The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
By STAN PARCHIN
November 12, 2009
Since 1957, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has delighted yuletide visitors from near and far with its much-anticipated Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. Centrally located in the recently renovated Medieval Sculpture Hall from late November to early January, the majestic 20-foot blue spruce, illuminated fiber-optically, is adorned by some 50 beatific silk-robed angels and assorted cherubs. The glowing tree, a seasonal treat for children of all ages, is decorated on its base with an extraordinary 18th-century Neapolitan crèche or Nativity scene.
Set against the architectural ruins of a Roman temple, the infant Jesus, his birth heralding a new order, is adored by awe-inspired shepherds and their flocks. Three Magi dressed in sumptuous attire approach the newborn Savior reverentially. The Wise Men are followed by Asians and Africans, local townspeople and peasants. Sheep, goats, horses, a camel and an elephant then appear.
The late Loretta Hines Howard began collecting the crèche's marvelous polychrome terracotta figurines in 1925. She donated more than 200 of them to The Met in 1964. Linn Howard, her daughter, continues her mother's tradition of designing innovative theatrical settings for the realistic statuettes while quietly adding to the collection. The family tradition endures as artist Andrea Selby Rossi, Mrs. Howard's daughter, joins her mother annually in determining the crèche's unique arrangement.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche are on display from November 24, 2009 to January 6, 2010.
Source
Howard, Linn, et al. The Angel Tree: A Christmas Celebration. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.