The Italian Presepe: Cultural Landscapes of the Soul

Photographs by Margot Balboni

Essay by Sarah Stanbury

The Italian Presepe: Cultural Landscapes of the Soul is an exploration of an important form of Italian installation art: the nativity scene, or the presepe, by Margot Balboni, an independent curator and photographer, and Sarah Stanbury, a medievalist and member of the Holy Cross English Department.

Italians date their rich history of the presepe to 1223, when St. Francis reenacted the Nativity in Greccio. Through the centuries the presepe has developed a history deeply entwined with Italian art and culture. The catalog features Balboni’s photographs of nativity scenes from the thirteenth-century to today, along with photographs of artists at work in contemporary workshops with an essay by Stanbury.

• Softcover: 80 pages, full color photographs
• Publisher: the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, College of the Holy Cross
• ISBN: 978-0-96-16183-2-2