These are the small hand-painted terracotta figures from Provence that represent some 55 different local characters with features so detailed that one feels they are real. Santon means little saint.
The first figurines were made in Marseilles by a man named Lagnel during the French Revolution and were used for nativity scenes.
The ones I love the most represent the villagers and their professions of butcher, baker, etc.
About 100 workshops still create these figures for local and not-so-local Christmas fairs.
At first I was displaying them on a book shelf. Yesterday I moved the man, I think of him as Pierre, with the fish to a plant and imagine he is coming from the river, through a cork-tree forest to give his mother, standing below a fish for lunch. She in turn has her scale where she weighs the vegetables from her garden that she sells at her stand. I've named her Marie.
www.france.fr/en/celebrations-and-festivals/santons-provencehtml.html has more info
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