Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche

The Met continues a longstanding holiday tradition with the presentation of its Christmas tree, a favorite of both New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. The magnificently lit, twenty-foot blue spruce looms over a vivid eighteenth-century Neapolitan Nativity scene, enshrined in an abundant array of lifelike figures with silk-robed angels hovering above. The scene describes in detail the Mediterranean harbor town's multicultural society.

The installation is set in front of the eighteenth-century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid in the Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall. Recorded Christmas music adds to the enjoyment of the holiday display.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image: 20-ft blue spruce and eighteenth-century Neapolitan Nativity scene

Whether or not you go, The Angel Tree: Celebrating Christmas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art , showcases the magnificent collection of Neapolitan Baroque angels and crèche figures that has thrilled visitors from across the country each Christmas season for more than 50 years. New fiber-optic lighting and a new tree now enhance its beauty. More than 50 angels and 100 crèche figures, many sculpted by major artists of the period, represent all who came to worship the Babe. This is a true family book, starting with the story of the Nativity and then focusing on the scene in large, gloriously reproduced pictures of the angels and of townspeople and animals, shepherds and their flocks, kings and grand ladies.

Select The Angel Tree: Celebrating Christmas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to learn more, or to place this book in your Amazon shopping cart. Your Amazon purchase through this link supports ArtGeek with a small commission.