THE ART OF CHRISTMAS

Artist Joe Anastasio creates annual Nativity for American Italian Heritage Museum

The Holy Family and one of the three wise men watch over Jesus laying in the manger. This historic scene is on display at the American Italian Heritage Museum, where local artist Joe Anastasio, 81, creates the famous display each year. (Emily Benson

A starry night sky stretches across a wall inside the American Italian Heritage Museum in Albany.

In front of the navy blue curtain are brown bags, crumpled and painted as mountains that curve around the desert Bethlehem scene below. The manger of the Nativity scene (more commonly called the “presepio” by Italian museum-goers) houses the Holy Family safely and soundly, a calm presence in the detailed town scene. 

The display is a marvelous undertaking but nothing new for Joe Anastasio. Curator for the museum, Anastasio has crafted a unique Nativity for members and attendees to enjoy for over 10 years.

Joe Anastasio stands in front of his 2024 Nativity at the American Italian Heritage Museum. The display will remain up until mid-January. (Emily Benson photo)

Anastasio, 81, calls it an “artistic expression,” as each year’s Nativity is different. He uses a variety of high-end Fontanini figurines (both people and animals) from Italy in the display. Creating the crèche each year is a way for him to show his devotion to the Catholic faith while also bringing joy to those who come to see the Nativity. 

“I think people look forward to it,” said Phil DiNovo, the museum’s president. “Almost every village and town (in Italy) has a Nativity scene … and we have to remember (Christmas) is about the birth of Christ; all the other things are additions. But the main thing, the Nativity scene is a reminder of it.”

This year’s Nativity is a desert scene mounted atop a large table covered in layers of sand. In years past, Anastasio’s landscapes used real moss, grass and plants. He would water and garden the scene to keep it looking fresh, and once crafted a manger from an old tree stump he found by the Hudson River. 

There are even stories hidden in his scene: a couple of small, broken columns signify the fall of Rome and the rise of Christianity. The camel figurines lined outside the manger are from a trip to Morocco Anastasio took with his wife, Helen. Inside the manger, the cow and bull placed behind Mary and Joseph are there because they helped keep Jesus warm with their breath during the night. 

“I like to get it as close as possible to (looking like) Bethlehem,” he said.

Anastasio's Nativity from 2015. It remains one of his favorite displays to this day. (Provided photo)

Townspeople, animals and angels fill out the space surrounding the Holy Family in the manger. (Emily Benson photo)

 

Anastasio's camel figurines he bought on a trip to Morocco with his wife. (Emily Benson)

 The origins of the Nativity are credited to St. Francis of Assisi during the 13th century. Inspired to show the birth of Christ, St. Francis staged the first live Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, and crafted a manger to be used in the enactment. The Nativity scene’s popularity grew, and over the next centuries, the building of manger scenes worked its way into European homes, churches and village markets. 

As large numbers of Italian, Polish, Czech and German Catholics came to America in the 19th century, Nativity traditions grew and strengthened in the United States. 

It was a tradition Anastasio brought, too. Born and raised in Cefalu, a town off the northern coast of Sicily, Anastasio’s family moved to Albany in 1956 to be closer to his mother’s sister. 

Anastasio, who was 14 at the time, said the move was hard at first. “I did not know a word of English,” he said, and neither did Anastasio’s two brothers. But over time, everybody fell into a routine.   

“I struggled (but) you learn,” he said. “I did the best I could and here I am.”

Anastasio’s mother, Maria, helped instill a strong Catholic foundation in her sons. The family attended St. Vincent’s de Paul in Albany, and having a priest over for supper wasn’t uncommon. One year, before a trip to visit Italy, she noticed St. Vincent’s altar’s fair linen was missing. When she returned, she made a special cloth for the altar with materials from her home country.

“She was unique,” Anastasio said. “She was a very devout Catholic.” 

Anastasio obtained his bachelor’s in fine arts from SUNY New Paltz and his master’s at the Florence Academy of Art back in Italy. After graduating, he was invited to stay and teach art history at a junior college in Palermo, close to his hometown in Sicily. 

“It was a great experience; I learned a lot,” he said. “I met people who, 60 years later, we’re still communicating.”

After a year, he moved back to New York to be near his family. He briefly taught art at SUNY Albany but didn’t feel the same zest for it as before. (But he did have three art exhibits of his own work at the college throughout the 1970s.) After a friend introduced him to computer science, he switched to the field and started at Albany Medical College doing computer graphics and medical illustration. He’d switch back to the arts years later as the assistant curator for the Albany New York State Museum until retirement.

Joe Anastasio holds up one of his art pieces (acrylic on tile) that is on display and for sale inside the American Italian Heritage Museum. (Emily Benson photos)

 Through it all — working, meeting his wife, traveling back to Italy and beyond, raising three children, and now being grandparents to eight grandchildren — Anastasio has continued to create art. 

“My biggest enjoyment is painting,” he said. “It fulfills me; it gives me energy. It gives me so much love to be able to express myself with colors and forms.” 

“The Nativity scene is just like a painting,” he added. “It offers so much more than just beauty to the space; it serves as a reminder of the importance of the Christmas season.” 

“I like when (guests) bring children here because the children enjoy looking at it, but they don’t know the meaning. So I explain to them: this is the meaning of Christmas,” he said. “This is a tool to teach them the true meaning of Christmas."