Practice Y'all See What I See? Imagery in Birth Scenes

GLENCAIRN'Due south world nativities exhibition in glencairn museum news

Number 1, 2020

Glencairn Museum'south eleventh annual Earth Nativities exhibition presents dozens of 3-dimensional Nativity scenes collected from many different cultures and communities around the globe. The goal of the exhibition is to show the universal appeal of the Nascence story, and how individuals around the world seek to give it relevance by relating information technology to their own spiritual, intellectual, cultural, or regional environments.

Number eleven, 2019

This vacation season the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, has loaned an antique Moravian Christmas "putz" (Nascency scene) made by folk artist Jennie Trein (1879-1977) to Glencairn's Globe Nativities exhibition.

Number 12, 2018

This yr's Globe Nativities exhibition features Birth Maker's Workshop, an extremely detailed miniature diorama created past R. Michael Palan. In this issue of Glencairn Museum News, Michael talks to usa about his work, and we interview both Michael and Karen on video in the living room of their home in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Number 11, 2018

This issue of Glencairn Museum News features 5 artists whose works are included in this year's Earth Nativities exhibition: Christina Orthwein (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania), Nancy Schnarr-Bruell (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania), Jeronimo Lozano (Peeru/Table salt Lake City, Utah), Sabinita López Ortiz (Córdova, New United mexican states), and Carmen Gutierrez Vazquez (San Miguel Aguasuelos, Veracruz-Mexico).

Number 12, 2017

During the holiday season a life-size oil painting by Bryn Athyn artist Edwin Herder depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds (Luke 2:15-20) hangs to a higher place the fireplace in Glencairn's Upper Hall. The painting is based on an analogy in The Christ Child, a 1931 children'southward book past Maud and Miska Petersham.

Number 11, 2017

This year Glencairn Museum is featuring ii exhibitions during the holiday flavour. Our ninth annual World Nativities exhibition presents 40 3-dimensional Nativity scenes, nerveless from 20 countries effectually the world. Another exhibition, Do Yous Meet What I Meet? Imagery in Nascence Scenes, explores the origins of the various elements that brand up a Nativity scene. And Glencairn'southward guided "Christmas in the Castle" tour answers the question, "How do you celebrate Christmas in a 20th-century castle?"

Number 1, 2017

Epiphany, sometimes known as 3 Kings' Mean solar day (January 6), celebrates the arrival of the Magi—as well known as the Wise Men—in Bethlehem to run into the Christ Child. In this upshot of Glencairn Museum News we examine how artisans from around the world have represented the Magi in Glencairn's World Nativities exhibition.

Number 11, 2016

The tradition of the Presepio, which has been chosen "the translation of the Bible into Neapolitan dialect," represents daily life in 18th-century Naples, a bustling port city. The figures and structures in this Presepio were nerveless over a menstruum of more than 30 years by the late Elizabeth Anne Evans of Bucks County during her annual trips to Naples.

Number 12, 2015

This twelvemonth Glencairn Museum is featuring two exhibitions during the vacation season.Christmas Traditions in Many Lands reveals how Christmas was celebrated in a variety of European countries during the 19th and 20th centuries. It features objects and images from the collection of the National Christmas Eye and Museum. Our seventh annual World Nativities exhibition presents 45 three-dimensional Nascence scenes, nerveless from effectually the earth.

A Nativity Inspired by Bryn Athyn Architecture

Number eleven, 2015

This yr Glencairn is featuring two exhibitions during the holiday flavour. As part of the seventh annual World Nativities exhibition, Glencairn is presenting a unique creation past Navidad Nativities of Bucks Canton, PA. This custom Nativity setting, with stunning interior lighting, was inspired by the art and architecture of Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn. The human and creature figures were paw carved in wood and dressed in starched fabric by Original Heide, a family concern in the Italian Alps. The second exhibition, Christmas Traditions in Many Lands, reveals how Christmas was celebrated in a variety of European countries during the 19th and 20th centuries, and features objects and images from the collection of the National Christmas Center and Museum in Lancaster, PA.

Number 11, 2014

For the second year in a row, Glencairn is privileged to debut the piece of work of Karen Loccisano and R. Michael Palan, a married man-and-wife team of professional artists from Westchester County, New York. Visitors to Glencairn'southward Earth Nativities exhibition in 2013 may remember their highly detailed American Presepio Nativity scene, which was unveiled in Nov of that year. They are now working on a Flemish Nativity. A second exhibition will also be offered this year. A Century of Santa: Images of Santa Claus in the 1800s presents the early history of Santa Claus in America, using rare magazine illustrations, shop advertising, and children'southward storybooks from the collection of the National Christmas Center and Museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Number 12, 2013

R. Michael Palan and Karen Loccisano, a husband-and-wife team of professional artists from New York, take spent the last two years creating their own interpretation of an Italian Presepio (Nativity scene). It was completed just two weeks ago, and is having its start public showing at Glencairn'south World Nativities exhibition.

