A Hummel figure is more than a simple figure. It has long ago received the title of nobility making it a collectible, and entitling it to be a coveted icon of collectors, fan clubs and limited series. It is also a well-deserved and posthumous tribute to the humble artistic genius of a religious sister who wanted people to look at holy figures with children's eyes and behold them with a child's heart. Her porcelain creations are like a passport to paradise lost, for a time at least.

The presentation of this set breaks with the traditional alignment of crèche figures, clustering them in groups and according to levels.  Using the primary Hummel colors of red and blue to divide and regroup, Michel Forest imparts new intensity to the central actors, and consigns magi and shepherds to reverent distance.  Thus, a collectible is no longer only a collectible but becomes a ladder of ascent to greater aesthetic and religious awareness.

Ice Queen?
Unknown Artist
USA

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we might want to enquire as to why the beholder likes this kind of nativity set. Is he or she attracted by the wintry spell of the landscape or by the contrast between the barrenness of nature and the rosy hue that covers the newborn baby? Whatever the reason for the special attraction to this set, it points to a given period in time and its specific canon of beauty. Is it the period of Mary, the Ice Queen?

There was a time, long ago for some but not so long ago for others, when religion marked a clear difference and opposition to the things of this world. The saints, people of the other world, were accordingly pictured. Embodying the triumph over the laws of gravity and transitoriness, they were meant to look disembodied. They were, as in this set, of rarefied beauty, intentionally made to so convey the impression of diaphanous and insubstantial reality. They were heavenly – and looked it. Meanwhile, the focus of the Christian message has shifted to more this-worldliness, as other nativity scenes have shown. Today, artistic taste gives preference to a more corporeal humanness. However, the pendulum of history keeps swinging in two directions, meaning that there is – in the long run – no this-worldliness without other-worldliness. Distance and purity – as pictured in this nativity scene – have perennial value.

Heavenly Music
Florencia Rodina 
Guatemala

The desert burns with the intense glow of the delicately crafted holy figures and the sacred drama they are re-enacting. Heaven – for fear of failing in its commitment to earth – holds its breath behind an impassive wall of pale blue sky and the silvery disk of a plunging moon. Angels, on the balcony of heaven or mixing in with other characters treading desert sand, are playing on their many instruments a heavenly tune of peace and reconciliation. Breezy and carefree, they are trying very hard to soften hearts and elicit response to their message. Harbingers of good news, they not only announce Christ's birth, they also accompany the lonely mother and her child on their flight to Egypt, and play pomp and circumstance as Christ enters triumphantly the city of Jerusalem. But wherever they go, the stubbornly faithful donkey, carrying his master, has been there before them. Heaven needn't worry, earth should rejoice; such is the angels' tune.

Open House
Kevin Hanna
USA

The house in the center of this imposing scene is a manger. The manger is an open house. It has walls but they are mostly open doors. It has a roof that covers nothing. A flight of steps leads up to the landing, but the landing has no portal. This is no house to stay. People come and go. This monumental representation of salvation history does not yet tell from where people come. But it allows for more than a cursory glance in the direction they take. There are many stations on the way they walk, some marked with misery, some others a genuine joy to behold, still others sweet and bitter all at once. Leaving the house of Bethlehem, we follow the Holy Family on their flight to Egypt, we join them in the temple, and move on with them to Nazareth. Each one of these scenes begs attention: Joseph's protective hand and fearful eyes as he looks back in panic at Herod's hordes; the wisdom and goodness on Simeon's and Anna's faces at the presentation; the not so ordinary scene of family life in Nazareth where clay birds are flying while father and mother are doing domestic chores. As we move on we find Jesus sitting in the temple and lecturing the wise, his feet dangling and still far from touching the ground. The next scene, one tier up, represents the wedding at Cana. Jesus and his mother are submerged in an explosion of joy, pointing out that in music and dance, eating and drinking, there is something of God. As the journey continues, Jesus gathers his first disciples: his own mother, the woman at the well, some of the many who ate from the little bread and fish, and Nicodemus with the lamp seeking the light. Most of these scenes are built into or around a church building. The church wants to be understood as counterpoint to the manger house. If the stable was windy, exposed, and provisional, the church in turn projects stability and permanence. Less welcoming and somewhat forbidding, at least in appearance, it is a lieu of conservation and celebration. However, to be true to its origins, the Church must always accept to be challenged by the spirit of the crèche, its defenselessness before God and generosity for the earth. What we see here is only part of a more complete representation of salvation history. Beautiful in its incompleteness, it remains a torso. But soon the artist will give us the whole panorama of God's dealings with humanity, from creation to the fulfillment of all in eternity. This monumental narrative in clay, which will count close to 200 figures, will be solemnly unveiled during the year 2000 at the University of Dayton.

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Return to The Mary Page This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by Sr. M. Jean Frisk , was last modified Thursday, 06/20/2002 15:53:54 EDT by Kris Sommers. Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu.