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| The Bordoni "scarabattola" is part of a larger collection, including more than two hundred high-quality ‘shepherds’, well renowned amongst the experts. It is a ‘pocket’ sample of the typical neapolitan crib, an unusual expression of applied art that met with great success-- being cause of great astonishment to foreign visitors as well as of an endless emulation amongst noble and rich "bourgeois" families, which engaged in the preparation of a crib in their houses in the imminence of each Christmas. |  |
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All along the eighteenth and in the first decades of the nineteenth centuries, many celebrated artists were involved in the creation of cribs: architects, scenographers and well-renowned back-drop painters; professional sculptors or modellers from the real fabbrica di Capodimonte for the figures; goldsmiths for the sumptuous and precious accessories. |
| As the terra-cotta heads only fell within the competence of sculptors, the sources also mention the involvement of craftsmen skilled in the production of wooden limbs (hands and legs), as well as of craftsmen and embroiderers skilled in ‘dressing’ the figures. | ||
| The eighteenth century neapolitan crib rests on the core of a civilization which is both lay and ‘courteous’. It differs from the liturgical crib not merely in the figure’s smaller size, but above all in its wholly secular look, in the ostentation of richness, in the marked interest in all aspects of contemporary life, in the scenery swarming with characters, minor episodes, a multitude of details straying from the evangelic tale. |  |
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The crib, reassembled in a XVII century shrine which still keeps the background original painting, shows the main nativity episode only, shaped on the traditional models of the late baroque pictorial compositions (Solimena, de Mura). The group
also includes a few figures referred to some of the most celebrated sculptors
of neapolitan cribs. The figure of the rich bourgeois is due to Lorenzo
Mosca (died 1789), celebrated by ancient sources as a talented amateur,
a sought-after crib-maker in the service of noble families and finally
a modeller on his own. To Nicola Ingaldi (doc.nearly 1790-1840) is referred
one of the two figures of women of the people, wearing the elaborated
traditional costumes. The donkey on the background is ascribed to Francesco
Gallo (doc1770-1829), whose terra-cotta animals are said to have modelled
also for the china painters of the real fabbrica di Capodimonte. As usual, an haunting care for details can be noticed in the more ancient and good-quality specimen: it can be pointed out in dresses, most of whom manufactured in the eighteenth century, as well as in the accessories, i.e. the wicker baskets with dyed wax fruits and in the thurible supported by an angel who, as it was proper, is wrought in silver. the catalogue ospiti
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