Number 11, 2013

This year for Glencairn'south annual exhibition,Follow the Star: World Nativities, the Museum has exchanged several dozen crèches in our permanent holdings with the famous collection of Mepkin Abbey, a community of Roman Catholic Trappist monks in South Carolina. The fifteen-piece, hammered-copper Nativity pictured in this photo was created over a menstruation of several years by Vermont artist Mary Eldredge for the abbey's almanac Crèche Festival. According to the artist, "I accept tried to create an experience of joy and wonder and awe at the nativity of God every bit human being, the dawn of our conservancy, in the gestures of the diverse figures of the crèche" (equally quoted in Mepkin Abbey's 2012 book, Finding Bethlehem: A Global Journeying through the Mepkin Abbey Creche Festival).

Number 12, 2012

Egypt figures prominently in one of the biblical accounts of the Birth. The Gospel of Matthew (2:13-xv) describes how an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, warning him to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to escape the jealous Herod, who wanted to kill the child. The Coptic Orthodox Church, which is centered in Egypt, has always given this part of the Christmas story special attention. The Flight into Egypt inspired several Coptic legends, and a number of churches and shrines throughout Egypt marker places where the Holy Family stayed. This terracotta figurine of the Flight into Egypt was made in a ceramic workshop in Cairo, forth with a 12-piece Nativity fix. The wearable styles are typical of rural Upper Arab republic of egypt. The complete set, deputed in 2010 by St. Mark's Coptic Museum in Toronto, Canada, can be seen in Glencairn'south exhibition,Follow the Star: Earth Nativities. Settings for all the Nativities have been created by Bryn Athyn artisan Kathleen Glenn Pitcairn.

Number 11, 2012

Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn pose for their 1954 Christmas carte du jour moving picture beside the "Seven Days of Creation" fireplace in Glencairn's Upper Hall. During Christmas time each year a large oil painting of the shepherds visiting the baby Jesus was hung higher up the fireplace. The painting was adapted from an illustration in The Christ Kid, a 1931 children's book by Maud and Miska Petersham, who gave permission for this large-calibration accommodation of their piece of work.The Christ Kid was a special favorite of the Pitcairns, and in 1949 they gave over 100 copies of the book equally gifts to friends and family. This and other Christmas traditions at Glencairn are brought to life in "Christmas in the Castle," an all-new holiday tour. Participants in the tour explore outstanding examples of Nativity art through the ages in Glencairn'due south collections. They also observe the reply to the question, "How do you celebrate Christmas in a 20th century castle?"

World Nativities Exhibition at Glencairn through January 14

Number 11, 2011

This Neapolitan presepio is the work of the Giuseppe and Marco Ferrigno workshop, a 4th-generation family concern in Naples, Italian republic. The faces, hands, lower legs, and feet of their figures are fabricated of terracotta, which is then painted. Most of the figures have glass eyes. Other parts of the body are synthetic with wire wrapped in cloth then that each effigy can be posed. The clothing for each character is handmade in the 18th-century mode, draped in San Leucio silks. The Ferrigno family began making presepi in Naples in 1836.

Selected Bibliography

Chocolate-brown, R.Eastward. (1999). The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary of the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Cartlidge, D.R. (2001). Art and the Christian Apocrypha. New York, NY: Routledge.

Davis, Judith (2009). The Creche: A Selected Bibliography. Compiled for The Friends of the Creche. Available online at the University of Dayton:

Gockerell, Nina. (1996). "Birth Group," in The Dictionary of Art, J. Turner ed. New York, NY: Grove (Oxford).

Gockerell, Nina. (1998). Krippen – Nativity Scenes – Creches. New York, NY: Taschen.

Govan, James L. (2007). Art of the Creche: Nativities from around the Earth. New York: Merrell.

Howard, Linn and Mary Jane Pool. (1993). The Angel Tree: A Christmas Celebration. New York: Abrams. (The Loretta Hines Howard Drove of 18th century Neapolitan creche figures at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Monthan, Guy and Doris (1990). Nacimientos. Albuquerque, New United mexican states: Avanyu Publishing, Inc.

Powell, M. (1997). The Christmas Creche: Treasure of Faith, Fine art & Theater. Roselle, Illinois: Roman, Inc.

Schiller, G. (1971). Iconography of Christian Fine art (Vol 1, chapter 2: "The Nascency and Babyhood of Christ"). Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Club.