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Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
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More about the Annual Christmas Tree Display
The annual Christmas display is the result of the generosity, enthusiasm, and dedication of the late Loretta Hines Howard, who began collecting crèche figures in 1925 and soon after conceived the idea of combining the Roman Catholic custom of elaborate Nativity scenes with the tradition of decorated Christmas trees that had developed among the largely Protestant people of northern Europe. This unusual combination first was presented to the public in 1957, when the Metropolitan Museum initially exhibited Mrs. Howard's collection. More than two hundred 18th-century Neapolitan crèche figures were given to the Museum by Loretta Hines Howard starting in 1964, and they have been displayed each holiday season for over thirty years. Linn Howard, Mrs. Howard's daughter, worked with her mother for many years on the annual installation. Since her mother's death in 1982, she has continued to create new settings for the figures that she adds to the collection. In keeping with family tradition, Linn Howard's daughter, artist Andrea Selby Rossi, now joins her mother each year in creating the display.
The Museum's towering tree, glowing with light, is adorned with cherubs and some fifty large and gracefully suspended angels. The landscape at the base displays the figures and scenery of the Neapolitan Christmas crib. This display mingles the three basic elements traditional in 18th-century Naples: the Nativity, with adoring shepherds and their flocks; the procession of the three Magi and their exotically dressed retinue of Asians and Africans; and, most distinctively, a crowd of colorful townspeople and peasants. The theatrical scene is enhanced by a charming assortment of animals—sheep, goats, horses, a camel, and an elephant—and by background pieces serving as the dramatic setting for the Nativity, including the ruins of a Roman temple, several quaint houses, and a typical Italian fountain with a lion's-mask waterspout.
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More about the Custom of Restaging the Nativity
The origin of the popular Christmas custom of restaging the Nativity traditionally is credited to Saint Francis of Assisi. The employment of man-made figures to reenact the hallowed events soon developed and reached its height of complexity and artistic excellence in 18th-century Naples. There, local families vied to outdo each other in presenting elaborate and theatrical crèche displays, often assisted by professional stage directors. The finest sculptors of the period—including Giuseppe Sammartino and his pupils Salvatore di Franco, Giuseppe Gori, and Angelo Viva—were called on to model the terracotta heads and shoulders of the extraordinary crèche figures. The Howard collection includes numerous examples of works attributed to them as well as to other prominent artists.
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More about the Crèche Figures
The Museum's crèche figures, each a work of art, range from six to twenty inches in height. They have articulated bodies of woven twine and wire, heads and shoulders modeled in terracotta and polychromed to perfection. The luxurious and colorful costumes, many of which are original, were often sewn by women of the collecting families and enriched by jewels, embroideries, and elaborate accessories, including gilded censers, scimitars and daggers, and silver filigree baskets. The placement of the approximately fifty large angels on the Christmas tree and the composition of the crèche figures and landscape vary slightly from year to year as new figures are added.
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Holiday Programs
As part of the Christmas celebration, several concerts are being performed in front of the tree in the Medieval Sculpture Hall. For more information, call 212-570-3949 and visit the online calendar.
The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum's branch in northern Manhattan for medieval art, is also celebrating the holiday season with an array of events. Herbs, berries, and greens linked with the medieval celebration of Christmastide deck The Cloisters from early December through early January. The arched doorways of the Main Hall are adorned with ivy, nuts, and apples from December 5 to 31. A sheath of wheat, bound with ivy, stands in the lavabo in the Cuxa Cloister, and an evergreen garland festoons the Italian ciborium in Langon Chapel from December 5 through January 7. A variety of concerts and educational programs are also being offered at The Cloisters this holiday season. For more information, call 212-650-2290 and visit the online calendar.
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Exhibition Publication
A fully illustrated catalogue, The Angel Tree: A Christmas Celebration, accompanies the exhibition. It is available in the Museum's bookshops and in the online Met Store.
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