious golden border that echoes the iconic backgrounds typical of Madonna and Child depictions from down the ages and across many cultures.

Second Class and Second Class Large Stamp
In Antoniazzo Romano’s Virgin and Child with the young St John the Baptist (c.1460–80), in the Early Renaissance style, Mary holds Jesus on her left arm and points towards him with her right, indicating that he is the way to salvation.

First Class and First Class Large Stamp
In Madonna and Child (c.1520), painted in the High Renaissance style, Francesco Granacci depicts the Virgin in her traditional garments of red and blue, earthly and divine, while the bird in Christ’s hand alludes to the coming Passion.

88p Stamp
Jacques-Louis David’s St Roch Praying to the Virgin for an End to the Plague (1780), which is painted in the Neoclassical style, is a deeply Catholic painting, depicting the Virgin Mary in her role as protector and intercessor.

£1.28 Stamp
In La Vierge au Lys (1899), painted in the French Academic style by William- Adolphe Bouguereau, the Virgin and Child are enthroned, with Jesus held close by his mother, his outstretched arms suggestive of the crucifixion to come.

£1.88 Stamp
In Theotokos, Mother of God by Fadi Mikhail, which is painted in the Neo-Coptic style, Christ’s white tunic indicates his divinity, while the Virgin Mary’s blue mantle likens her to the sky, as in the icon of The Flight into Egypt.