In yesterday's post we virtually visited Pompeii and Herculaneum through a fashion lookbook. Let's remain around Naples for today to look at a Christmas tradition - the Nativity scenes you may find there.
Neapolitan nativity scenes are particularly beautiful and rich as they are populated with all sorts of characters: the Holy Family is its fulcrum, but around it there are shepherds and their flocks, the procession of the three Magi, colourful peasants and the townspeople of Bethlehem, while angels and cherubs fly above the scene.
All the figures are usually made with articulated bodies of tow and wire with polychromed terracotta heads and wooden limbs and they are dressed in clothes made with fabric and leather and covered in embellishments, beaded details and embroideries or accessorised with jewels such as necklaces and carry musical instruments or baskets of fruit, bread, cheese, fish or shells (these parts are usually made with wax).
One of the most beautiful Nativity scenes remains the monumental Presepe Cuciniello (by Michele Cuciniello) preserved at the National Museum of San Martino in Naples that features incredible architectures of Roman temples and angels flying in the sky.
The Met Museum in New York usually has a very special display in Gallery 305 featuring a Neapolitan Baroque Crèche including 71 figures traditional to 18th-century Naples and a twenty-foot Christmas Tree.
The Met Museum has also got in its archives a series of figures that can be studied from a fashion point of view: the Angels remain beautiful for the way the robes were folded and sculpted to look as if they were moving in the wind, but the attire of the peasants can contribute to shed a light on fashion and folklore from the 1800s.
This post features two images of angels from the Met Museum collection, and images referring to two old women and a younger one (mainly from the second half of the 18th century or the mid-19th century). All of them wear very colourful and intricate regional costumes.
The first old woman in this post wears a colourful attire with a skirt covered with an embroidered apron on the front that reveals an elaborate series of pleats on the back. She is also wearing a finely pleated shirt/petticoat underneath her dress (that we can see from her sleeves) and accessories like a scarf and a golden necklace. The second old woman is also wearing an elaborate dress with a golden fringe and a bustier, matched with a jacket with splits along the sleeves anchored in their places with pink ribbons.
The third figure represents a younger woman and in her case the most intriguing detail (apart from the bustier, petticoat and necklace) is probably the white gauze-like apron that allows us to see the red skirt underneath. The figure is attributed to Lorenzo Mosca, who was employed at the Royal Porcelain Factory at Capodimonte and was also stage director of the Royal Christmas Crib. Enjoy the costume details and have a Merry Christmas!
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