Schwäbisches Krippenmuseum

Description

The Schwäbische Krippenmuseum is housed in the former Jesuit college of Mindelheim; its presentation links the historic site with research into religious imagery.

The museum opened in 1989 and was redesigned in 2018. The aim of the exhibition is to provide a comprehensive overview of depictions of the childhood and the Passion of Jesus Christ in the Swabian and Bavarian regions.

The collection comprises about 50 nativity scenes and a total of 230 exhibits, dated from the Middle Ages (around 1300) to the present. On display are devotional images and reverse-glass paintings as well as panel paintings and prints; these are accompanied by wax votives, life-size sculptures from the churches and chapels of Mindelheim, and smaller devotional objects from southern Germany, primarily dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries. Madonna sculptures, panel paintings and graphic works reveal the visual tradition from which later Christmas nativity scenes drew.

Numerous carved or wax-modelled figures of the infant Jesus, the so-called Fatschenkinder, as well as nativity scenes from churches and private homes dating from the 18th to the 20th century, illustrate the formal diversity of Swabian-Bavarian nativity art. Series of images depicting the suffering and death of Jesus range from the Entry into Jerusalem to the Ascension.

A special exhibit is the "Haushälterle," a Christ Child figure dated to around 1300, which is considered the oldest known example of its kind.