Spanish Nativity

Belén 2010 - Asociación Belenista de Madrid

Belén is the name of the magazine for members that is published by the  Asociación Belenista de Madrid. It has been completely reformatted this year, and the results are spectacular!

 

The magazine contains articles by Letizia Arbeteta Mira and a host of other well-known scholars in the field.  There are also articles on the technical aspects of belenismo. The photographs are great and the layout is imaginative and dramatic.  Below is the table of contents, so you can get a little sample of what you’re missing…

 

Getting Towards the End of the Season…

In most of the United States, people put away their Nativity Scenes long ago; Christmas seems to disappear the day afterwards here, particularly now that so many dioceses celebrate Epiphany, traditionally January 6, on the first Sunday after Christmas.  This is a big mistake, in my opinion, and I hope the bishops will begin to restore the feast to its proper date and its proper importance.

But in any case, looking through things that have come to me in the last few weeks, I found a couple of scenes which I had meant to post and show you but which had somehow slipped through the cracks.

First of all, we have the belén put up by Cristóbal Jiménez, director and producer of the great radio program, Camino de Belén.  The photos weren’t very detailed, but from what I could see, it appeared to be a large diorama about 5-6 feet long and perhaps 24-28 inches deep, with a lovely background.

 

 

We also have a great video of Benito Santivañez’ belén  at the Church of San Martín in Sunnyvale.  It was filmed by his friend Jim Ciarico, who made a lovely, professional video (in HD). And of course, Benito’s belén  is great as usual, with very well laid-out figures, imaginative touches and, of course, his usual great work with the papel de montaña, the brownish, rocky-looking paper used to make the mountains. Another beautiful job!

The Nativity from St Martin Church on Vimeo.

Bethlehem at the Produce Market

Horacio and Alicia, friends from Madrid, sent me some great photos of the belén in their neighborhood produce market.  The store is a small fruit and vegetable shop named Labrandero e Hijos  in a community of greater Madrid named Majadahonda.

 

Look at the level of detail.  In the background you can see a notice announcing that the scene won a gold medal from the Asociación Belenista de Madrid in the category known as belen popular (that is, folk belén) . This wasn’t done by one of the semi-professional groups from the big regional belén associations, but was simply something the family that runs the produce market sets up year after year for their neighbors.

The figures are typical estilo hebreo, that is, Biblical-style figures, and are no doubt from Murcia.  Is the maker Galán, by any chance?

 

Here we have the Nacimiento. I liked everything about this belén. The groupings of sheep are very geometric and attractive and give a lot of energy to the scene; also, note the cluster of chickens clucking around the cueva on the viewer’s right.

A lovely scene, and many thanks to Horacio and Alicia. The shop-window belenes are one of the treats of Spain at Christmas. In fact, one of the best belenes I ever saw was in the window of the Prats carpet shop in Madrid about three years ago.