John W. Dixon, Jr., Art as a Means of Thinking and of Grace

In the Presentation in the Temple, the aged Simeon holds the Christ child. While it is no necessary part of the story, Giotto represents Mary reaching for her baby in the time-honored fashion of young mothers who cannot trust anyone but herself to hold her baby. We can almost see the eager gesture of her fingers. The baby, mistrusting this hairy creature, pulls away from him and reaches for his mother. At the same time, he is bravely curious; his eyes look back toward the old man. But for Giotto it is a necessary part of the story. The Incarnation, that sublime event, happens in the midst of ordinary human life.

That is not all. Simeon and the child are clearly in front of the upright support of the baldichino over the altar. But shift attention to the child and it appears that he is underneath the baldichino as though Simeon is about to lay him on the altar. This is the child to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. The motif is not original with Giotto but Giotto’s distinctive interpretation is to place this profoundly theological motif in the context of the most ordinary human responses.

This earth and human life on it are good, a fit setting for divine revelation. This can be said verbally, but how much more powerful it is when shown in the eyes of the baby turning in his head!