The

idea of the work was born at the beginning of 2020 by desire of the Society of Jesus. Ulderico Pinfildi, the Neapolitan sculptor, the indisputed of contemporary crib art, is commissioned to create a Neapolitan crib in the Church of Jesus in Rome. The artist interprets the current need to return to humanity by creating a theatrical piece that develops with his characters and allegories around the figure of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Order.

Pinfildi’s ability to render a pictorial nativity three-dimensional translates into a reclining Madonna, tired because of childbirth, eartlhy and human, with the child in her arms, inspired by the Sicilian nativity of Caravaggio in Messina. St. Joseph is kneeling beside him in sweet contemplation. In the center, St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the Jesuit habit, puts down his sword and kneels in front of the nativity and becomes an important actor to emphasize his love for the figure of Jesus, who inspired his life and works. All around in a still image that leaves us breathless, the traditional figures of the nativity scene in Neapolitan costume alternate with characters with oriental somatic features that highlight the evangelization work of the Society of Jesus. Strong is the contrast between the humbleness of the clothes of the Holy Family with the pomp of the other characters. The figure of the beggar is heartbreaking, a nude in inspired on Michelangelo, who from the centre of the crib at the bottom extends his hand to the nativity like a puppeteer holding invisible threads, adoringly, dramatic, representing a lost humanity, a mercy to be recovered and a hope that must always accompany our every step.