Articles
Large Neapolitan santon * in polychrome wood (head and visible hands), eyes in sulphuret, representing a bald man standing, eighteenth century.
This santon is in good general condition. The inside of the body is made of horsehair or tow.
To note: two pieces of fingers missing on the right hand (ring and auricular), his clothes are damaged and torn in places, small accidents on the head (especially missing the nose), one leg is shorter than the other , Wear and dirt of time, well look at the pictures.
Neapolitan nativity scenes are very different from those seen in churches by the importance of secular scenes. They are not limited to staging the nativity, the child Jesus surrounded by the holy family but Vast compositions with abundant decors and the many characters to which the best artists often collaborate.
Its spectacular character and its scenographic richness are only possible thanks to the activity of several artists and artisans (architects, sculptors, painters, goldsmiths, ceramists, tailors, etc.). Indeed, thanks to their imagination, they managed to reproduce the daily life of the Neapolitans of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The elegance of the figuration and the fineness of the execution of these santons also reveals the quality of the know-how of the Neapolitan artisans. The market, hotels, dances, itinerant vendors, beggars, tavern, various trades, guarding herds, the royal procession, and all that was within the reach of everyday life or fantasy, had its Place in the Neapolitan crèches testifies to the wealth and and variety of this artisanal production.
