Tradition and multimedia meet to tell the Neapolitan crib of the eighteenth century: we start, virtually, from the court of Charles III of Bourbon, sovereign promoter of a "fashion" which, over the centuries, would become art, tradition, folklore. The exhibition "The Courtly Nativity", scheduled at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples from 1 December 2022 to 31 January 2023, develops in three rooms adjacent to the Meridiana: the first two rooms host an immersive video, which allows the visitor to enter literally in the scenes and architecture of Carlo's crib, while the last space is reserved for collection pieces of eighteenth-century shepherds.

Curated by Fabrizia Fiore (President of the "The Miracle of Charles III" Association), the multimedia installation is created by the architect Marco Capasso and his creative studio: also thanks to the evocative music by Antonio Fresa, the public is able to discover, in detail , the characters, the stories and the symbolic meanings of the "great theatre" represented by the eighteenth-century nativity scene. In this evocative journey, which intertwines the terms of the sacred and the profane, there are many historical references to explore: from the dynamism of Charles of Bourbon, who launched the crib "nouvelle vague" to the ferment of a European capital such as Naples, a real bulwark for intellectuals from all over the world.

The exhibition concludes with a roundup of collector's items that are unmissable, for connoisseurs and not only: a "Nativity" by Giuseppe Sanmartino, belonging to the Accardi collection; an innkeeper by Nicola Somma (the statuette, with its surly expression and the leek on its forehead, symbolizes the devil in the crib, because in the evangelical story it was the innkeeper who chased away the Madonna and Saint Joseph, forcing them to take refuge in a stable) ; a nobleman by Salvatore Di Franco, in a typical eighteenth-century dress in velvet and silk from San Leucio, with Catalan-style silver filigree buttons, represents the variegated society of the time; an oriental nobleman, with a dog, by Matteo Bottiglieri (the group depicts the Procession of the Magi in homage to the embassies of the Ottoman Sultan and the Bey of Tripoli who, visiting Naples between 1740 and 1741, aroused the amazement of the population and, for this, they were included in the crib).