Italian artistic nativity scenes

Certainly there is no rich country such as Italy's traditions and culture on the Nativity. Each region has its own types crib well recognized and acknowledged. We want to help you better understand this world of devotion and extraordinary craftsmanship. For more than eight hundred years the crib is one of the highest symbols of Christian spirituality. The origin of the crib can be traced back to ancient sacred representations held in the festive season, from what St. Francis would have taken the idea of the crib, realizing for the first time in a wood near Greccio, at Christmas 1223. By the end of '200 appeared artistic representations of the Nativity. The oldest is the Oratorium praesepis by Arnolfo di Cambio, held in Rome in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. From the following centuries there are examples of cribs monumental marble or wood, kept in churches in central and southern Africa. During the sixteenth century appear the changes: some timid hints to the landscape, and other animals (dogs, sheep, goats) as well as the ox and the donkey has always been present in the cave. Throughout the century, the crib structure retains the same composition: the lower the cave with angels and shepherds, higher up the mountains with their flocks, and away, the procession of the Magi. But the golden age of the crib is the eighteenth century: in this century have their great development, the Neapolitan crib, the Genoese, the cribs in Sicily (Trapani especially with John Matera), in the areas of German culture of the South Tyrolean valleys.And Naples is among the many Italian cities and regions that have a particular cult for crib, what now for many centuries, the cult has elevated levels of real art, with works of extraordinary virtuosity that goes well beyond simple craftsmanship. Especially in the 700 and early 800 Naples experienced a real "fever" for the Nativity: from the Bourbon court of the bourgeoisie was a race to carry out more elaborate sets, populated by a throng of figures modeled in the refined and luxurious in vestitura. This extraordinary tradition, after a period of partial abandonment, known in recent years a new interest, which coincides with the opening of workshops to revive the feats of the great architects of the "eighteenth-century Neapolitan Nativity scene, all-over-represent an extraordinary" calling card "for the culture, traditions and craftsmanship of Italian art. The cultural association "great cultural event" is present for several years in the development and dissemination, including abroad, knowledge of this important field of culture and craft, with the construction of cribs in many countries on behalf of public institutions Italian. The following pages present a series of examples of these achievements, along with a selection of pictures of our "shepherds". Anyone interested in organizing cultural events linked to the crib, or want information for the execution of an eighteenth-century Neapolitan nativity scene in the tradition can contact us easily.

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