Presepio
Exhibition Overview
In a popular annual tradition, the Spencer Museum's eighteenth-century Italian Presepio is once again on display. The opulent nativity scene appears in its original architectural setting of a ruined basilica, with Italian street figures and accessories adding period detail. These intricate figures are part of the collection donated to the University of Kansas by Sallie Casey Thayer in 1917 as the basis for the university art collection, which was dedicated in 1928. The Spencer's Presepio is one of the finest examples of its genre in the United States.
