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JEWISH ART AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY EDITED BY
CECIL ROTH
12 color plates 485 pages 450 black-and-white illustrations
For the
first
Jewish art
is
time, a complete history of
presented in a many-sided
account ranging from the second millen-
nium before the Christian era ent
Jewish Art,
day.
in
to the pres-
the
refuting
widespread impression that traditional religious restrictions prevented the
Jews
from developing a representational
art of
their
own, shows how the situation varied
from period area,
to period
and from area
to
changing from absolute prohibition
to the free
use of
human
figures
even
in
objects associated with divine worship.
Indeed, a theory in one of the twenty-one essays presented here suggests the pos-
(based on recently discovered
sibility
fourth-century synagogue frescoes) that early Christian religious art, from
gogue
much
European art may have developed from syna-
ultimately
evolved,
which
so
of
art.
Beginning long before the time of King
Solomon, the account moves from the Jewish contribution to Palestinian art before the destruction of Jerusalem to
down
contemporary painting, sculpture, and
architecture.
It
discusses the distinctly
Jewish contribution
in relation to the art
(Continued on back
flap)
Jacket design: Scenes from Biblical history. First page of Pentateuch. Franco-German school. About 1300. (The Schocken Library)
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in
2012
http://archive.org/details/jewishartillustrOOroth
Mosaic pavement uncovered in the
in the ancient
Negev. (4
svnagogue near Kibbutz Nirim
—5th century C.E.)
JEWISH
ART
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY EDITED BY
CECIL ROTH
McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. LONDON TORONTO NEW YORK
Published in Israel
by Massadah - P.E.C.
JAN3
©
Press, Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel
'62
08
1961 - Massadah - P.E.C. Press, Ltd.
may not be any form without permission of the publishers.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof,
reproduced
in
Library of Congress Catalogue
Number
61
—9776
1oH 4S
Printed in Israel by Peli-P.E.C. Printing
54006
Works
Ltd.,
Ramat Gan
.
.
CONTRIBUTORS
APPELBAUM
SIMON,
Israel.
Archaeologist.
JAMILLY EDWARD,
Gt. Britain. Architect. For-
Excavated Earlv Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain, and Hellenistic and Roman sites in Israel. Formerly supervised the antiquities of
mer member of Government of India Planning Team. Author of published reports on building and planning in India, France and
Cvrenaica. Lecturer in Classics (archaeology) at Tel-Aviv University. Contributor on ancient
Cyprus. Associate of the Royal Institute of
history
and archaeologv
to professional perio-
dicals.
AVI-YONAH MICHAEL, professor
Associate
Hebrew
University,
Israel.
of
Archaeologist.
architects
KASHTAN AHARON,
Israel.
Architect.
Senior
the
lecturer, Faculty of Architecture, Israel Insti-
Director of
tute of Technology, Haifa. Designer of the
Archaeology
Jerusalem.
Author of monographs on and architecture, George Basevi, and English synagogues. British Architects.
Anglo-Jewish
at
Academy
Archives, Department of Antiquities, Govern-
Hebrew
ment of Israel. Formerly and archives director, Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem. Author of Mosaic Pavements in Palestine; Map of Roman Palestine; Abbreviations in Greek Inscriptions; Oriental Elements in the Art of Palestine; In the Days of Rome and Byzantium (HebHistorical Geography of Palestine rew
Jerusalem. Author of studies on the Mediterranean and Palestinian dwelling-house; the
assistant librarian
)
(
;
Hebrew
)
history of
Israel. Architect and art Author of The Tombs of the Kings; The Menorah of the Arch of Titus; The Stone
critic.
Capitals of Ramat Rachel. Contributing editor to Encyclopaedia Hebraica.
GEORGE WALDEMAR,
building
in
svnagogue architecture; Jerusalem
architecture.
KOLB EUGENE
(deceased)
rector of the Tel-Aviv
,
Art
Israel.
Museum
critic.
Di-
of Art. For-
merly contributing editor, Hungarian Encyclopaedia. Contributor on art history to professional
COHEN MAXIMILIAN,
Language
journals.
Author
of
The Art
of
Painting as an Expression of the Periods and their
Opinions
(
Hebrew
LANDSBERGER FRANZ, Curator,
)
U.S.A. Art historian.
