For some married couples a special aura surrounds their first Christmas. That was true for James and Emilia Govan. Together they purchased their first in 1962. Then after a few years they bought a second one. When several more years passed and they acquired a third they wondered. Jim Govan says what they were going to do with three Nativities. Although the Govans didn't know it at the time that question which led to their decision to collect Nativity scenes planted the seed for the exhibition now on display at Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago."Art of the Crèche: The James and Emilia Govan Collection" grew out of what Jim and Emilia shared: the Roman Catholic faith an attraction to art and -- rooted in their Lithuanian and Italian immigrant backgrounds -- an interest in different cultures. The couple's collection grew slowly at first. Govan recalls during a recent interview by telephone. But in the early '80s when they had about 20 Nativities and Jim had started reading up on the crèche's history he and Emilia decided they wanted to document their budding collection. They wanted to learn as much as they could about the lives of the artists and artisans who made them as well as the materials they used and how the crèches were made. Today. Govan continues to build the collection in memory of his wife who died in 2000. He has more than 450 all stored at his home and has displayed them in churches and other venues -- including the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington from 2001 through 2005. The first crèche they bought however never leaves Govan's Arlington. Va. home. "It represents in so many ways," he says. "the life I had with my wife. The bond and joy we had together."Although people tend to seek out traditional crèches. Govan's collection by choice includes many that are indigenous. The diverse cultures they represent and the sometimes unusual materials they are made of -- including potato clay and cinnamon paste -- draw people in though. Curiosity about their own ethnic backgrounds leads many to ask as one person recently did. "Do you have one from Slovakia?" Or Korea? an adopted child wanted to know. He does he told them stored in his home. Making the story theirsIt's easy for a LUMA visitor to see the collection's enormous appeal. Like the stained-glass windows and Mystery Plays that predate them crèches tell the story of faith the
Bosco says. Jesuit records show he adds that the people they met -- whether from Japan. India. South America wherever -- "were carving Mary. Joseph and Jesus with the cultural and human characteristics of their own people."Early Christians focused on the cross -- the Crucifixion -- because they saw celebrations of births
he says. But when the Emperor Constantine issued an edict legalizing Christianity and after his mother. St. Helena brought back to Rome from the Holy Land a relic of Jesus' manger. Christians began to focus their attention on His Nativity. Nativities were displayed in the great cathedrals. Then over time they became
The movement to greater inclusiveness also was occurring in Europe in the 16th century. The Duchess of Amalfi ordered a crèche made in Naples that included 167 figurines. Bosco says. There was the butcher the baker and all the other members of a village and the guilds active at that time. The unique Nativity scenes that reflect their makers' cultures communicate the universal need to feel "we belong," Bosco says. "I'm part of this family."Bosco remembers the two crèches his family had when he was growing up. An elaborate one was kept on the mantel because he and his siblings might break it. Another one simple and inexpensive found its home underneath the Christmas tree. He recalls as a little kid playing with the figurines and looking up at
while lying near the crèche's little Baby Jesus. The Nativity scene was easier to understand than baptism or confirmation. Bosco says. As a concrete expression of divine love it had its counterpart in something he had experienced: familial and communal love. Like the Jesuit missionaries he is "very aware that placing yourself in the scene of Christ makes you feel included in salvation."Universal self-givingStill what surprises people most is "how different all of them look," LUMA docent Judy Gustafson says as she points out crèches that have caught her eye and the eyes of visitors. There's the crèche sculpted by Italian artist Francesco Scarlattella and mounted on volcanic stone from Mount Etna. Made of terra cotta it shows an old Joseph holding the Baby Jesus with Mary
That surprised people. Gustafson says. Or the crèche from Texas made by third-generation fireman Alfredo Rodriguez a santos carver: someone who carves saints. She points to a rooster and says.
The story goes that the only time the rooster crowed at midnight was to herald Christ's birth. And in Spain they still have a Mass of the Rooster at midnight she adds. A crèche made of wood includes a yak. It was made by a Mongolian artist named Batmunkh who became a Mormon convert. The crèche by Ethiopian designer Hannah Luthi who teaches craft skills to young people is made of a variety of materials: cloth wood wire stone straw leather and plastic. It shows both an old shepherd dressed in traditional clothes and a young shepherd in bluejeans. Musicians offer music as a gift in many crèches. A whole choir of singing angels appears in one from Poland made by Antoni Kaminski. A crèche commissioned in 2006 from California shows a burrow with
she says. A crèche from Cambodia was made by several victims of land mines who were taught how to carve crèches to help them earn a living. That explains why some of the figures were made in a simplified style while others are detailed and why the figures differ in scale and size."Even people who aren't Christians seem to like the idea of Nativity scenes from around the world," Gustafson says. Bosco the Jesuit priest says he sees no problem in some of the crèches being made by non-Christians
What moves people he thinks is not the artist but how the Nativity scene is produced and presented. A crèche's artistry is what lures people to ask themselves:
And there. Bosco suggests lies the power of art -- it becomes a part of you. The true test of an artist's crèche is whether it gives form to the fundamental Christian reality represented by the story of Christ's Nativity. When a work of art does that he says it becomes
when he was growing up. At the exhibit he saw crèches with the facial characteristics of people from Peru the Philippines. Korea. Madagascar -- more than 70 countries. Reminded of a line from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Bosco happily sums up his experience at LUMA:
Room for all of humanityIn the course of collecting their crèches. Govan says he and his wife were struck by the tolerance of some of the artists. At one point seeking a crèche from Japan. Govan was referred to a retired Japanese professor who was a recent pupil at a ceramic school. The man who agreed to make a crèche spent some time on it then sent it to Govan along with material on the history of Christianity in Japan. The man
Besides the crèches the Govans purchased or had commissioned they received many as gifts. Govan recalls one from Russia in particular. Orthodox icons (flat images on two-dimensional panels) are more common in that country. But 2 1/2 years after contacting an American priest at the Most Holy Mother of God church in Vladivostok. Govan received a call from the priest who was in California for a medical checkup. "
Govan recalls him saying. A woman who made puppets to earn a little money to support her ailing mother and herself had sewn all the clothes for the Nativity's papier-mâché figures.
A man in New Zealand and three Maori women one of whom was the man's wife gave him the one they made. Govan says. And a Jewish friend the daughter of rabbi gave the Govans a crèche she found in a shop. In a world full of chaos. Govan says he and his wife learned about
Some of the crèches in the collection were made by unknown poor people in poor countries. Some of them had never made a Nativity before.
"What we didn't anticipate was the richness of the social context all the experiences we would have with people that we knew and (others we knew) only by e-mail."
They taught Emilia and him so much about the kindness of people all around the world he says. In many of the Nativities in the LUMA show people gathered around a manger are bearing gifts valued in their culture in their arms or on their back. A chicken. Bunches of bananas. A bag of sugar. A sack of grain. Even a lobster. Thinking of the Christmas story the crèches portray. Govan says the birth of a child who will redeem mankind is
In another light the hundreds of diverse crèches he and Emilia collected create this promising vision: that someday all the world's people may truly understand that
I am not a Jesuit nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit. 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life resulted in me trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki. S. J.. I am the father of two small children. I am married to a great wife.
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