The Donnaregina Monumental Complex – Diocesan Museum of Naples (Largo Donnaregina) hosted the international conference “The Neapolitan Nativity Scene as a Tool for Evangelization”, an important moment of study among the major experts on the Nativity Scene in Naples and in the world, fifty years after the last conference on the subject. Experts in the history and content of Nativity Scene representations, both Italian and foreign, discussed the great value of the Nativity Scene: Monsignor Rino Fisichella, Archbishop and President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization; HE Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Metropolitan Archbishop of Naples; the magistrate Catello Maresca; Sylvain Bellenger, director of the Capodimonte Museum; the entrepreneur and publisher Rosario Bianco; Filippo Maria Gambari, director of the National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions of Rome; Francesco Delizia, director of the National Museum of San Martino; María Teresa Marín Torres, director of the Salzillo Museum of Murcia (ES); the writer Jean-Noël Schifano; Antonio Diaz Rubio, president of the Díaz Caballero Foundation, founder of the Museo Internacional de Arte Belinista in Mollina (Málaga, Spain); Carmine Romano, art historian and expert in Nativity scene art.
“This is a very important moment, not only for the city but also for all those who see the continuity of a tradition in the nativity scene,” says Monsignor Rino Fisichella. “There is great fascination in the present: the fascination of that mystery that, we don’t know what happens, but we feel better. We grasp more the sense of reflection, of meditation, we understand the value of silence. We discover the beauty of art, of fantasy, of creativity. I like to see how the nativity scene is updated. There are new characters, who tell the story of everyday life. The nativity scene is not a parenthesis in people’s lives: life is everyday life but Christmas places it in an extraordinary event. Even everyday life can become an instrument of salvation.” Then his opinion on Naples. “Arriving at the station and finding yourself in front of this beautiful square gives you a sense of great breadth and says that, once again, Naples, like our beautiful Italian cities, is opening up to development and progress, and is opening up to being increasingly capable of hosting, with its riches, its history, its tradition, tourists who come from all over the world”.
“The original idea of Saint Francis, when he made the first nativity scene, was to transmit a message,” says His Eminence Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe. “A bit like the Bible of the poor, which comes from Giotto onwards: artists who enriched our Churches for those who could not read and write. Through the image, the Bible became an evangelization. So the Nativity Scene. In particular, the Nativity Scene of Naples is a very special message: today we talk a lot about the so-called “incarnate theology,” that is, theology lived in life. The Neapolitan Nativity Scene has expressed this concreteness of a mystery from the beginning. The mystery of God who incarnates himself, in a place attended by the people. On the Nativity Scene there is the one who sells the fish, the one who makes the bread, the washerman: everyday life, the individual realities that make up our society. This is true evangelization: communicating, also through works of art, a message that is an essential part of our Christian faith.”
“The main purpose of the Fundación Díaz Caballero is to spread the nativity scene throughout the world,” says Antonio Diaz Rubio. “For us at the foundation, it is an extraordinary and very important event to be right here in Naples, which is the cradle of the nativity scene. In the Foundation we have various Neapolitan nativity scenes. When we decided to gather the shepherds, the first city we visited was Naples. We have over 90 figures of shepherds from the artisan workshops of Naples and Ercolano.”
“There is a strong bond between Naples and Murcia, which passes through the art of the nativity scene in Nicolás and Francisco Salzillo – explains María Teresa Marín Torres, director of the Salzillo Museum in Murcia (Spain) –. Nicolás in particular, who lived in Murcia for 27 years, was born in Santa Maria Capua Vetere and worked in Neapolitan workshops, where his son Francisco also gained great experience”.
“We are comforted by the idea and awareness that, with the Academy of Arts, Crafts and Professions, concrete things are being done, represented today by this Congress, included in the larger project of the International Nativity Scene Exhibition on history and tradition, which is having great success – explains magistrate Catello Maresca –. And, more generally, by a very intense social intervention, culminating in the inauguration of a pizzeria, which one of the boys who attended the Academy's pizza-making course opened in via Arenaccia, with his strength, his dignity, his skills. And by many other ideas and initiatives that are coming to fruition and that give the strength to move forward and, at the same time, the awareness that something good can be done. Commitment and a network are needed to give concreteness to ideas”.
“We are trying, and with considerable success, to bring the nativity scene back to its mission,” says entrepreneur and publisher Rosario Bianco. “Talking about family, about hospitality, about the themes of the Gospel. It is a difficult path, especially in this period, but we are attracting attention to the theme. With the International Nativity Scene Exhibition, in the Church of Sant'Angelo a Segno, in via dei Tribunali 45, we were able to talk to school children. Today, after 50 years, thanks to the support of Cardinal Sepe, who was the motivator and supporter of this important initiative, we are able to organize a conference in which we talk about the Nativity Scene as a tool for evangelization.”
The congress, announced on the occasion of the inauguration of the International Nativity Scene Exhibition, in the Church of Sant'Angelo a Segno, in via dei Tribunali 45 (open to the public until January 14), is part of a larger project conceived and realized by the entrepreneur and publisher Rosario Bianco and the magistrate Catello Maresca, with the Academy of Arts, Crafts and Professions and the PartenArt Association. A project that enjoys the patronage of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization and the Archdiocese of Naples.
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