December 6 is the Feast of Epiphany, also often known as the Feast of the Three Kings or the Día de los Reyes, in Spanish. While the Church in the US has unfortunately moved the celebration of the feast to the following Sunday, we all still know what day it really is. So of course I had to go to the Mission Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche and put the Kings into my belén. And here they are, from the Holy Land via Murcia.
When I was in New York for Christmas, I cruised through St Patrick’s Cathedral and visited their Nativity scene. I had read earlier that the scene featured a large dog, and sure enough, there was a big dog looming behind the manger. The rector of the Cathedral is apparently a dog-lover and was the one who placed it there.
I have always had mixed feelings about dogs in Nativity scenes. If they are just there, as sheepdogs or incidental figures, fine; but I have seen a rather alarming tendency to highlight the dog in recent years. Americans are positively goofy on the subject of dogs, and this seems to have spilled even into Christmas devotions.
You can see the dog in this picture, sitting behind the manger (which is still empty because the photo was taken before Christmas). The figures are German, although I’m not sure about the dog, since it is a later addition. It’s even bigger than the sheep and seems to be the most important figure in the scene.
Below is the Nativity scene at the Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine (as beautifully redone this year by Cathedral priest Fr. Jeff Johnson and John Breuer, member of the plant staff). There is a dog in this one, too, but it’s a dog the way I think it should be, docilely accompanying a shepherd. Because the dog is behind the shepherd, it’s a little hard to see. Focus on the kneeling shepherd in the foreground, and you can see the dog’s head just beyond his knee.
It’s a small, obedient dog, just the way it should be. Good doggie.
I’m back in the States now, but I’ll continue to post some of the belen highlights of my trip. I spent most of my time in Madrid, but I went to visit a friend in Barcelona, riding on the wonderful AVE and getting there in 2 1/2 hours from Madrid.
Barcelona has two important Christmas fairs, one in front of the Sagrada Familia, and one in front of the Cathedral, downtown in the old part of the city. Below you see a stand in the plaza in front of the Sagrada Familia, selling mostly complementos (or accessories) for the scenes.
And here’s a view from the little terrace in front of the Cathedral. There were rows and rows of these stands, selling everything from moss and bark for building the scene to complementos and figures of all sizes. I did notice that the clay figures are getting scarcer and scarcer. For reasons ranging from the fact that they are less fragile to the fact that they are cheaper, plastic and resin figures, cast and painted in Spain, are taking over the market. I was able to buy some clay figures in both Madrid and Barcelona, but I fear that their days are numbered.
I started off at the new offices of the Ayuntamiento (City Hall), which has been moved to the old Palacio de Comunicaciones, built in 1907, which used to house the main Post Office.
All of the figures were by José Luis Mayo, and the belenistas had chosen a winter theme.
I went on to the Museo de la Ciudad de Madrid, where associations and belenistas from Murcia had set up their usual huge belén. This was a very traditional one – completely anachronistic, not only showing all of the scenes of the Infancy, but putting them in unexpected places and times. There was a market in front of the Puerta de Toledo (the 19th century city gate that gives access from Toledo, that is, the south, where Murcia is located). There was also a scene in front of the facade of Las Ventas, the Madrid bullring, below.
In the afternoon, I visited the belén at the Casa del Reloj, a building near the river Manzanares that was a somewhat isolated 19th century building on the edge of town used mainly by senior citizens´groups until the development of the arts complex, the Matadero (Slaughterhouse, which was the earlier purpose of the buildings) , which is located right next door.
This scene was done by the Asociación Belenista de Madrid and featured figures by José Luis Mayo, who of course is a madrileño. Accompanying it was an exhibit entitled ¨Los Oficios,¨ which described the different daily tasks and jobs of people of the time of Jesus. There were jobs such as that of ironworker, weaver, leatherworker, etc. Each job had a panel of descriptive text, and each job was represented in the belén. Below we see people dying leather.
In addition, the Association brought out some figures from its huge but rarely seen collection, which covers not only Madrid but all of Spain. Below are some mid-20th century figures from Mallorca. They appear to be frying something, possibly roscas (Spanish-style doughnuts).
Below is the poster, which features an early 20th century figure from Granada.
Here in chilly, wintry Madrid, I was delighted to see that Spain´s economic problems don´t seem to have had much of an impact on the Christmas displays. I started off with the Belén de la Comunidad de Madrid in Puerta del Sol. This is set up by the Madrid Association of Belenistas. This year they used a wide variety of figures, ranging from recent ones by José Luis Mayo to some of the larger, older ones (probably created in Madrid or Barcelona) from their collection.
