Merry Christmas from blur! Welcome to the 25^th and final instalment of the Alternative Advent Calendar. We’re concluding with a traditionally Christmassy painting: Guido Reni’s The Adoration of the Shepherds c.1640. Reni paints light beautifully, baby Jesus illuminates the whole scene because he’s the holiest figure in it. This Nativity is touchingly human, a world away from the stiff medieval representations of the same scene. The shepherds’ expressions of wonder are lovingly realized. You believe it.