Musical Angelic Host Nativity
by
, 09-11-2014 at 08:07 AM (130682 Views)
Magi approach the manger, twin angels ascend, an angelic host revolves around a Christmas tree lit up with tiny LED halos, and Christmas carols fill the air…
Lights, camera — I mean music — action! The Angelic Host Crèche 2 comes to life with movement, music, and lights. (Please be sure your speaker is on.)
There is no doubt which is the most sought-after paper nativity in the world: the Angelic Host Crèche (shown at left). It and its variations command hundreds of dollars on Internet auction sites. Can you believe that one was just sold for $911.25?
The vintage Angelic Host Crèche that commands hundreds of dollars.
And no wonder. Because the artistry of the Angelic Host crèche is hard to beat. There's so much to love about this marvelous nativity: a snow-covered forest scene dripping with icicles; eleven lovely figures, including three sheep; three large arched windows — made up of a myriad openings — lined with red cellophane that bathe the Nativity in soft filtered light; a gold Star of Bethlehem, beautifully embossed, set high above the manger facade. Then there's the pièce de résistance, the angelic host that gently floats by as if on a cloud.
Actually, the six angels with outstretched arms are suspended from a wheel that spins atop a Christmas tree, propelled by warm air rising from a candle set behind the crèche. (See the Angelic Host Crèche for an animation.)
This marvelous, magic, mesmerizing angelic procession captivates young and old, commands almost four-figure prices — and is the reason this nativity receives the most interest from crèche enthusiasts near and far.
So it may come as no surprise that I started thinking of sharing the Angelic Host Crèche with you by making it available as a Premium Download.
But two obstacles stood in the way: one, the tin revolving wheel that you would have to fashion, and two, tearing apart the Angelic Host Crèche so I could scan, color-correct, and repair the damage to the art caused by the intervening decades.
The first obstacle was overcome when my buddy, the crèche collector Celso Rosa visited from Brazil, took back a tracing of the revolving wheel and cut one out of tin.
The Raphael Madonna Crèche Christmas tree was a clue to a shared provenance of this nativity with the Angelic Host Crèche.
I was thrilled to see his video of his revolving wheel that made whole his incomplete nativity, and it gave me the resolve to do the unthinkable — tear apart a beautifully preserved crèche. Oh, the sacrifices one has to make for his crèche enthusiast friends!
Beautiful art
The many hours spent working on the Angelic Host Crèche on my computer gave me a new appreciation of its art. And made me realize that I had seen some of the same elements before.
Take the Raphael Madonna Crèche (shown at left). Do you notice any similarities with the Angelic Host Crèche? The Christmas tree behind the Madonna and Child is identical in both nativities.
And so began a search through my collection that unearthed five other seemingly diverse crèches by the same artist. So great was the German artist's ability for invention that at first glance these crèches do not look alike, but a closer look would reveal a Magi here or a kneeling shepherd there identical to ones in the other nativities.
Now that I had so many beautiful figures to choose from my thoughts turned from making an identical Angelci Host Crèche to one that I would design by incorporating all these wonderful figures.
And when my friend Tony gave me a musical clock, another idea entered my mind.