Here we have the Misterio, with figures that looked to me like Castells.
I particularly liked this procession of exotic figures – merchants from the East or Africa?- making their way across a bridge.
And then there was this nice little detail, two camels communing…
This is a scene that is well known in European art and, of course, is often created by belenistas. Here we see the Styrofoam “rocks” that will be part of my scene. They’re made of packing material cut up with a hot wire tool and painted.
Actually, the scene is more elaborate and is nearly finished but I don’t have any photos of it at hand…and I’m leaving for Spain in about an hour!
I will be in Madrid and Barcelona to visit the ferias and to see the belenes that have already been put up. You’ll get a detailed report!
Today I set up my 2011 belén at the Mission Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, or, more precisely, in the giftshop thereof. I used the basic scene I had built a few years ago, with a few different touches, and I also set up a display of various belén exhibit posters I have collected on trips to Spain. Below is the portal.
A few years ago, someone asked me why there were never cats in the belén. My answer was simply that I didn’t have any cat figures. But when I went to the Congreso in Guadalajara a few years ago, lo and behold, someone was selling cat figures. So I picked up a handful, and below you see them, as arranged by a cat-lover who was helping in the belén set-up.
It’s way past time to begin this year’s belén. Because of all my other obligations, I haven’t had time to create a new one for the Mission Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, which is where I usually set it up.
But I’m going to add a couple of scenes. I planned to add an Anunciación a los Pastores (Annunciation to the Shepherds…for non-Spanish speakers and non-art historians, this means the proclamation by the angel to “certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay”) and a Flight Into Egypt. I discovered that I didn’t have the figures for the latter scene, so I changed to the “Viaje de los Reyes,” the trip of the Magi on their way to Bethlehem.
Below are the figures I have selected for the Shepherds scene. They are from Artesanía Fernández, which is a Madrid company that seems to buy molds from deceased companies and even products from other workshops and sells them throughout Spain. They have both resin and terracotta products.
The figures and my “workshop” are on my back porch. These are 14 cm terracotta figures, Murciano or Madrid school, bought at the Feria in Madrid about 4 years ago.
After a long hiatus, I am resuming my posts to this blog. I have been so busy with my other project, Tolomato Cemetery, that I have virtually abandoned the world of the belén. But I plan to revive my blog and my website. I’m going to put up my usual belén at the Mission Shrine of La Leche, and I am also going to go to Madrid just before Christmas to see what is happening in Spain. And I kicked it all off this year with a visit to Mepkin Abbey’s famous Nativity Scene display.
This is the 9th year Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist abbey in South Carolina not far from Charleston, has had this display and the fifth year I have attended. This year was particularly good and had a number of novelties.
For one thing, there were several outdoor scenes. The charming scene above was made by a local artist out of “found” materials, in this case, parts of an old water tank, mattress springs, light bulbs, etc. Unfortunately, I seem to have left the brochure behind in Charleston, so I don’t know the name of the artist, but I’ll try to let you know in a future posting.
Below is a reproduction of a 13th century French carving.
There were some 90 Nativities, many of them lovely traditional ones. Below is a ceramic scene from Slovakia.
But one of the differences this year was that local artists had been contacted to contribute their visions of the Nativity. Most of them were sculptural in format, but then there were completely different takes on it, such as this felted tapestry, showing the Flight Into Egypt. Again, the name of the artist is in the brochure, which is in my daughter’s car in South Carolina…so I’ll let you know later!
Overall, it was probably their best exhibit so far. The dates have been changed; it’s both starting and ending a little earlier, since the monks essentially go on retreat when Advent starts and the monastery is no longer open to the public.
September 8th is the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast that now passes by rather quietly and without observance (except in St Augustine, Florida, since it is the day of our founding). However, once upon a time, there was a fair amount of devotion to the image of the Virgin as a child, as well as to her parents, traditionally known as Sts Joachim and Anna.
The feast dates back to the 6th century, and was important until fairly recent times. Here we see the Baroque façade of a church in the Czech Republic that is dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin.
The Transalpine Redemptorists, a new religious order living on a tiny island off the coast of Scotland known as Papa Stronsay, have a very nice blog, and they have posted the images of the Virgin as an infant and child that you can see if you click here.
