Christmas village figurines - Margarido
This hand painted terracotta santon is available in 6 and 9 cm (2.4 or 3.6") high.
Each subject is unique and stamped, made by a craftsman twice the best worker of France ... to create a sublime Christmas crib and amaze young and old! ...
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The genuine santons of Provence are shaped in clay and painted by hand. It’s a French craft, coming from an ancient tradition. This tradition of Provencal creche continues today in southern France, where the influence of Occitan culture remains. There’s a strong concentration of santonniers in Aubagne, Marseille, Aix en Provence and Arles.
The French word santon comes from the Provencal santoun which means "little saint". Originally, the living cribs were intended to recreate the scene of the Nativity in the churches, and since the Middle Ages under St. Francis of Assisi. But the French revolution banned them in public, which led families to use dummy figurines to continue the tradition in their homes.
These characters were made of different materials (paper mache, breadcrumbs, plaster). In Marseille, in the nineteenth century, the competition of Neapolitan merchants who sold santibelli, has generated a resistance from the Provencal santonniers. The latter imposed the cooked clay and proposed their creations on markets of santons. These are still very popular today, in parallel with the Christmas markets.
Did you know?
Originally, it was Saint Francis of Assisi who, in 1223, staged a representation of the nativity with real characters and animals (living crib).
It was not until the beginning of 1800 that cribs reappeared in churches (after the ban by the French Revolution). At that time, a Marseillais, named Louis Lagnel, had the idea to model the characters of the nativity in clay, and to create molds to reproduce his models in series. He also represented the people who lived around him, the baker, the grinder ... The first santon and the Provençal crèche were born, and the Provençals contributed greatly to its expansion throughout France.
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- Santons
- Provence terracotta Santons made and painted by hand - available in 6 or 9 cm
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