“Angel” Date: 18th–19th century, Italian (Naples) Medium: Polychromed terracotta head; wooden limbs and wings; straw and various fabrics; silver-gilt censer
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| Angels swirling upward on the tree to the crowning star. Usually, the tree is placed in front of a Spanish choir screen but was moved to a more open area this year for better air circulation. |
(Editor’s Note: This is an edited version of a very popular article we published a few years back.)
The Angels & Crèche around The Met Tree are some of the most “awe-inspiring” Christmas decorations you will ever see displayed!
The custom of restaging the Nativity is traditionally credited to Saint Francis of Assisi. The employment of man-crafted figures to reenact the events reached its height of complexity and artistic excellence in 18th-century Naples, where local families, often assisted by professional stage directors, vied to out-do each other in presenting elaborate crèche displays. The high artistic estimation of the genre is evidenced in works of the finest sculptors of the period—including Giuseppe Sammartino and his pupils Salvatore di Franco, Giuseppe Gori, and Angelo Viva—who were called on to model the terracotta heads and shoulders of the extraordinary crèche figures. The Howard collection includes numerous works attributed to these as well as to other prominent artists of that time.
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| A view of the Angel Tree’s other side. |
