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The Presepio in the rest of the world
In Latin America, having put aside every aspect of refined
art, the Presepio took on decidedly folkloristic art which emphasised
blue skies and shining sun, since in these countries Christmas falls
in mid Summer and Presepio are often built in the open, in gardens
or patios and are decorated with all sorts of cacti.
In Mexico the Presepio is one of the most authentic expressions
of typical Indian craft-work sold at every village market and which,
from 1500 onwards, was enriched by the influence of European and Asian
settlers. Spanish rule brings with it Iberian art which overshadows
that of the Maya and Aztec peoples as we see in statues still extant
in the Presepio of San Miguel di Allende and wax Presepio figures
belonging to old noble families of Spanish descent.
In Brazil, the Presepio was diffused between 1600 and 1700,
by the Jesuits and by missionary priests from Portugal, Spain and
France, who came to evangelise the native Indians. Although it is
said that a century earlier Jose de Anquieta helped the Indians to
make a Nativity Scene with figures modelled in clay. While in Europe
the art of the Presepio had reached its highest forms of expression,
in Brazil it was introduced and began to spread first modelled on
Spanish and Portuguese Nativity Scenes and later with its own characteristics
and the introduction of Indian mythological figures. In north-eastern
Brazil we find the Lapinhas symbolic constructions in which Baby Jesus
is dressed in cloth of gold and precious gems, set on the hill top
and surrounded by flowers, plants, birds and animals of all species.
Typical also the two floor Presepio with the Nativity below and above
the Crucifixion scene surrounded by the favourite saints of the artist
or commissioner.
In Paraguay the Presepio is set up in almost every home because
there is a tradition that it protects the family from harm. A few
days before Christmas the people take a wooden board on which they
put a mound of humid earth where rice grains are sown which soon sprout
tender green leaves. On this mount they build the scene with figures
and little animals made of cotton wool and pieces of coloured glass
to look like rocks and stones. Then the entire Presepio is enclosed
with a circle of melons, pineapples and coconut flowers. Baby Jesus
is placed in the cradle but in the week of the new year, the little
babe is replaced with a bigger child holding in one hand a small globe
of the world and in the other a cross.
In Peru the Presepio, Sammarcos, is a sort of altar with doors
painted in lively colours and which containing numerous figures and
scenes, religious and non.
In Africa, the first Presepio with clay figures were brought
by the missionaries. It was not easy to convince the natives that
the new God became a little white baby, but at the time there was
no local iconography to present the new religion in a way that Africans
could understand. Only later when the newly made Christians began
to produce works of art, were the missionaries able to show the natives
how to build their own African Nativity Scenes, often carved in precious
ivory or wood, with Three Kings dressed like local chiefs in ornate
costumes adorned with hundreds of multicoloured beads.
In the Far East, where missionaries created Christian oases,
the Presepio flourished. Although he never became a Christian, the
Emperor Indie Akbar (1556-1605) showed remarkable appreciation for
the Presepio and freely allowed the tradition to spread throughout
his vast empire.
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Fides
News 2004