Written by a biblical scholar in collaboration with an art historian, Illuminating Luke: The Infancy Narrative in Italian Renaissance Painting demonstrates just how much those two disciplines have to say to one another today. Through their close readings of famous paintings illustrating stories from Luke, the authors ask: How did Renaissance artists and their patrons understand the gospel? And what traditions of faith guided them in translating biblical text and Church tradition into paint? The answers to those questions are unfolded within a rich context of meaning, that provides a unique access to these ageless retellings of the stories of Christ s infancy while illuminating the profound heritage of spirituality that Italian Renaissance artists embodied in their work.