Glencairn Museum News | Number 11, 2021
In 1933 Jose Puig Llobera established Belenes Puig S.L., a family-owned company in Spain famous for its Nativity figures (belenes, the Spanish word for Bethlehem, can also refer to a Nativity scene). The figures are handcrafted from clay molds, painted, and dressed with stiffened fabrics. On loan from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, New Haven, Connecticut.
This is the 13th year for World Nativities, Glencairn Museum’s annual exhibition of three-dimensional Nativity scenes. For many Christians the Nativity scene, illustrating the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, is an important symbol of personal religious faith. The image of the Holy Family surrounded by animals, shepherds, and Wise Men is instantly recognized by people all over the world, and provides a compelling visual focus during the Christmas season. Artists adapt the scene to represent their own national, regional, and local cultures. This year the Museum is exhibiting 60 sets from 39 countries: Argentina, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brasil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Sixteen of these Nativities have been generously loaned from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, in New Haven, Connecticut.
Traditionally a Nativity scene combines images from several different accounts of the story of the birth of Christ as told in the Bible. For instance, most Nativities include both the Magi (Wise Men) and the shepherds; however, the story of the Magi is told only in the Gospel of Matthew, and the story of the shepherds is told only in the Gospel of Luke. Most scenes include the Holy Family and the manger, but often there is not as much visual detail in the biblical accounts as the artist might like, so additional imagery is added. Sometimes the extra visual elements come from non-biblical texts produced by early Christian writers (such as the ox and donkey), and artists sometimes also introduce innovations of their own.
One section in this year’s exhibition features a selection of Nativities from the continents of Asia, Africa, and South America (Figures 1–2). A perennial favorite is the large Neapolitan Presepio (Nativity scene), made up of over one hundred 19th- and early 20th-century figures. These figures were collected over a period of more than thirty years by the late Elizabeth Anne Evans of Bucks County during her annual trips to Italy. Bryn Athyn artist Kathleen Glenn Pitcairn is the “theater director” of the Evans Presepio, and she has also designed settings for most of the other Nativities in the World Nativities exhibition this year. This is the 11th consecutive year that Pitcairn has volunteered her time and considerable artistic skills to the exhibition. A small sample of the Nativities in this year’s exhibition follows below (Figures 1–16).
Figure 1. This Kokeshi doll Nativity is one of the sets in the Asia section of the exhibition. The making of Kokeshi dolls is recognized as a traditional folk art in Japan.
Figure 2. This Nativity from Colombia, with figures dressed in burlap, is one of the sets in the South America section of the exhibition. One of them is playing an instrument (perhaps la gaita, an indigenous flute).
Figure 3. This Nativity retablo was made by Jeronimo E. Lozano, an artist born in Peru who was celebrated for his traditional Peruvian retablos. In 2008 he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. In 2018 Glencairn Museum was honored to host this artist for several days, where he demonstrated his art. When Lozano passed away earlier this year, the NEA released a memorial statement about him.
Figure 4. This Arbol Nacimiento (Tree Nativity) was made by Mexican ceramic artist Cecilio Sanchez Fierro. God the Father looks down from the top, flanked by the sun and the moon. The Star of Bethlehem shines above a stable, a winged angel, the Holy Family, an ox, and a donkey. The Tree of Life Nativity is a Mexican artistic tradition. The Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible describes the Garden of Eden and its Tree of Life, the fruit of which leads to eternal life.
Figure 5. The clay figures in this colorful Nativity were all hand formed by Guillermina Aguilar Alcantar from Oaxaca, Mexico. Mary holds a small blanket for the Christ Child, who wears a loin cloth. The blanket has an incised design in the center—perhaps a rose, one of the symbols commonly associated with Mary. Joseph holds a white flower, possibly a lily, an emblem that originated from a story in Jacobus de Voragine’s 13th-century book, The Golden Legend. On loan from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, New Haven, Connecticut.
Figure 6. This Nacimiento (Nativity) was made from driftwood gathered from the dry arroyos and riverbeds of New Mexico by santera (carver of santos, or saints) Louise Ortega, daughter of the famed santero Ben Ortega (now deceased). Taught by her father, Louise began her career at the age of 14 by carving wooden animals. In recent years, the tradition of “saint making” is increasingly being taken up by female artists.
