Beyond the greeting card: alternative nativities from art-world mavericks – the week in art

A looming Virgin Mary takes centre stage and Tracey Emin distills the Madonna’s raw emotion – all in your weekly dispatch

The Nativity With Two Angels, possibly c 1490s, by Filippino Lippi
Mary is the main character in this nativity, revering her baby son at the centre of a stable that is, in effect, a theatre to stage her soulful absorption. Joseph watches from the sidelines. In fact, he’s separated from her by one of the angels who attend her and Jesus – and whose small size emphasises the importance of the much bigger Virgin. In the simplest and quietest moments in the Christmas story in art it is motherhood that shines out. Before the shepherds and the kings and the flight to Egypt the nativity is the bond portrayed here between Madonna and child.
• Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

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