ONE of Manhattan's major attractions is the lofty complex of skyscrapers, shops and plazas called Rockefeller Center. And a much-frequented port of call within the complex is the Exhibition Center on the lobby floor of the Time & Life Building. In the five years that it has been operating, it has attracted some 3,000,000 visitors to 31 exhibits on the subjects of art, science, photography, history and journalism. This week the crowds are coming in to see a perennial favorite, The Christmas Story, being shown for the fifth consecutive year. This is a re-enactment of the Nativity as portrayed by Renaissance masters. The exhibition consists of 25 illuminations.--color transparencies repro duced to the size of the original paintings by new color-photography techniques and controlled-light processing. They range in size from a 14 1/4-in. by 15-in. Fra Angelico (Flight Into Egypt) to a 57-ft. by 15-ft. The Journey of the Magi, one of the great treasures of the Italian Renaissance, painted in the 15th century by Benozzo Gozzoli on the walls of Florence's Medici-Riccardi Chapel. Other masterworks in the show include Raphael's Sistine Madonna, Botticelli's Madonna Magnificat, El Greco's Virgin with St. Ines and St. Tecla, and Giorgione's Adoration of the Shepherds.

Christmas carols dating from the period during which most of the paintings were done provide an appropriate musical background for the exhibition. Another feature is a recorded lecture on Renaissance art The Christmas Story will last through Jan. 2; like all the exhibits it is free and open daily. The exhibition that immediately preceded it was a retrospective of the works of Boris

Artzybasheff, including many of his TIME covers, which was seen by 37,000 visitors in 23 days. Next spring, at Easter time (March 12-April 17), the Center will be showing for the sixth year its No. 1 attraction: Illuminations of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes.

An adjunct to the Center is a reference library and study, also open to the public, located on the mezzanine. Here the student or out-of-town visitor may consult reference books and read U.S. and foreign newspapers and magazines. These days the library also houses one elusive yellow-breasted finch, a dropout from last fall's live show on animal behavior. It stayed behind when the other Ijirds and bees were taken away, is living it up on the seed that the Center people set out every evening. Since no one has been able to lay a hand on the bird, it has acquired a nickname: Champ.

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