Figure 7. For the eighth year in a row, Glencairn Museum has exhibited an original, three-dimensional Nativity scene by Karen Loccisano and R. Michael Palan, a husband-and-wife artist team. They report that their contribution to this year’s World Nativities exhibition—which they have been creating throughout the coronavirus pandemic—has been “a source of strength and inspiration” to them. In American Nativity, they have reimagined what the Nativity miracle might have looked like if it had taken place in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl, with migrant American farmers making their way from the drought-stricken southern plains to California. Read more about this Nativity in this 2020 issue of Glencairn Museum News. On loan from Karen Loccisano and R. Michael Palan, Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Figure 8. This cast-stone Nativity, made in the early part of the 20th century, was purchased in the 1970s from a Roman Catholic Church in Boston, Massachusetts, by Antonio Morales. Morales and his family lived in Lynn, a suburb of Boston. For forty years, during the first week of December, Morales and his sons would build a wooden stable for these figures on the family’s front porch. They provided a spotlight, intended to represent the Star of Bethlehem, to shine down from above on the Christ Child. The display would always remain on their porch until the weekend after Epiphany (January 6th), traditionally the day on which the Wise Men arrived bearing gifts for Jesus.
Figure 9. Trina Paulus first discovered clay in the backyard of her home in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of eight. By the time she was twelve she was a kiln assistant for Edris Eckhardt, a ceramic artist at the Cleveland Art Institute. Inspired by the concept of gift-giving, Paulus designed this Nativity for Grailville, a rural retreat property in Loveland, Ohio. Grailville is a center in the USA for the Grail, a Catholic women’s lay organization founded in Europe by two Dutch women in 1940. On loan from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, New Haven, Connecticut.
Figure 10. The unique folk tradition of the szopka dates to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 2013 this szopka by Zbigniew Gillert was the first-place winner in a competition in the category of medium-sized Nativity scenes (szopki). Every December since 1937 a national szopka competition has taken place in the main square of Krakow. The Nativity scene takes the form of an elaborate building facade in which the tiny figures of the Holy Family are surrounded with fanciful architectural features including columns, elaborate molding, and towers topped with onion-shaped domes—features often seen on Krakow’s historic buildings. On loan from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, New Haven, Connecticut.
Figure 11. This Nativity was made by artists in Burkina Faso, a country in West Africa, using the ancient technique of lost wax casting. Metal casting is a skill that has been passed down there for hundreds of years. Included in the scene is a figure playing a balafon, an ancient instrument of the Manding peoples of West Africa resembling a gourd-resonated xylophone. He is a griot (a praise-singer or storyteller). On loan from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, New Haven, Connecticut.
Figure 12. This Nativity set was carved from Jacaranda wood. The Jacaranda tree was imported to Zimbabwe from South America during the colonial period. The carver of this Nativity is unknown, but the Shona, the largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe, are renowned for their soapstone and wood carvings. Traditional wooden Shona headrests reside in the collections of many of the world’s major museums. Gift of Alan and Mary Liz Pomeroy.
Figure 13. This Egyptian Nativity set includes the Holy Family, three Wise Men, two angels, a camel, a donkey, and a sheep. Each of the angels has a halo; one plays a mandolin, while the other shakes a tambourine. The figures were created by turning each piece of wood on a lathe. The artist, Mr. Elhamy, is a Copt, that is, a native Egyptian Christian. There are 10 to 15 million Coptic Orthodox Christians in the world, most of them living in Egypt.
Figure 14. The Jerusalem Manger represents everyday life in the ancient city; villagers stroll through the marketplace as the Son of God is born in a stable on a hill above the Inn. The figures, carved in alpine maple, are the complete Comet Collection by master craftsmen at Ulpe Wood Art studios, located in the Italian Alps. The unique setting created by Navidad Nativities in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is completely hand carved from wood and finely detailed with natural materials. On loan from Navidad Nativities, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Figure 15. The Presepio tradition represents daily life in 18th-century Naples, an international port city. The figures are clothed in period costumes typical of the aristocracy, peasants, and visiting foreigners. Here a Turkish band plays in celebration of the miraculous Nativity event.
Figure 16. One of the scenes in the Neapolitan Presepio features a Wise Man arriving on his horse, bringing costly gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for the Christ Child.
(CEG)
A complete archive of past issues of Glencairn Museum News is available online here.