Santon

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Santons (11 cm) group
“Dressed” Santons
Arles: ancient theater, demonstration of Provencal costumes. Like a group of Santons, the people stand in the ruin

A Santon (Provencal "santoun": little saint) is a Provencal nativity figure made of clay (or in series production from terracotta ).

Santons are usually between 4 and 15 cm, but there are also 1 cm and 1 m Santons. They are painted in bright colors; some, the more expensive ones, are also dressed in cloth clothes.

Most of the Santons represent characters from Provence and have no direct reference to the Christmas story. So there is the judge, doctor, postman, Tartarine (based on a figure by Alphonse Daudet , in the back left of the picture), the old lady in a Provencal costume, the blind man with the child as a guide (on the right in the picture) and all sorts of residents a small town. There is also a little story for each character.

There is a small museum of the Santons in Les Baux-de-Provence .

The Swabian historian and writer Gerhard Raff has compiled a collection of over 500 figures by the Marseillais Santonier Marcel Carbonel , which were shown as Crèche Provençale in the Museum of Art and Commerce in Hamburg , in 2014 in the Museum of Everyday Culture of the State Museum of Baden-Württemberg in Waldenburg Castle and in 2015 in the cathedral St. Peter and Paul was shown in Brandenburg an der Havel .

history

When the churches were closed or used for other purposes during the turmoil of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the usual large nativity scenes were no longer allowed to be set up in the churches for Christmas. The Provençals then made their own nativity figures out of bread dough, painted them when it was dry, and built small nativity scenes in their apartments. From this custom, a separate arts and crafts developed, the Santon production by the Santonnier , an independent training occupation .

In the beginning there were almost only historical figures, for example farmers in historical festive costumes. Today, contemporary representations such as “tourists” and “photographers” are also appearing.

Manufacturing

Each Santonnier designs his own figures. A two-part plaster mold ( French: moule ) is removed from the original form . With this mold, copies of "fat" clay can be made over decades, which are then dried and fired. Some of these raw figures are for sale, but usually they are painted.

The execution is different and each region of Provence has its own characteristics. There are simple, rather naive designs that are reminiscent of the origin, and others that are modeled in a mannerist manner, especially under the “clothed” Santons, where only the head, hands and feet (including the pedestal) are made of clay.

Web links

Commons : Santon (figurine)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Living Worlds: The new exhibition in the Museum of Everyday Culture. (pdf; 736 kB) Museum of Everyday Culture, Waldenbuch Castle, May 7, 2014, accessed on December 4, 2016 .
  2. ^ Provencal nativity scene in the Brandenburg Cathedral. Brandenburg Cathedral Monastery, archived from the original on December 30, 2015 ; Retrieved December 4, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Christiane Schott: Southern France: For the sake of the figure . The time 52/2010, December 23, 2010, accessed on December 4, 2016.