Book

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

The angel tree : celebrating Christmas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art : the Loretta Hines Howard collection of eighteenth-century Neapolitan crèche figures / Linn Howard and Mary Jane Pool ; photographs by Elliott Erwitt.

New York, NY : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Abrams, 2011.

127 pages : color illustrations ; 32 cm

"The Angel Tree: Celebrating Christmas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art" showcases the newly fabricated Angel Tree, a magnificent Christmas tree that has been installed annually at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for several decades. The Angel Tree's lights, Neapolitan Baroque creche figures - taken from the Loretta Hines Howard Collection and featuring exquisitely sculpted heads and garments of flowing silk - and landscaping have been completely recreated, offering a more interesting and varied terrain, as well as greater visibility. Renowned photojournalist Elliott Erwitt now documents this new exhibition in a spectacular way, focusing his camera on the figures, attributed to leading artists of eighteenth-century Naples, Italy. The crib scene, the tree of angels and the pilgrim figures, each dressed in the clothes of their trade or country, have been photographed in the new fibre-optic lighting, revealing details as they have never been seen before.

Howard, Loretta Hines -- Art collections.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Crèches (Nativity scenes) -- Italy -- Naples -- History -- 18th century.

Decorative arts -- Italy -- Naples -- History -- 18th century.

Crèches (Nativity scenes) -- Private collections -- New York (State) -- New York.

Selby, Linn Howard, 1932-

Pool, Mary Jane.

Erwitt, Elliott.

Celebrating Christmas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Loretta Hines Howard collection of eighteenth-century Neapolitan crèche figures

Includes bibliographical references (page 121).

A glory of angels and the Annunciation -- The nativity and the Christmas story -- The crèche in eighteenth-century Naples -- The angel tree and the Loretta Hines Howard crèche collection -- Loretta Howard's gift to the museum -- The design and installation of the Neapolitan crèche at the Metropolitan Museum.

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