The success of Crib Art over three hundred and fifty years of history.

One of the motives for which the Neapolitan crib art has drawn so much interest and success over the centuries, resides in the great artistic value that the critics and enthusiasts give to them, perhaps in measure even greater than three centuries ago. This “artistic worth” can be individualised in different elements: the perfection of the form, the emotion generated in the spectator and, above all, in the cultural operation realised by the set design’s transporting of the land of Palestine into the everyday life of the Kingdom of Naples. The figurines are dressed with seventeenth century costumes and the scenes represent episodes from the era, underscoring that the importance of the Advent of Christ is beyond both the time and the place in which it was verified and assumes an importance universally valid.
It was Francesco d’Assisi who introduced the use of the crib in the XIII century, which from Italy rapidly spread also to Spain, France and Austria. The characters were were presented in a natural size.
The great development of crib art came however in the XVII century, when the characters figured began to have a more dynamic appearance: initially, still in wood, came loosened joints, then came the creation of mannequins of iron wire wrapped in wick and completed with a head and limbs made of wood. Use of the iron wire allowed a greater softness in the articulation and thus in more natural positions.
In the 1700’s saw the last evolution which would transport the model down to the present day: The height of the figures was redimensioned to 34-40 cm., but above all the wooden head and the limbs were substituted with ones modelled in terracotta, allowing thus to achieve a work of greater expressive finesse.
The maximum splendour arrived with the advent of Carlo di Borbone to the throne of the Kingdom of Naples when the arts enjoyed a strong resurgence and, among them, the Art of the Crib, which was also supported by Father Rocco (one of the King’s most loyal
advisers), who had the objective to make it into an effective instrument of religious propaganda.
The theme and the development of the culture of cribs was such a success that, very soon, the religious motivation was overwhelmed by a widespread artistic interest, and this art became a kind of elegant and refined amusement. The original themes explored by Vangelo di Luca and di Matteo were reworked, integrated and amplified: from the three biblical moments the Announcement to the Shepherds, the Birth of the Infant the Diversorium (the inn in which the Madonna was refused hospitality), many other small connecting scenes were added in which everyday moments of life were represented.
A total transformation of the set design soon arrived, where the classical setting in Palestine was substituted by the everyday reality of the Kingdom of Naples. As anticipated, this deals with a singular and significant cultural operation launched by the cribs of this period, that still now determines its great success, because the event of The Birth of Christ becomes universal, completely uprooted from the identified context as a casual historical influence.
Even the humble Francescan cave where the birth occurred, is substituted with a ruin of pagan temples, an important change deriving from the discovery of Pompei. Only the scene of the Announcement maintains its original bucolic vain, while the Diversorium becomes set in a typical Neapolitan inn , where groups of common people celebrate chaotically the Advent of Christ. The scenario becomes enriched also with the addition of multiple scenes and typical characters such as the knife grinder, the gypsy, the beggar, the cripple, the butcher and many others, giving life a singular “ court of miracles” appearance which counterpoints the opulence of the world of the East, which survives only in the representation of the Three Kings and their followers.
The principle protagonists of The Artistic Neapolitan Crib are the Figurines, which are differentiated on the bases of the biblical or social role which their perform. According to the biblical role the figurines are divided: figurines of the Announcement, of the Inn, of the Nativity, of the parade of the Three Kings and figurines of the way. The social activity instead distinguishes peasants, townsfolk, nobles, street vendors and lots of other professions of the time.