Hebrew Union
Museum,
Jewish
College, Cincinnati, Ohio. Formerly associate
critic.
professor, History of Art, Breslau University
Author of monographs on Matisse, Picasso,
and director, Jewish Museum, Berlin. Author of Die Kuenstlerischen Probleme der Italienischen Renaissance; Die Kunst der Goethezeit; Einfuehrung in die Juedische Kunst; A History of Jewish Art; Rembrandt, the Jews and the
France.
Art
Rouault, Gris, Leger, Chagall, Chirico, Soutine,
he Dessin Frangais au XX e Humanisme et Universalite and Les
and
Siecle;
of
Artistes Juifs et VEcole
GOODMAN fessor,
versity,
PERCIVAL,
de
Paris.
U.S.A. Architect. Pro-
School of Architecture, Columbia UniNew York. Leading synagogue archi-
tect in the U.S.A. Contributor to architectural
journals.
Author of Communitas.
HABERMANN ABRAHAM
M.,
Israel. Bibliogra-
pher. Director of the Schocken Library, Jerusalem. Formerly librarian, Jewish Community of
Berlin.
Hebrew
Author of numerous studies on and the history
poetry, bibliography,
of Jewish printing.
ISSERLIN BENEDICT
S. J., Gt. Britain. ArchaeoHead, Department of Semitics, University of Leeds, England. Author of monographs on archaeology and Semitic Studies.
Bible.
MAYER LEO ARY
(deceased),
Israel.
Archaeolo-
and educator. Professor of archaeology and Near Eastern art, Hebrew University, gist
Hebrew Authority on Moslem Adviser on Moslem
Jerusalem. Rector,
University 1943-
1945.
art
ture.
and
architec-
buildings,
Israel
Author of Saracenic Heraldry; The Rise and Progress of Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Moslem
Archaeology;
The
Buildings
of
Quaytbay; Bibliography of Moslem Numismatics; Mamluk Costume; L'art Juif en Terre d' Islam.
logist.
NAMENYI ERNEST critic.
Formerly
M. (deceased), France. Art curator, Jewish Museum,
Budapest, Hungary. Contributor on Jewish to
art
professional
L 'esprit de
publications.
Author
of
SCHWARZ KARL,
L'art Juif.
PERROT JEAN,
France. Archaeologist.
Head
of
French Archaeological Mission to Israel. Conducted excavations at Beersheba, Yazur, Ascalon, Abu Ghosh, Ein Mellaha. Published numerous papers in scientific and professional journals, especially on prehistoric Palestine.
RODITI
EDOUARD
The Jewish Contribution The Jews in the Renaissance.
ple;
DISRAELI,
France. Poet
Israel.
Art
to Civilization;
critic.
Formerly
custodian of the art collection, Jewish Community Museum, Berlin. Contributor to literarv
and scientific periodicals on art and Author of Augustin Hirschvogel,
sculpture.
Ein Deutscher Meister der Renaissance; Graphischen Werkes von Lovis Corinth; Die Juden in der Kunst; Jewish Sculptors.
WERNER ALFRED,
U.S.A. Contributing editor to Arts magazine.
U.S.A. Art critic. Author of Alexander Watin und Die Juedische Volkskunst; Utrillo; Dufy; and prefaces and intro-
Author of Dialogues on
ductions to
and
ROTH
art critic.
CECIL,
Taught
art at universities in
Art.
Gt. Britain. Historian
and author.
artists'
biographies.
WISCHNITZER RACHEL,
U.S.A.
Art
editor
Jewish Studies, University of Oxford, England. Editor-in-chief, Standard Jewish Encyclopedia. Contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encvclopaedia Judaica; Cambridge Medieval History. Author of nu-
Jewish Museum, Berlin. Art editor, Universal Jewish Encyclopaedia and Encvclopaedia Judaica. Contributor to magazines on art. Author of Gestalten und Symbole der Juedische Kunst;
merous works on Jewish
The Messianic Themes the Dura Synagogue.
Reader
in
including
A
historical subjects,
Short History of the Jewish Peo-
and
critic.
Formerly
art curator,
in the
Paintings of
CONTENTS
17
Introduction
PART ONE
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
:
Palestinian Art before the Israelite Israelite
Conquest / Jean Perrot
Art during the Period of the Monarchy / Benedict
Jewish Art at the
Time
of the
Synagogue Architecture Jewish Pictorial Art
The Minor
S. Isserlin
.
.
.
the Classical Period / Michael Avi-Yonah
in
.
