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Year 2 - n.2 - April 2002
Text and photos by book "Krippen Nativity Scenes - Creches", Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Munchen, Taschen, 1998. Text: Nina Gockerell; Photos: Walter Haberland
 

Nativity Scenes from the Alpine Region and Munich

 

In the southern German-speaking region, Nativity Scene creation accelerated in the late 16th century and then underwent a very specific development. An extensive correspondence between the Archduchess Maria of Bavaria's ruling House of Wittelsbach and her brother, Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria, contains repeated references to carved, clothed figures for a Nativity Scene. These figures were sent to her from Munich after she married and moved to Graz in 1571. In the following years, the number of invoices from craftsmen and artists for the manufacture and delivery of Nativity Scenes to the Munich court increased significantly. 

 

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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.

 

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.

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.

 

We thanks the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Munchen for the kind cooperation and in particular a special thankyou Mrs Nina Gockerell for the authorization to publish the issue " Nativity scene from the Alpine region and Munich" with the photos.