the Holy Family, then and now

"Rest on the Flight Into Egypt" by Aert de Gelder, c. 1690. MFA Boston 57.182.

Did you ever notice how paintings from the Renaissance and after often depict Bible characters in contemporary clothing? This Holy Family is lovely, but they sure resemble 1690s Dutch people too. Of course to us, images like this just look old-timey. Would a Holy Family in modern dress seem jarring?

At Midnight Mass I started imaging what a contemporary Nativity scene would look like. A parking garage would be a good stable equivalent - if you can't find a hotel room, you have to sleep in the car. There would have to be some stray cats running around, and the shepherds could be construction workers doing some night paving. Then the magi would be oil sheiks who fund science research, and would fly in from Bahrain on their private jet.