Period / Rachel Wischnitzer-Bernstein
in the Classical
TWO
41
.
Second Temple / Maximilian Cohen
Arts of the Talmudic Period /
PART
.
Simon Appelbaum
.
.
75 119 155 191
.
225
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE ACES
:
TO THE EMANCIPATION Synagogue Architecture
of the
Medieval and Pie-Emancipation Periods / Aharon Kashtan
Ritual Art / Cecil Roth
Jewish Art in the
The
Illumination
309
Leo Anj Mayer
Moslem World / Hebrew Manuscripts of
.351
.
.
...... ....... in
and
Ages
Middle
Renaissance / Franz Landsherger
The
Illumination
Hebrew Manuscripts after the Invention M. Namenyi Printed Book Abraham M. Habermann
of
Printing / Ernest
The Jewish Art
of the
PART THREE
Jews
of Paris
Age
of
Emancipation
/ Waldemar George
in Architecture
The Architecture The Jewish Artist
Percival
of the in
the
List
in
Israel
of
Ind ex
/
Modern World
Eugene Kolb
Illustrations
Goodman
Cecil Roth
423 455
.
497
.
..... ..... ..... Alfred Werner
Contemporary Svnagogue
Jewish Sculptors / Karl Schwarz Art
.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
:
Jewish Impressionists / Ernest M. Nameni/i
The School
377
of
.
Jewish Art and Artists before Emancipation Jewish Artists of the
253
/
Edward
Edonard Roditi
.
Jamilh
539
575 639 719 757 797 861
903
953
965
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INTRODUCTION
.
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page
of the
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1
1U'
Ji")Sv JlVttTO
p
JtTOV
V
TOT
Title
Y"
Mishneh Torah
of
Maimonides
by Nathan Ben Simeon Ha-levi. Cologne, 1296
INTRODUCTION
The conception some
of Jewish Art
a contradiction in terms
may appear
for there
:
is
to
a wide-
spread impression, that in the past visual art was
made
impossible,
among conforming
uncompromising prohibition
mandments
:
— "Thou
in
shalt not
Jews, by the
the Ten Commake unto thee a
graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of anything that
is in
the heaven above or that
water under the earth." More sweeping perhaps somewhat tion in
less familiar, is
is
still,
though
the condemna-
Deuteronomy IV, 17-8, which
hibition of graven
in the
Pentateuchal code
tions regarding the
terms
in
its
detailed instruc-
Cherubim which were
was intended
to
following verse:
them and
be read
"Thou
shalt not serve
image must be made
in conjunction
them"
for the
—
that
nity.
In
all
Jewish history, attitudes and interpreta-
tions varied
from land
to land
and from genera-
the prohibition
was
absolute,
any ivinged fowl that
whatsoever, of
man
or beast or bird,
creepeth upon the ground, the likeness of any that It
is
in the
may be observed
however artistic
is
rigidiv interpreted, as antagonistic to all
development would imply a very narrow
and even
representational,
art there are subjects
lineation
of a
not
art: for
animal
or
figure.
Hence,
even had these Biblical verses been interpreted the most literal fashion,
times
the
all
in representational
which do not imply the de-
human
even
and commanded
in
at all
Sometimes the application of
times,
men went
porated freely even
The
human
beings
inhibition
— to
figures
i.e.,
make
busts a
Some-
and great
being incor-
in objects associated
as regards three-dimensional
do not begin
was admitted circles.
to the other extreme,
was shown, human
vine worship.
and no representation
Jewish
in relatively "liberal"
latitude
that to regard this interdict,
view of the scope and functions of art
fish
water under the earth."
that no
either as representing or as substituting the Divi-
tion to generation.
heaven, the likeness of any thing that
is,
to
purpose of worship,
is
earth, the likeness of
with the
bow down
shalt not
male or female, the likeness of any beast that on the
be
Ten Commandments
that the stern negative of the
that leave no place for ambiguity: "the likeness of
flieth in the
to
placed in the Ark, suggests the logical conclusion
in the pro-
images particularizes
with
itself,
with Di-
was maintained only "graven images" of
and
statues.
These
general appearance in
Jewish circles until the seventeenth or perhaps the eighteenth century
— though even
in the classical
period there were some significant exceptions to this generalization as well.
most unquestioning obedience, there II
could nevertheless be some scope for our subject.
