The Angel Tree - Celebrating Christmas at The Met

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hristmas
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The Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially The
Met), located in New York City, is the largest
art museum in the United States with among the
most significant art collections. Its permanent
collection contains more than two million works,
divided among seventeen curatorial departments.
The main building, located on the eastern edge of
Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is by
area one of the world's largest art galleries
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Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche has
been displayed each year since 1957 at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art from late November to
early January. The annual candlelit spruce tree,
adorned with angels and surrounded by a lively
18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene, is a
tradition inaugurated by collector and museum
patron Loretta Hines Howard
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Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche have
been displayed each year since 1957 at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art from late November to
early January. The annual candlelit spruce tree
adorned with angels and surrounded by a lively
18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene, is a
tradition inaugurated by collector and museum
patron Loretta Hines Howard
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18th19th century
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Attributed to Giuseppe Gori (active ca. 1770-1810)
Angel
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18th century (14.3 x 19.1 x 18.1 cm)
Attributed to Giuseppe Sammartino (1720-1793)
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Detail of the Christmas tree and Neapolitan
Baroque crèche at Metropolitan, gift of Loretta
Hines Howard, 1964
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The Museum continues a longstanding holiday
tradition with the presentation of its Christmas
tree, a favorite of New Yorkers and visitors from
around the world. A vivid eighteenth-century
Neapolitan Nativity sceneembellished with a
profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant
figures and silk-robed angels hovering
aboveadorns the candlelit spruce. Recorded
music and lighting ceremonies add to the
enjoyment of the holiday display.
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The late Mrs. Howard began collecting crèche
figures in 1925 and soon after conceived the idea
of combining the Roman Catholic custom of
elaborate Nativity scenes with the tradition of
decorated Christmas trees that had developed
among the largely Protestant people of northern
Europe. Mrs. Howard donated more than two hundred
crèche figures to the museum in 1964 to form the
nucleus of this ever-expanding display.
18th century H. 41.6 cm
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18th19th century H. 41.9 cm
18th19th century H. 45.1 cm
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Second half 18th century H. 41.3 cm
Nicola Ingaldi (active late 18thearly 19th
century)
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Attributed to Giuseppe Sammartino (1720-1793)
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Attributed to Salvatore di Franco (active 18th
century)
Holy Ghost in Rays second half 18th century
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St. Joseph Attributed to Salvatore di Franco
(active 18th century)
Late 18thearly 19th century
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18thearly 19th century
Nicola Ingaldi (active late 18thearly 19th
century)
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18th19th century H. 11.4 cm
late 18thearly 19th century H 38.7 cm
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The museum will be open on both Christmas Eve
(December 24) and New Year's Eve (December 31)
with lighting ceremonies at 430 p.m.
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Attributed to Giuseppe Sammartino (1720-1793)
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Attributed to Salvatore di Franco (active 18th
century)
Attributed to Giuseppe Sammartino (1720-1793)
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Second half 18th century
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Second half 18th century
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This wrought-iron screen, or reja, was once
installed in the central nave of the Cathedral of
Valladolid in Spain. The Cathedral was completed
in 1668, but the choir screen, the private gift
of Isidro Cosío y Bustamante, Bishop of
Valladolid, was not put into place until December
7, 1763. Screens of the kind were used to close
the choir to the public. When the choir at
Valladolid was relocated near the main altar in
the 1920s, the screen was no longer needed.
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Vargueño (Drop-Front Desk on Chest). Spanish,
Gilded, carved and partly gilded, painted bone
wrought iron (Total H.160 cm) Gift of the
Duchesse de Richelieu, 1960
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Coffer lock and key
Vargueño Gift of the Duchesse de Richelieu, 1960
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Neapolitan School - Figures (terracotta cloth)
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Neapolitan School - Figures, from the Christmas
Crèche (terracotta cloth)
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Text and pictures Internet All copyrights belong
to their respective owners Presentation Sanda
Foisoreanu
2012
Sound Tu scendi dalle stelle (Canti
Popolari , Claudio Villa, Andrea Bocelli)
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The Angel Tree at The Met
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Galina Chuvilyaeva
Galina Chuvilyaeva
Lucia Chuvilyaeva
Galina Chuvilyaeva
Mezzo da Forli
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Victor Nizovtsev
Victor Nizovtsev
Victor Nizovtsev
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Alan Lathwell
Nino Chakvetadze
Ramunas Naumavicius
Annabel Spenceley
Ramunas Naumavicius
Ramunas Naumavicius