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History and Tradition of the Crèche
The typical italian tradition of the crèche is achieved in different style forms and with the use of various matters reflecting the geographical origin and the different historical periods in which the artisans were operating. In the following section, besides a brief crèche historical note, there will be summarized these differences at least for those regions where the crèche tradition has put down deeper roots, proposing distinctive and personal features. As: the neapolitan crèche, with the '700 as its golden century, tied up to the personality of Carlo III di Borbone, the patron sovereign who will lead Napoli to a wonderful cultural and artistic flourishing, which the crèche art will be one of the most wonderful expression; the sicilian crèche, with its innovating ceroplastics technique or the use of peculiar matters as coral, ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl, alabaster, shells and other marine matters typical of Trapani's crèche art; the roman crèche, modelled after the partenopean crèche, but rejecting its ostentation and laical spirit, to bring back to the centre of the composition the Holy Family, surrounded by unpretentious figures with a sober and essential scenography, generally made up by a cork cave with in the background a typical landscape of roman countryside, with its pinetrees, olives and the ruins of ancient aqueducts; the pugliese crèche, distinguished by the use of paper-pulp and by the so called "focheggiatura" technique, in the city of Lecce; the ligurian crèche, particularly the poor one of the XIX century, realized in the cities of Savona and Albissola kilns, with clay pressed in the moulds of the most recurrent crèche characters, subsequently hand painted. A part of this section has been devoted to the spreading of the crèche in the world (still to be published).