But
in point of fact the
premise
ther the passages in question
is
Whe-
incorrect.
were intended
as
an
It
may
be suggested that the Jewish attitude was
conditioned by two opposing forces
— on the one
outright prohibition of the representation of anv
hand by revulsion and on the other bv
human
In antiquity, the former
or animal
form
questionable. But
what
anv circumstances
in is
certain
not always so interpreted, even
most rigid and unswerving
is
that
among Jews
loyalty.
it
is
was
of the
Indeed, the
In a
attraction.
was normally the
stronger.
pagan environment, where images were objects
of worship, the Biblical prohibition tically
was automa-
strengthened and confirmed, and the Jew
INTRODUCTION
19
became
This was
20
it
on plausible religious grounds, on the use of cur-
seems, at the time of the First Temple. However,
rency minted by the oppressor.) The same stan-
a
a passionate iconoclast.
few inconsiderable specimens
so,
of representational
have been found
art originating in this period
the ivory plaques of Samaria
(e.g.,
36, 38] or the
[figs.
dard was adopted
Nahum
Rabbi
Avodah Zarah, episode
boam), thev emanate from areas
Caesar")
orthodoxy. In the period of the Second Temple,
known, was of Jesus.
symbols into the Temple inevitably led to a reac-
riotic
and a period
resulted.
of intense iconoclastic sentiment
Under the Romans,
symbols had a
whom
for
political significance, this
religious
was natu-
But,
it
is
not quite certain whether even
now
implementation of the traditional prejudice
the
was
as
sweeping and
believed. "visages",
found
in
All
manner
as consistent as
of images
from the Greek
is
were
jto6oco7tov)
Jerusalem before
informed by a scholar of a
i.e.,
to
be
destruction in the
its
year 70, other than those of
generally
(Parsufin:
human
beings,
we
are
New Testament
at least far
There
from general
views
their
adopted. At a representative
officially
Temple Court
after the trium-
phant expulsion of the Romans
imposed on as of
in
the year 66,
other Revolutionary legislation, a ban was all
human
representations, of animals as well
beings, even for purely decorative
purposes, and anything of the sort within reach
was destroyed bv Governmental the
attitude
reflected
in
who
writings of Josephus,
the
order.
orthodox
had been
one of the leaders of the Revolt.
That
this
development was
political, as
the people seems to have tolerated decorative re-
Roman
by
their Gentile neighbors
ded
they were not inten-
if
for religious veneration.
hated
Roman
rule
with
symbolism tightened
its
its
But, as the harsh, all-pervasive
hold,
against images of every sort
more
made
the
so
iconic
objection
became more and
intense, political disloyalty finding incontro-
vertible justification in the tion of the Biblical law. It
more
rigid interpreta-
was now
that
voung
Jews dared martyrdom, with the encouragement of patriotic Rabbis,
eagle — symbol
of
by pulling down the golden
Rome's majesty —
Herod above the Temple Gate, and
up by
hitherto un-
disturbed. Public sentiment forced the
remove the Imperial images from
set
Romans
to
their standards
rule
much
became apparent not long
presentations of animals, such as were to be found
representations
is
at the outset
religious, in origin
human
This
strongly
the destruction of Jerusalem, at a period
emphatically resent
time
at the
reason to believe that the pat-
is
gathering in the
later generation (Jeru-
Herodian palaces. They presumably did not
not un-
if
salem Talmud Avodah Zarah 42c). The mass of
in the
Talmud
(Jerusalem
42b), but a famous
by
extremists ultimately succeeded in having
among
rally intensified.
Sinai
3rd century
the
suggests that such rigidity,
the Greek attempt to introduce pagan rites and
tion,
ben
in
(Matthew XXIII, 15-22: "Render unto
"Lion Seal" of one of the ministers of King Jeroof questionable
late
seemed
to
be
after
when
the
and permanently
finally
and the Pharisaic spokesmen were
established
some extent reconciled with
it.
as
Now
greater
to
lati-
tude again appeared in practice. The Mishnah contains
elaborate
concerning
regulations
proper and very rigid attitude to adopt as
the re-
gards pagan images. Nevertheless, even a leader
Judaism such as the Patriarch Rabbi Gama-
of
himself used
liel
a
human
signet
a
ring
engraved with
head, depicted the heavenly bodies for
demonstration purposes notwithstanding the spedisapproval, and did not refrain from
cific Biblical
frequenting public baths embellished by a quasireligious
as
pagan
statue.
an adornment
informed his
have
critics.
his statue
"The Aphrodite
is
intended
to the baths, not vice versa,"
he
Caius Caligula's attempt to
introduced into the synagogues of
before they marched into Jewish territory, and
the
(we
and profound, or even pathetic, opposition that
are told
by the Church Father Hippolytus)
the Zealots refused to pass under a corated with statues,
lest
city gate de-
thev should be suspected
of venerating them, or even to handle a coin on
Empire
in
37 had encountered such universal
even the Imperial representatives hesitated to im-
plement set
it.
