Observing one of the most beautiful representations of the nativity scene, by the extraordinary artist Tintoretto in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, we find a complex and very precise depiction of the birth of Christ.
Arranged on three spatially differentiated planes, representing the three dimensions of divine manifestation, below – outside the enclosure – we see the world of human beings, worshippers and witnesses. On a higher place, separated from the adoring figures, are the manger, the child, the Virgin and the father, located in an intermediate space where the human and the divine can meet. Finally, in what is now a consolidated scheme, from the roof beams of the shelter a third level arises, the angelic world, silently announcing the light that becomes flesh. Comparable scenes are found in many traditions, especially in the tripartite world of Mahayana Buddhism, the so-called Trikaya.