Chrismas - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 2004 - 45 Euro Cent

The special stamps of the series »Christmas« appear with supplements for the Federal Association of the Free Welfare. The knock-on proceeds will benefit this merger of charitable organizations. The current Christmas stamps show excerpts from paintings by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. The stamps appear as motive-similar joint issues in Germany and Belgium. Rubens is considered one of the most important artists of the Baroque. He was born in Siegen in 1577, but spent most of his childhood in Antwerp. There he studied with several painters before moving to Italy in 1600, where he worked for clients from Mantua, Rome and other cities. As a respected artist, Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1608, where he founded an artist's workshop, where under his leadership important painters such as Anthonis van Dyck and Jan Bruegel the Elder worked. A total of Rubens today are attributed to about 2,500 works. Some of these paintings are exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Peter Paul Rubens died in Antwerp in 1640. The special stamp "The Flight to Egypt" shows a detail of the painting of the same name from 1614, which can be seen today in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel. The supernatural glow of Jesus expresses a special intimacy between mother and child in the dark of the night.