But, in the third century, a royal statue
up without any malevolent
which a human form was depicted. (This was,
found
of course, equivalent to the imposition of a ban,
lars of
in a
synagogue
in
object
Nehardea
at
was
to
be
which scho-
the most extreme pietv such as "Rav" and
INTRODUCTION
21
Samuel did not hesitate
worship (Rosh Hasha-
to
nah 24b). This might perhaps have been a question of yielding to circumstances.
Kama 97b)
(B.
But the Talmud
imaginatively describes a fictitious
enbodying the likeness
of coin-medallions
series
of the patriarchs
22
and heroes
of the Bible, without
any suggestion of disapproval. At about
this pe-
Ill
we
This iconopathic interlude (as it)
seems
have come to an end
to
venture to
in the sixth or
seventh century. This was due to two factors.
was the
iconoclastic
movement
Empire, which could not
was the
the other
affect the Jews;
and expansion
birth
of Islam,
Aramaic paraphrase of the Pentateuch
with
known
Targum Jonathan expressed the
were compelled bv force of logic to follow
as
outlook in
current
rendering of Leviticus, XXVI,
its
which prohibits
idols
and graven images: "A
1,
figu-
red stone ye shall not put on the ground to wor-
and
ship thereto, but a colonnade with pictures
may have
likenesses ye
in
not to worship thereto."
change
in attitude
and V) as
we
so far as the places this point there
details below, in chapters
\
owing
to a scribal error)
Rabbi Johanan they began
of
alls,
IV
Talmud
in the stan-
"In the days
:
paint on the
to
and he did not prevent them. In the days
Rabbi Abun they began
of
make
to
designs on
mosaics, and he did not prevent them." If
representational art
nagogue
was admitted
in the fourth century,
home
some
for
some generations
it
the synagogues. Indeed,
embodied
opinions
we would imagine have ideal
happened.
in
out of touch with reality. teachers
objected
the
to
The
the
to
against
course,
to interpret
nerally;
tion
parallel, for
it
The
result
was
lasted.
in certain respects paradoxical.
currently believed,
and with some reason,
that the aesthetic sense
was more widely deve-
It
is
among
loped
the
'Ashkenazim'. But
latter
that
In Spain, even
and
in this respect
than another minority. In France
and Germany, on the other hand, thev could suc-
cumb
to the attraction of the
fewer qualms — of the
Madonna
all
more
the
ship were not such as a
century
environment with
so since the "images"
or the Saints used in Catholic wor-
Jew
Eliakim
— while remaining
to revere.
Though
a
in the
ben Joseph of Mainz
no
with pictures of lions and snakes from the syna-
than the
gogue, his younger colleague Ephraim ben Isaac
exist
arts
all
Jews
A more
satisfactory
of
Regensburg permitted the painting of
of animals
and birds on the
ben Moses of Vienna approved similar
—
burg did indeed
the
statutory
by new accretions did not prevent the
development of svnagogal hvmnology.
walls.
And
Isaac
though he himself
recalled that as a
he had frequented
of
—
figures
dis-
boy he had seen
embellishments in the place of worship
tions
services
the
ordered the removal of the stained glass windows
figurative
interruption
among
Moslem hegemony was broken, the Jews
after the
twelfth
concerns the actual organization of
the
was among the
it
representational art re-emerged.
worship, could be drawn from the fact that objecagainst
'Sephardim' than
some extent
gluttony prove that
at all times maintained.
continued as long as Moslem domina-
it
and influence
Jew — might be tempted
synagogue demonstrate that perfect decorum
was
south of Europe, and the Mediterranean area ge-
iconoclastic
were abstemious, or the objections against talking in
the
in the Orient,
fact that eminent
more demonstrates that they did not objections
Of
the Talmudical literature
which the Rabbis voiced was
and
very well afford to show themselves less fervent
further.
