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The Metropolitan Museum of Art. in Holiday Travel Directory

 

The Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a longestablished yuletide tradition in New York, is on view for the holiday season through January 7, 2001. The brightly lit, twentyfoot blue spruce—with a collection of 18thcentury Neapolitan angels and cherubs among its boughs and groups of realistic crèche figures flanking the Nativity scene at its base—once again delights holiday visitors in the Museums Medieval Sculpture Hall. Set in front of the 18thcentury Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid, with recorded Christmas music in the background, the installation reflects the spirit of the holiday season. There is a spectacular lighting ceremony every Friday and Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m., beginning Friday, December 1. The installation is made possible by The Loretta Hines Howard Trust. More about the Annual Christmas Tree Display More about the Custom of Restaging the Nativity More about the Crèche Figures Holiday Programs Exhibition Publication More about the Annual Christmas Tree Display The annual Christmas display is the result of the generosity, enthusiasm, and dedication of the late Loretta Hines Howard, who began collecting crèche figures in 1925 and soon after conceived the idea of combining the Roman Catholic custom of elaborate Nativity scenes with the tradition of decorated Christmas trees that had developed among the largely Protestant people of northern Europe. This unusual combination first was presented to the public in 1957, when the Metropolitan Museum initially exhibited Mrs. Howards collection. More than two hundred 18thcentury Neapolitan crèche figures were given to the Museum by Loretta Hines Howard starting in 1964, and they have been displayed each holiday season for over thirty years. Linn Howard, Mrs. Howards daughter, worked with her mother for many years on the annual installation. Since her mothers death in 1982, she has continued to create new settings for the figures that she adds to the collection. In keeping with family tradition, Linn Howards daughter, artist Andrea Selby Rossi, now joins her mother each year in creating the display.

 

Website: http://metmuseum.org/special/Christmas2000/christmas_more.htm