CHRISTMAS STAMP- A TRADITION IN USA

 

Soon people all over the world will be sending out Christmas cards, in spite of so many now sending via the internet. I thought this Advent it would be interesting to find religious stamps from other countries

Every year since 1966,  the United States has issued a religious Christmas stamp, usually of the Madonna and Child. Most are found in a US museum, and many are by Old World masters.

2020 was  Our Lady of Guapulo (18th century), unknown artist from Cuzco, Peru, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. Enrobed in a pyramidal gown speckled with jewels and holding a scepter woven with roses and leaves, a crowned Virgin Mary looks down at a similarly adorned Christ Child in her left arm. A red rosary ropes across the center of her dress and down to her right. Cost of stamp was 60 cents.

But the first religious theme caused the Post Office Department some difficulty. An assistant to the PMG demonstrated this concern when he wrote to a lawyer, on March 22, 1966, “This would be the most religious design we have ever used on a postage stamp and we would like an opinion from your office as to whether a stamp based on this painting would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.” It was the lovely Madonna and Child by the Flemish artist, Hans Memling.  Note it cost a mere 5 cents.  Long gone are those days.

Perhaps my favorite Christmas stamp was 2009 Tiepolo Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1767), which is in our National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.