Document Highlights

December 2002

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The oldest surviving Neapolitan Presepio (1478-84)

DOCUMENT CITATION:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 4028, fol. 310
(Entry 7978 in the "Documentary Sources" database.)

TRANSLATION:
It seems that part of the palace of the Viceroy of Naples [Pedro Fernández de Castro, Conde de Lemos] burned down, causing some 60 thousand scudi in damage. This happened by chance, since on the evening of Christmas Sunday they were showing a manger scene there to a group of ladies, most notably the Princess of Stigliano [Isabella Gonzaga di Sabbioneta]. A page with a torch carelessly set fire to some hangings without anyone noticing, then the fire spread from one of these to another. When it was discovered at night, there was barely time to save the most valuable things, especially the papers.

TRANSCRIPTION:
Si intende che sia abbruggiato una parte del palazzo del v. re di Napoli [Pedro Fernández de Castro, Conde de Lemos] con danno di circa 60 m. scudi, et questo casualmente, perchè la domenica sera del Natale essendo ivi un presepio nel mostrarsi ad una mano di dame et in particolare alla principessa di Stigliano [Isabella Gonzaga di Sabbioneta] disavvedutamente un paggio con una torcia attaccò fuoco a certi veli senza che alcuno se n'avedesse, et così di uno in un altro il fuoco fece corpo, et la notte si scoperse, che a pena s'hebbe tempo di levare il meglioramento et in particolare le scritture.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
The presepe or presepio (a three-dimensional "crêche" or "manger scene" representing the infant Christ and his entourage) is a widespread custom throughout the Christian and particularly Catholic world. This usage is traditionally traced to December of 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated mass before a sculptured group of the Holy Family flanked by a living ox and ass (sometimes described as an entirely "living presepe", consisting of costumed people as well as animals) in the village of Greccio on the border of Umbria and Lazio. By 1025, however, there was already a documented church of Sancta Maria ad Praesepem in Naples, where a representation of the Nativity became the focus of intense female devotion. The word presepio itself derives from the Latin praesepe or "feeding trough", signalling the Christ Child’s initial resting place.

It was in Naples that the culture of the presepio achieved its fullest development at all levels of class and society. Though presepi were generally displayed only at Christmas-time, their production was and is an ongoing industry, concentrated for many centuries in the district of San Gregorio Armeno in the heart of the city. The oldest example of a monumental Neapolitan presepio comes from the Church of San Giovanni a Carbonara; sculpted by Pietro and Giovanni Alemanno in 1478-84, it originally included 41 life-sized wooden figures of which 19 still survive. Other notable early examples are in San Domenico Maggiore (by Pietro Belverte, before 1513) and in Santa Maria del Parto a Mergellina (by Giovanni Merliano da Nola, before 1526). By the mid-16^th Century, visitors to Naples (most notably Saint Gaetano da Thiene from the Veneto) were already commenting on the local fervor for the cult of the Nativity of Christ and the proliferation of such representations. By the first decades of the 17^th Century, as documented by the present notice in a manuscript newletter (avviso), important presepi were appearing in secular settings as well as churches, with the example of the Spanish Viceroys themselves.

In Naples between 1504 and 1707, 48 successive deputies of the King of Spain enjoyed quasi-royal powers and sweeping prerogatives along with unparalleled opportunities for making vast fortunes in brief periods of time. These Viceroys were viewed as both oppressors and benefactors by the native population; though responsible for massive public works and conspicuous acts of civic beneficence, they also looted the city and its territory with rapacious efficiency. Perhaps the most successful viceregal entrepreneur was the Conde de Monterrey (Manuel de Guzman), who returned to Spain in 1637 with a fleet of forty ships loaded with money, works of art and other treasures. It would seem that Neapolitan presepi traveled back with the Viceroys as well. In 1658, one year before his departure, the Conde de Castrillo (García de Avellaneda y Haro) commissioned 112 figures in wood at rather less than life size. A century later, Carlos Borbón, the first King of the Two Sicilies, took a massive presepio with him to Madrid when he succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759.

