This book accompanies the Kimbell’s exhibition A Nativity from Naples: Presepe Sculpture of the Eighteenth Century, which showcases a form of art that flourished in Naples in the eighteenth century and today seems almost inseparable from the celebration of Christmas-the arrangement of movable figures, animals, and props to represent the scene in the stable at Bethlehem after the birth of Christ. The Kimbell presepe comprises some seventy eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century pieces, drawn from some of the greatest Neapolitan collections and placed in a re-creation of a traditional Nativity setting, complete with crumbling Roman arch. This catalogue commemorates the event with lavish illustrations and essays by leading authorities that explain why the presepe tradition took such strong root in eighteenth-century Naples.
