The 80 cm enlargement of the sculpture MARIA by Guido Dettoni made in marble of Saint Tecla has been selected by the Diocesan Museum of Tarragona as a representative of contemporary sacred art in the exhibition “From the maternity to the nativity, a journey around the 800 years of the first crib” organised by the Diocesan Delegation for culture of the Archbishopric of Tarragona, held from 22 November to 21 December 2023 at the Centre Tarraconense El Seminari to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the first nativity scene, which represented St. Francis of Assisi during Christmas Eve mass in 1223 in a small grotto in the Italian village of Greccio.
The exhibition was made up of a series of thematic and chronological showcases that made up a short journey through the history of art. The exhibition began with a facsimile edition of the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest surviving Bible, and continued with a first collection of Nigerian pieces related to motherhood, some Marian images such as the Virgin of Valldossera from the 16th century, the MARIA by Guido Dettoni, an abstract Virgin representing the culture of the 20th and 21st centuries, a reproduction of an early Christian sarcophagus from the 4th century, a facsimile edition of the Ripoll Bible from the 11th century, or the nativity scene from Casa Canals, with figures from 1800, among other outstanding works of art.
