The story behind the Nativity creche at New York’s Met Museum
A look at the Met’s nativity creche, an annual tradition that features Mary, Saint Joseph and the baby Jesus as the centerpiece. Photo courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
NEW YORK — A visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can be a journey through time. After paying your admission, a walk up the steps and straight ahead to the Medieval Art galleries brings you to the dimly-lit area featuring the iconic choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid.
At Christmastime each year, this massive space that resembles the inside of a church and adorned with religious figures also features a 20-foot tree and nativity creche. In a city famous for its many Christmas trees, the one at the Met — along with its creche — has become a New York tradition and arguably one of the biggest religious displays of the holiday in the United States.
It all came to be thanks to Loretta Hines Howard, a longtime museum benefactor, who began collecting creche figures in 1925. It was in 1957 that Howard had the idea to have her handmade Baroque statutes and angels displayed for the public to see. Seven years later, she gave her 233-figure collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Howard died in 1982, but her family and the Met continue to carry on the tradition.
The creche, currently on display through January 6, features the baby Jesus with a radiant halo surrounded by figures that range in size from 12 to 15 inches in height.
New Yorkers and tourists alike, many from across the United States and the world, make it a point to see the creche after shopping at Macy’s and dropping a dollar into a Salvation Army bellringer’s red kettle.
A detailed look at several figures from the nativity creche at the Met, including three angels (top row) and Mary, the baby Jesus and Saint Joseph. Photo courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“We love the Rockefeller Christmas tree, but this is even more impressive,” said Charles Johnson, 48, who was visiting New York from Atlanta. “It was on our list of stops in New York because we had heard so much about it. It really connects you to the season and really what it’s all about.”
Agnete Andersen, 28, who hails from Denmark, agreed. She saw the tree and sacred imagery as a proper celebration of the Christmas season.
“This is really beautiful,” Andersen said, as she gazed up at the decorated tree. “It’s a big difference from the noise and shopping that’s going on outside. It’s like being in a church. It’s very peaceful.”
In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene — also known as a creche or presepe in Italian — represents the birth of Jesus. The scenes feature Mary and Saint Joseph as well as the baby Jesus, along with other characters including angels and shepherds as described in the Gospel of Luke. In the year 1223, Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first live nativity scene, a tradition that quickly spread throughout Italy as a means of getting people closer to the Bible at a time when most could not read. The Met’s display is a marriage between the Roman Catholic tradition of nativity scenes and the tree, a largely Protestant tradition that originated in Northern Europe with Martin Luther.
The Met’s creche hails from Naples, Italy, a city famous for its artisans. The height of this art form occurred in the 18th century (although the handmade figures are still made there to this day) and included the finest sculptors of the time such as Giuseppe Sanmartino and his contemporaries like Salvatore di Franco and Giuseppe Gori.
In Naples, a long pedestrian street called Via San Gregorio Armeno, located in the center of the city’s historic district and steps from the main cathedral known as Il Duomo, features hundreds of shops where people still meticulously carve, mold and paint the figures of all sizes for people to buy.
Also known as “the street of nativity shops,” some 500,000 visitors crowd its long, narrow street this time of year. Nativity sets can range in price from $25 for small ones to as much as $5,000. While most Italian homes feature smaller sets, larger ones can feature dozens of figures, including the magi and local townspeople. Every figure is a masterpiece.
Seven locations throughout Naples have a creche on display throughout the year. While politicized nativity scenes have become all the rage in some places in the U.S., several cities still put up elaborate traditional ones, including the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Although the Met’s display is exclusively a religious scene, the creche in Naples also crosses into the secular with figures depicting soccer stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Politicians and pop stars are also often for sale on those numerous curbside displays. For example, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung-un became top sellers just a few years ago.
Nativity scenes are usually set up starting on December 8, the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception on the Roman Catholic calendar, through January 6, which is Three King’s Day. Many in Naples erect their sets on Christmas Eve, often shunning trees in favor of the figurines in an effort to outdo their neighbors. While churches throughout Italy are adorned with these famous Neapolitan creches, one of the best in the world can be found across the Atlantic Ocean in New York City.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City.