Nativity scene by Rudolf Moroder, 1910

 
The Val Gardena sculptor Rudolf Moroder (Ortisei 1877 - Galicia 1914) created this figurative nativity scene in 1910 as a wedding present for his wife Josefine Leimstädtner. The background painting itself is attributed to the well-known painter Josef Moroder Lusenberg.
 
Rudolf Moroder was since 1902 the artistic director of the "Kirchliche Kunstwerkstätte Gebrüder Moroder", which also had a branch in Offenburg (Germany). His sculptural group of “St. Elizabeth with the beggar” in the parish church of St Ulrich/Ortisei, for which the young sculptor was awarded the gold medal at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition, is well known.
The artist is said to have modelled certain nativity figures on tramps and destitute wanderers. The expressions and gestures of the figures appear lifelike. The landscape and clothing of the figures, on the other hand, are based on the usual 19th century transposition of the nativity scene to the imaginary "Orient", with some orientalising depictions of the figures. Moroder fell in Galicia in 1914.
 
The nativity scene was passed down in the family Moroder until it returned to Val Gardena from Switzerland in 2022 and was loaned to the Museum Gherdëina.
 
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