THE INTEREST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSEUMS OF THE WORLD IN NEAPOLITAN SHEPHERDS
by

Umberto Grillo

Surely the interest of the most important Museums of the world in crib and Neapolitan shepherds is curious. This art form has fascinated many people, Neapolitan and not. The interest in Neapolitan shepherds has surprised Naples and his citizens who, besides feeling flattered by it ( I put myself "Primus inter pares), think it is strange that serious art critics and important museums show interest in an art form that they don't know very well. Principally it makes curious that some important museums want to open, when it is possible, a section dedicated to the eighteenth -century Neapolitan Shepherds.

Denigrators of crib art call it " Decorative art", but I don't agree with them. I think that it is difficult to show in furniture or stuccoes ( except in specific institutions) the same interest that museum feel in Neapolitan Shepherds. I cannot speak about this argument in depth because of space and "thematic subject", but I would like to explain ( and to explain me) the phenomenon.Art has not always represented Reality. It often has been only a means to satisfy man's desire of Beauty and Perfect. Man solves the " aesthetic problem", so called by Philosophy, looking at work of art or listening to the music and he feels satisfied. Final product has not to be necessarily beauty, but Pleasant! Is Goya's "Saturno" 

beautiful? Is Goya's "Maria Teresa Cayetana de Silva" beautiful? Someone will think that my assertions are like maxim : " It isn't beautiful what it is beautiful…". I think that this maxim or proverb is very right for our discourse. Man solves the " aesthetic problem", so called by Philosophy, looking at work of art or listening to the music and he feels satisfied. Final product has not to be necessarily beauty, but Pleasant! Is Goya's "Saturno" beautiful? Is Goya's "Maria Teresa Cayetana de Silva" beautiful? Someone will think that my assertions are like maxim : " It isn't beautiful what it is beautiful…". I think that this maxim or proverb is very right for our discourse. Now it is important to say that all real art lovers like the "… what it likes". Of course, several questions would arouse: "How does this feeling come to light? Where is it from? Do all people feel it? Etc…" As you can see, it is difficult to solve some problems linked to the "Aesthetics". And then, why do we talk about a thing that exists and causes pleasure? Why do we ask: "why does it exist? Why does it like?" I think that it isn't possible to give any acceptable answer. For this reason I return to subject of my dissertation. Artist, the Maker, creates Art. He has got a particular genius that allows him to imprint the "quid" of Beauty in all things that he creates, passing on it like " Paradigmatic message". Issue must be comprehensible, it isn't necessary that it is complex.. It is important that artist can always translate, in comprehensible way, what he want communicate. 

In other words, I think that Cellini's miniatures and Andy Warhol's " Barattolo di minestra Campbell" are certainly works of art. I don't think that the same discourse can be made for other works ( such as the "Altare della Patria") crowding our cities. They are only monumental works. However artist 's life was not always easy . In the Meddle Age, for example, he was only "hired person" ( La grande pittura Bompiani) and he had got an artisan got. Stereotype of artist like "animal out of group" or eccentric genius is a figure that began to be present on the scene from late '600 to '800, period in which it reached its peak.

Some musems of the world that have got a section dedicated to neapolitean crib

• Monaco di Baviera - Byerisches National Museum

• Museo diocesiano di Frisinga

• Victoria and Albert Museum - Londra

• Museo di Belle Arti  - Rouen

• Museo di Arte Sacra - San Paolo del Brasile

• Metropolitan Museum - New York

• Fondazione Bartolomeo March  Ferver - Palma di Maiorca

• Museo Nazionale - Madrid

• Museo di Pittburgh - Pensylvania

• Museo San Martino - Napoli

• Museo Filangieri - Capodimonte

• Raccolta Banco di Napoli

• Museo Irpino di Avellino

• Museo Correale di Sorrento

• Palazzo Reale di Caserta

• Pinacoteca di Bari - Collezione Galeno

• Museo Tipologico Internazionale del Presepe - Roma

• Museo delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari - Roma

• Museo Statale d'arte Meridionale e Moderna - Arezzo.