Whatever time of day can it have been
when they finally got everyone together
for those commemorative wide-angle triptychs
in lifelike Lippifilm or warm Giottocolor?

If we may set aside, as obvious trick pieces,
such fanciful backdrops as Angevin castles,
Highland bothies and Wisconsin diners,
the representations generally favour night,
and not just by highlighting a star
which was, reportedly, visible also by day.
But that still leaves us with anything after, what?,
about six in the evening, in midwinter Galilee?

There is no internal evidence to speak of.
Like any other new-born, this one's requirements
in the matters of changing, washing and feeding
(which have probably transpired in the last few minutes)
would have to have been met at any hour he pleased.
The parents look just like the rest of their kind —
smug, exhausted, and ready to have their pictures taken.
An extra touch of weariness may perhaps derive
from some interrogation by the Judæan Revenue
but how could such a guess be verified?

There is also the difficult puzzle
about whether or not there were separate sessions.
The lack of space may well have been a factor,
or else considerations of social class.
Or perhaps the various visitors arrived
inconsiderately hours apart
as they often do on such occasions.

The shepherds got hardly any notice, after all.
And the chronicler's casual "in the same country"
could have been making far too light of
anything up to twenty stony miles,
given that suitably virtuous stockpersons
were more than likely somewhat to seek.

On balance though, a single session seems more plausible,
with the Renaissance paparazzi jostling for easel space
and shouting for the donkey to move into, or out of, shot.
"Could we just keep the crowns on, please?", and so forth.
Perhaps the media came looking for a good news conference
only to get fobbed off with a few terse words in Latin
from some public relations angel, and an announcement
that this would be little more than a canvas-call
with the principals ducking all the obvious questions.

Which might in turn explain
why the archives preserve so many images
but no professionally reliable text.