Santons: People of the grass

Upper part of the santon Graphosoma italicum, before being assembled with its legs.

Ongoing project written at first person as Robin Bantigny.

After moving to Provence, in Marseille, the Santons from Provence quickly caught my attention with the Santons market in the Vieux port, which takes place in december. Well before Christmas 2022, my partner and I began building a secular nativity scene combining santons made by santonniers and santons made by me. The later represented wild animals (unlike the traditional domestic animals) and characters looking like my partner and I in a fantasy world. I quickly got caught up in this art form and added my mother and her dog, my brother, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, my best friend, a couple of friends, my sister and her family, my cousin, etc. to the nativity scene.

All these vernacular representations of loved ones served as gifts, and I hope to create an emotional connection to these “cute” figurines in their recipients. I would even be tempted to give them a magical dimension: they are closer to talismans and amulets than framed photographic portraits.

This is how I came to want to transfer this “friendly” and magical quality to insects, a clade of living creatures that generally attracts disgust and that could really use a boost in affection to survive the onslaught of human agribusiness. So, in a way, I gave insects a place in the sacred familiarity of the nativity scene by transforming them into Provençal santons. In doing so, I tried to remain as descriptive as possible of the species represented — within the limited scope of a few grams of clay and square centimeters of paint.

Related images

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Completed santons of arthropods’ species

French name	English name	Latin name	Pictures	About the species
Œdémère noble	False oil beetle	Oedemera nobilis		The males of this green critter have such massive hind femoras that people call it a “maillot vert” (the green jersey is worn by the best sprinter during Tour de France). They are an important pollinator species all across Western Europe.
Clyte trifascié	Mediterranean Longhorn beetle	Chlorophorus trifasciatus		Longhorn beetles are essential pollinators: adults (imagos) often feed on plants’ nectar; while larvaes feed on wood (xylophagous).
Empuse commune	Conehead mantis	pennata		Contrary to praying mantis, females do not devour the male while reproducing.
Gendarme	Firebug	Pyrrhocoris apterus		These bugs are subordinate to lime trees and mallows. Their french name refers to the “gendarme”, a feared paramilitary force which XIXth century uniforms used to display the same colors as those bugs.
Bupreste à neuf tâches	Jewel beetle with nine spots	Buprestis novemmaculata		Adults feed on pollen while larvaes dig tunnels into pines’ wood.
Perce-oreille commun	European earwing	Forticula auricularia		There are many theories about their name origins: some say that it comes from the appearance of the hindwings, which are unique in their resemblance to human ears, other argue that they really used to be wore as earrings, but their forceps (cerci) are generally only used for courtship.
Chrysomèle fastueuse	Dead-nettle leaf beetle	Chrysolina fastuosa		This beautiful little bug is typically playing dead when found on a nettle or other Lamiaceae plants.
Criquet bariolé	Large banded grasshopper	Arcyptera fusca		Typical from dry meadows and high mountains, those grasshoppers have become scarce in Eastern Europe.
Frelon d'Europe	European hornet	Vespa crabro		These are useful predator for the European ecosystems, and they are not worse/better than asian hornet, which has been in Europe for so long that it is part of it too. Only females possess a stinger, it is a modified egg laying device: males cannot sting. Colonies live in paper nests located in dark places, that are made by female workers’ cement: they chew bark and trees mixed with their saliva to build their home (like most social wasps).
Grande perle (nymphe)	Stonefly (nymph)	Perla bipunctata (naiad)		This is a nymph (juvenile form) stonefly, which are believed to be one of the most primitive groups of winged insects. Finding these nymphs, called “naiads”, in water streams is an indicator of excellent water quality.
Pimélie	Darkling beetle	Pimelia bipunctata		Most darkling beetles (tenebrionids) are cute plant scavengers. Pimelia bipunctata are capable of secreting a smelly red liquid when they feel threaten.
Barbitiste languedocien (mâle)	Languedocian bush cricket (male)	Barbitistes fischeri
Hanneton commun	Common cockchafer	Melolontha melolontha		As they multiply, cockchafers can become a farmers’ nightmare, eating plants’ roots unnoticed. Their life cycle is 3 years long, spent mostly buried in the soil.

Modeling technique

Typical nativity scene depicted with Santons from Provence.

Fabrication of the molds for stincky bug species.

Santons from Provence are small, colorful clay figurines that represent the Nativity scene in Christmas cribs (the baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph, with the donkey and ox supposed to warm the child with their breath), the Three Wise Men and the shepherds, as well as a whole series of small figures representing the inhabitants of a Provençal village and their traditional trades.

The technique I used to make the insect santons is close to the same as that used for traditional Santons, but there are no molds nor firing: for now they are unique pieces that are sculpted and painted by hand.

In the purpose of a small-scale mass production to use those figurines as a pedagogical tool for entomology initiation, I am now experimenting on molding: plaster molds are not flexible enough for the level of details of arthropods’ anatomy, thus I am working on latex molds to make plaster copies that would be light, robust and convenient to paint by hand.

Pictures of the modeling techniques

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Sources

📷 Main sources for species and pictures:

• • Gwenole Le Guellec , Insectes de Méditerranée: Arachnides et Myriapodes, Nature au Sud, France, 2008.
  • Helgard Reichholf-Riehm, Les insectes, La nature en couleurs, France Loisirs, France 1994, Allemagne 1983.