Portuguese Painted Pottery Nativity

A nativity by Olaria Alfacinha in Estremoz. The small village of Estremoz in Portugal is close to the border between Spain and Portugal. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, handmade clay figures were made there, but the craft eventually died out. In the first half of the twentieth century, a professor persuaded a local woman to begin making figures again. This distinctive nativity is made of several Estremoz figures. Baby Jesus has his own fancy bed with attending birds (the rooster is traditional in Portugal). Mary kneels on one side and Joseph kneels with his staff on the other side. Various peasants bring their gifts. The wise men are standing with their gifts, wearing fancy capes and crowns and black boots. Ther pottery is painted in the colorful, distinctive style of Estremoz. This set reminds me of my own visit to Estremoz in the 1980’s. The tallest figure is five and a half inches tall (14 cm.).