PhD Program in Historical studies
The Neapolitan Nativity scene of the Museo Nacional de Escultura of Valladolid
María Bolaños Atienza, Director of the Museo Nacional de Escultura (National Sculpture Museum) of Valladolid explains the Neapolitan Nativity scene on permanent display at the Museum in Valladolid.
Originally from a private collection, it is one of the oldest Neapolitan Nativity scenes that have been preserved in Europe. The pieces have different origins, but some of them come directly from the personal collection of King Charles III of Bourbon, a great lover of this unique art form. In the Nativity scene people of many different professions are present: tailors, goldsmiths, carpenters, and of course artists, particularly sculptors. Observing this, one can well understand how the Nativity scene was also a way to tell and show the life of the Neapolitan people, as opposed to the comforts and luxuries of the life of the nobility. The Nativity scene is in the center, almost lost among traders, butchers, clerks and laundresses. Against a backdrop in which the inevitable Greco-Roman ruins can be seen, the representation is based on a certain exoticism, but combined with an almost grotesque populism which mirrors the vision that kings and aristocrats had of the lower classes of society in Naples.