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Christmas
Eve with the Adoration of the Angels, Munich c.1820. (Angels, shepherds
and building) Italy, c.1760 (Holy Family). Carved wood, painted; fabric
clothing. Height: c.20cm.
Typical
of the Munich cribs of the early 19th century are finely carved angels,
usually presented in groups. These are not pudgy Italianate putty, but
attractive, youthful, asexual beings with slim physiques and vigourous
feathered wings in pastel shades. Unlike the other figures from Munich,
these are not jointed dolls. Each has been carved out of one piece of
wood and given a fixed jubilant or worshipful pose by the carver. This
scene of the Adoration of the Angels is enhanced by the black starry
dome of the night sky.
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Already in the early 17th century, monasteries recognised the educational value of attractive Nativity
Scenes; an
important task of many religious orders was to teach the biblical story to those unable to
read. For this purpose, not
only religious plays but also Nativity Scenes were deliberately
instrumentalised. In 1601 the Jesuits in Altotting
erected their first monastery Nativity Scene. Munich Jesuits followed suit in 1607, Innsbruck Jesuits in 1608, and
finally Hall Jesuits in Tyrol in 1609; a Nativity Scene had already been installed in the Jesuit Church in Prague in
1562. No concrete information has survived as to what these early examples looked
like
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Search
for an Inn, Munich, c.1820. Scenery
by Wilhelm Döderlein,1959. Carved
wood, fabric clothing. Height: 25 cm
This
scene is of a market place in an oriental village. mary is resting,
exhausted, at a well, while joseph is being driven away from the
door of the inn by an unfriendly inn-keeper and a barking dog. The
growing familiarity of the Munich carves with oriental physiognomies
and clothing are evident in the faces and outfits of the clusters of
men standing talking in the forefront of the scene. The figures are
jointed dolls; the heads, arms and legs are carevd out of limewwod
and painted with great precision.
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For over a
century, Nativity
Scene creation in the Alpine Region was carried on at the monasteries and at the royal
courts.
In the 18th century, genre scenes were introduced into Bavarian and Tyrolean Nativity
Scenes, elaborating
somewhat on the brief biblical accounts and giving the scenes a more folkloric
character. Alongside carved and
painted figures, one finds wooden jointed dolls dressed in fabric clothing, and also small wax
figures. Typical of the
time is the special attention devoted to the clothing of the shepherds and the worshipping
townspeople: they are all
dressed in traditional costumes representative of the time and place in which the particular Nativity Scene was
made. As a result, beholders could more easily identify with the figures involved in the
events. This feature also
emphasized that salvation is an on-going process, taking place at all times for all
men.
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The
Shepherds in the Fields, Munich, c.1800. Shepherds by the carver
Ludwig; animals by Niklas. Carved wood, painted; fabric clothing.
Height: 26 cm. In
this Annunciation scene, the shepherds are no longer wearing
traditional costumes, as was customery in the Alpine region only a
few decades earlier. Instead, both their feature and their clothing
suggest that they are inhabitants of the Holy Land. Typical of the
Munich Nativity Scenes are the masterfully carved animals, their
depiction is unuasually animated as is that of the fighting bulls
here. |
Typical of the
time is the special attention devoted to the clothing of the shepherds and the worshipping
townspeople: they are all
dressed in traditional costumes representative of the time and place in which the particular Nativity Scene was
made. As a result, beholders could more easily identify with the figures involved in the
events. This feature also
emphasized that salvation is an on-going process, taking place at all times for all
men.
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The
Flight into Egypt and Nativuty Scene Animals, Munich, c.1820. Scenery
by Wilhelm Döderlein, 1959. Carved wood, painted; fabric clothing.
Height: 25 cm Unlike
most depictions of the Flight into Egypt, which show the Holy Family
travelling with a donkey, this Nativity Scene shows them crossing the
Nile in a boat. The distant river bank is populated by exotic
animals-monkeys frolicking in the ruins of a temple and alligators in
the shallow water. To the front on the right, an upright long-maned
monkey seems to be offering a bouquet of fruit; the other animals
around him are less friendly in appearance. The dog-like "Succurath"
protects the young ones sitting on his back with his broad tail. The
function of the fantastic creatures in this particular scene is to
underline the dramatic aspect of the flight. |
Around 1800, the storms of the Enlightenment in Southern Germany swept away numerous expressions of
folk piety; the erection of cribs in churches, for example, was prohibited. This rigorous
ban, however, contributed to a flowering of the custom of the Christmas scene, as individuals took the church Nativity Scenes to their homes and
thus awakened in others the wish to have such lively Christmas representations in their homes as
well. Now private
people commissioned the wood-carvers and craftsmen, initiating a considerable boom in Nativity Scene production and giving rise to a significant improvement in its
quality.
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Nativity
Scene from the Servite Convent in Innsbruck, c.1750. Northern Tyrol,
c.1750. Carved figures, limbs attached with wire, heads modelled in
wax, hair of flax or wool; fabric clothing. Height:c.18 cm. The
setting is a mountain with three terraces against a silhouette of the
city of Bethlehem, typical of Tyrolean Nativity Scenes from the period
around 1750. According to Christian tradition, the mountain represents
the world, the salvation of which is foreseen in the birth of Christ.
Inanimate and animate nature - the landscape and animals- are also
destined to be saved, as are the Jewish world, represented by the
shepherds on the left, and the world of the heathens, represented by
the Three Wise Men on the right. The angels on both sides of the
stable are reminiscent of the chorus in Greek tragedy and of the
divine messengers in Baroque drama. Presumably, this crib was made by
the Servites themselves and set up annually in the convent. |
The Munich NativityScenes of the early 19th century
provide the best evidence of this. Numerous important carvers had their workshops in
Munich, although the names of
and details about only very few of them have survived; their skill, however, can be judged from their
works. An artists' group living in Rome, the Nazarenes, had taken upon themselves the task of depicting biblical themes
"correctly," that is to say, in a manner appropriate to the time and place of the
events. Under the Nazarenes' influence, the oriental Nativity Scene emerged in the early 19th
century, a type to which the Munich carvers were particularly committed.
in German towns famous for their carving tradition, such as Oberammergau in
Bavaria, and also North and South Tyrol, countless high quality figures were produced in the 19th
century, some with opulent clothing, some finely painted, and most of them commissioned by private
clients.
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