Today @eTALIANS Francesca Costantini, and her vertical channel YummyArt
One of the most traditional elements of the Italian culture, and history is that of the nativity scene, and certainly the Neapolitan nativity scene is the most characteristic traditionally set in 18th century Naples. In addition to the Christmas tree, in Italy, tradition requires that the moment of Jesus' birth be represented through a scale and rather bizarre reconstruction.
The term ‘crib’ comes from the Latin presaepe which means manger. The first nativity scene in Naples is mentioned in a document that speaks of one set up in 1025 in the Church of S. Maria del presepe.
In Amalfi, according to various sources, as early as 1324 there was present a ‘chapel of the Nativity scene of Alagni House’
In 1340 Queen Sancia d’Aragona (wife of Robert of Anjou) gave the ‘Clarisse – nuns’ a nativity scene for their new church.
In the seventeenth century the Nativity Scene expanded its scenario. The scene of the nativity was no longer represented alone, but also included the external profane world: in pure Baroque taste, the representations of taverns with well exposed fresh meats and baskets of fruit and vegetables and the scenes became sumptuous and detailed, while the figures became smaller: wooden or papier-mâché mannequins were also preferred in the eighteenth century.
In the eighteenth century the Neapolitan Nativity scene experienced its golden season, leaving the churches, where it was the object of religious devotion, to enter the homes of the aristocracy. Noble patrons and wealthy bourgeois competed to set up increasingly sophisticated and sought- after scenography.
Giuseppe Sanmartino, perhaps the greatest Neapolitan sculptor of the eighteenth century, was very skilled in shaping terracotta figures and started a real school of nativity artists. The scene moves more and more outside the group of the Holy Family and more secularly; it is interested in shepherds, street vendors, the Magi, the anatomy of animals. The total exact number of figures are 72 and each of them has a very specific symbolism that mixes the sacred with the profane, market scenes with stalls full of food, laden tables, overflowing baskets.
When it comes to food, the message is loud and clear. Food sellers: they are always twelve, because they are the allegory of the twelve months of the year. (January: butcher or cold cuts; February: ricotta and cheese seller; March: poultry seller and various other bird seller; April: egg seller; May: wedding couple with a basket of cherries and fruit; June: baker; July: tomato seller; August: watermelon seller; September: fig seller or planter (sower); October: vintner or hunter; November: chestnut seller; December: fishmonger or fisherman). Obviously, each month symbolizes a call for reflection. Other “shepherds” are a fundamental presence such as Benino, the sleeping shepherd, the hunter and the fisherman, the washerwomen, the gypsy and many others. For example, the vintner Cicci Bacchus, or moreover the wine and the bread, will be the gifts with which Jesus will institute the Eucharist, spreading the message of death and resurrection to the Kingdom of Heaven. But in opposition to this, there is the figure of Cicci Bacchus, legacy of the ancient pagan gods, god of wine, who often appears in front of the cellar with a flask in his hand. In Naples he is known as ‘Ciccibacco’ on the barrel and drives a cart which is pulled by one or two oxen.
Although Luigi Vanvitelli defined the art of the nativity scene as "girlish", all the great sculptors of the time tried their hand at it until the late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century this tradition gradually disappeared, but today large nativity scenes are regularly set up in all the main churches of the Campania capital and many Neapolitans will still set one up in their homes.
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