The Viceroy at the time of the presepio fire was Pedro Fernández de Castro, the second Conde de Lemos. He ruled from 1610 to 1616 and is best known in history as the founder of the modern University of Naples. His father Fernando Ruiz de Castro, first Conde de Lemos, had previously served as Viceroy from 1599 to 1601 and in fact began construction of the very palace in which the fire broke out. Pedro Fernández’s guest of honor on 30 December 1612, the Sunday after Christmas, was Isabella Gonzaga, heiress to the Duchy of Sabbioneta in her own right and wife of Luigi Carafa, Prince of Stigliano, one of the great feudal magnates of the South of Italy.

This viceregal presepio was evidently considered special enough to merit a visit by a party of distinguished ladies (and their gender might not be coincidental, since the cult of the Nativity had obvious female associations.) But what exactly did the Princess of Stigliano come to admire? This is a tantalizing question to which we can venture only partial answers. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, a prestigious presepio was most likely to consist of a limited number of relatively large and solid figures in polychrome wood. It was apparently only later in the the century that figures came to be produced with more rudimentary wooden bodies but elaborate costumes and finely realized separate heads in wood, wax or other materials. Another apparently subsequent development is that of the extensive scenographic presepio, featuring dozens or even hundreds of relatively small figures in an illusionistic setting (exemplified by the celebrated Neapolitan royal presepi of the 18^th and 19^th centuries).

The most intriguing implication of the present avviso is the implied theatricality of presentation. Since the fire was only discovered later and at night, the Princess’s visit might well have taken place during the daytime. However, she did not view the Viceroy’s presepio by diffused or ambient light but had it revealed to her by one or more torch-bearing pages. In Italian, the hangings that caught fire are specifically described as "certi veli", "certain veils", which normally implies light-weight or partially transparent cloths. It is tempting to imagine back-lighting or other special effects, which were well within the range of the theatrical technology of the time—though theaters, for this very reason, were notoriously susceptible to fire.

This sensational occurrence in Naples is here retold at second-hand in a sheet of avvisi from Rome. Indeed, the avviso writer distances himself from his story at the very outset, using the formula, "Si intende che..."—"it seems that..." or "one is given to understand..." Then, after this convenient disclaimer, he pulls together a concise yet compelling news item involving the Spanish Viceroy, a Neapolitan presepio, a noble lady, a careless page, a flash fire and 60,000 scudi worth of damage (which is very considerable damage, since the scudo was a substantial silver coin.) "Saving the papers" is a particularly effective device for evoking extreme desperation. (Nowadays, we would probably grab our laptop first, then our tax records and family photos.) The most puzzling aspect of the account is that none of the histories of the Palazzo Reale mention a fire in 1612, though work is cited there throughout the viceregency of Pedro Fernández de Castro (1610-16). With further archival research, it might be possible to trace the story to its roots and then determine the level of journalistic enhancement.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

NAPLES, PALAZZO REALE click on image to enlarge The façade of the Palace of the Viceroys in Naples, designed by Domenico Fontana in 1600-2 (from P. Petrini, Facciate delli palazzi più cospicui della città di Napoli, 1718)

click on image to enlarge The Palace of the Viceroys in Naples at the end of the Seventeenth Century, represented by Francesco Cassiano di Silva.

NAPLES, VIA SAN GREGORIO ARMENO click on image to enlarge The quarter of the Presepio makers in Naples.

THE SAN GIOVANNI A CARBONARA PRESEPIO (1478-84) click on image to enlarge The oldest surviving Neapolitan Presepio (1478-84); these life-sized figures were sculpted in wood, then plastered and polychromed, by Pietro and Giovanni Alemanno for the Church of San Giovanni a Carbonara (Naples, Museo di San Martino).

THE ROYAL PRESEPIO AT CASERTA click on image to enlarge A view of the Presepio at the Royal Palace of Caserta, one of the grandest illusionistic Neapolitan presepi with hundreds of terra cotta figures from the 18th and 19th centuries.

click on image to enlarge A detail from the Presepio at the Royal Palace of Caserta

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