Do You See What I See? Imagery in Nativity Scenes

Introduction

A Nativity scene is commonly called a crèche, an old French word meaning manger or crib. Some other words used to describe a Nativity scene include krippe (Germany), szopka (Poland), presepio (Italy), and nacimiento (Latin America and the Southwestern United States). For many Christians around the world, the crèche, krippe, szopka, presepe or nacimiento, whether displayed in church or family home, is a meaningful expression of religious faith, providing a compelling visual focus during the Christmas season.

Hand tinted postcard of girl with crèche figures, circa 1910. Photographer: Professeur Stebbing, Paris, France. Publisher: Étoile, Paris. Collection of Ed Gyllenhaal.

While art historians usually designate three-dimensional Nativities as “craft,” sometimes they have been recognized as “fine art,” such as the 18th century Neapolitan presepio exhibited annually beneath the Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. According to the museum’s website, each one of these Neapolitan crèche figures is “a work of art” in itself.

The artistic representation of the Christmas story that is expressed in a crèche is usually the result of a combination of images inspired by several different biblical texts, together with additional information from apocryphal texts produced by early Christian writers. In addition to these textual sources (some of which may have originated in oral traditions), nearly two thousand years of artistic innovation has contributed much to the development of the imagery found in contemporary Nativity scenes. In addition to the images common to most scenes, such as the Holy Family, manger, star of Bethlehem, shepherds, and wise men, artisans frequently add elements of their own. Three-dimensional Nativity scenes often feature regionally distinctive structures, clothing, vegetation, and animals. Depending on the geographical location, the customary ox and ass at the manger may be replaced by a water buffalo, a zebra, or a llama. Nativities are often crafted from whatever materials are available locally, such as clay, grass, corn husks, sticks, bark, gourds, and even coconuts.

Corn-husk Nativity. Bratislava, Slovakia, 2009. This Nativity, designed by Peter Palka using a traditional Slovak form of folk art, is based on the one that took first place in the 1994 International Crèche Festival in Bellingham, Washington State, USA. It is made of corn husk, a material used by folk artists in Slovakia to make Christmas and Easter scenes, as well as scenes representing the traditional way of life in rural Slovak villages. Collection of Glencairn Museum.