The presentation of the Nativity scene in complex “sculpture display cases” arranged within a background scenery built of cork – the terrain, as it was called – is one of the most original phenomena of Portuguese baroque art. Although the birth of Christ – always framed in opulent architectural surroundings – and the scenes of the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi are the central themes of these compositions, other complementary episodes are also presented within the space of the Crib itself, based on the Gospels or on apocryphal narratives, as well as “genre scenes” marked by their particular pictorial register and revealing an attentive interest in people’s lives and popular customs.

Some of the most prominent Portuguese sculptors devoted a large proportion of the time that they spent in their workshops to the production of cribs for a wide-ranging clientele. Although the author of this set of sculptures is not known, the crib originating from a convent adjacent to the Palácio Real das Necessidades nonetheless clearly demonstrates the full mastery of the conventions involved in the production of pieces of this type, with the various groups comprising distinct autonomous scenes and the correct, but somewhat agitated, modelling of the figures that compose them.