Vignettes from Nativity scenes
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Presepe , Nativity
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Abstract
These vignettes from Nativity scenes establish the miracle of Christ's birth in the midst of the quotidian goings-on of the mortal world. A woman holds a baby, while a gentleman giving alms to a beggar, and a dog barks beside them. Men gather at a grocer's shop, engaged in the material world of business. Women and a child conversing over a hearth. The much larger in scale (some with life-sized figures) painted stone nativity scenes of the Renaissance had, by the eighteenth century, given way to a popularity for miniature figures, which are in a way the descendants of the smaller scale magi and shepherds that occupied the margins of the Renaissance scenes. If each figure is smaller and scale, nativity scenes as a whole could be very large, with casts of hundreds, giving a bustling sense of life in the period. The settings are made of cork, plaster, and painted wood. The shepherds are made of painted wood and terracotta. The sculptures are made of sweet wire and tow, with glass eyes, and clothes made of silk, wool, hemp with lace, braids and other materials. The figures' accessories are made of leather, silver, coral, wood, wicker, wax and more. These have been on loan to the Pinacoteca Provinciale in Bari since 1929. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Pinacoteca Provinciale, Bari
Citation
Object Label "Madonna and Child in 'Scarabattolo'"", Sala XI, La Pinacoteca Metropolitana 'Corrado Giaquinto', Bari.