The Angel Tree: Celebrating Christmas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Description

The Museum's Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche are among The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most cherished treasures, the installation each year heralding the beginning of the Christmas season. Now a new tree enhanced with fiber-optic lighting allows the magnificent scene to be viewed in all its glory.

The base of the majestic tree displays a landscape in which eighteenth- century crèche figures reenact the story of the Nativity. Sumptuously dressed, exotic travelers who have come to pay homage to the Babe include the three kings with their retainers and animals, a grand lady riding an elephant, and another seated on a camel.

Loretta Hines Howard gave her collection of Neapolitan Baroque Crèche figures and angels to the Museum in 1964. For many years she installed the crèche and angels personally, work that has since been carried out by her daughter, Linn Howard—coauthor of this book—who is now aided by her own daughter. Linn Howard and Mary Jane Pool, noted author and former long- time editor in chief of House and Garden magazine, tell the fascinating story of the crèche and provide thumbnail biographies of the artists to whom particular figures can be attributed. A special feature of the book is the Christmas story, in which the Gospels are illustrated with pictures from the collection.

The splendid photography was created for this book by Elliott Erwitt, whose work can be found in galleries and museums around the world.

The Angel Tree is a book for the entire family, joyously retelling the Nativity story and illustrated with pictures that will afford hours of happy exploration.

128 pages, 125 full-color illustrations. 8'' x 12''. Hardcover; clothbound, with jacket.

• 128 pages
• 125 full-color illustrations
• 8'' x 12''
• Hardcover