clearly,
life,
example. Under Catholic rule, too, they could not
that nothing of the sort could
But,
Jewish
seems to have
we were
if
in
to the sv-
objected to pictures in
pietists vociferouslv
For a pro-
remained influenced by Arab propinquity
been barred from other public places and from the
allow their neighbors to be more zealous in this respect than they were themselves.
triumphed
that the
read in a passage of the Palestinian
text,
traditional
longed period, therefore, the iconoclastic tendency
(Avodah Zarah 41a: partly omitted dard
the
for
leaders of the protest against image-worship to
the third and fourth centuries, when,
in
impossible
manifestly
is
suit.
would seem
It
came about
be more ample
will
profound iconoclastic tendency. The Jews
your synagogues, but
were concerned (on
of worship
It
One
Byzantine
in the
fail to
riod, the
its
call
(d.
at Meissen.
Meir of Rothen-
1293) object
to the
presence
of illuminations in the prayer-book, but only
on
the grounds that the worshipper's attention might
23
INTRODUCTION
21
thereby be distracted from his devotions. In the twelfth century, the North French TosaphistS dis-
cussed and permitted even the representation of
human form
the
We
was incomplete.
the round, provided that
in
it
are specifically informed that
the Jews of England at this time used signet-rings
which bore
human
a
knew
Rashi, too,
likeness.
and did not apparently object
of,
to,
wall frescoes
such as the fight be-
illustrating Biblical scenes,
tween David and Goliath, with descriptive word(Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 149a).
ing below
On
the surface,
it
though he
certainly seems as
among
referring to a practice current
do Jews of his personal environment France and the Rhineland.
The author
of the
is
the well-to-
North
in
Sepher Hassidim, or Book of
the Pious (par. 1625), categorically expressed his
disapproval of pictures of animate being in the
synagogue, but
pietism, tice
notoriously
standards
exacting
and
the
before
especially
work
this
twelfth
of
Torah-shrine;
most
the
reflected
German
century
language suggests that the prac-
his
was not unusual, even
so,
in
worship, and a fortiori in the home.
the place of
On
the other
hand, the scholars of the Spanish school consistently maintained an extreme attitude.
ha-Hinnukh, ascribed
to
century), emphasizes that likenesses of a
The Sepher
Aaron of Barcelona it
was forbidden
human being
to
(
13th
make
out of any material
even for ornament (XXXIX, 12). Moses Maimonides,
on the other hand, adopted an intermediate
position
(Mishneh Torah, HilkhotJi Avodat Ko-
khavim,
III,
10-11) forbidding only the
human
(not animal) form in the round, while permitting it
in painting
and
tapestries.
In the post-medieval period, the Jewish attitude
towards
art
was
and from country it
mav be
varying from age to age
fluid,
to country. Generally speaking,
said that in the
Moslem
countries a
strong feeling of opposition persisted, as will be
shown
in
Chapter IX of
this
work. As late as the
middle of the nineteenth century, the Rabbi of
Smyrna, Abraham Palagi, refused to admit to the
synagogue a portrait that had been sent by Moses Montefiore. Yet even so,
1.
God
appears
Senior Samuel Amsterdam).
it
the
Infant
Texeira.
1717
to
remains impossible to
Samuel.
Gravestone ot Cemetery,
(Oudekerk
INTRODUCTION
25
26
Europe
parts of northern
in the
seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries than in any other epoch in
Jewish historv before or
common,
after.
It
now became
not usual, in Ashkenazi communities
if
to
have figures
of
Moses and Aaron on the breastplates which
in relief
adorned the Torah
(i.e.,
three-dimensional)
the central object of
Scroll,
the synagogal ritual and a focus of adoration so far as that
can be said of any synagogue appur-
tenance. (It
hardly worth while to mention less
is
remarkable instances, of which there are many).
At
decorations
time,
this
gogues began to include least
Now
phardim
was
it
Moreover,
scenes.
mark the grave (fig. 1
Detail
of engraved
of
frontispiece
Mishnat Shai. Artist
generalize, for richly illuminated
were executed
scripts
in Persia
of
God
in
)
,
Hebrew manu-
370/71 and color plate) In the European environ-
at
reliefs
one
in
shall see, the Se-
habitually adorned their
at
depicting Bible erected
least,
Samuel Senior Texeira
this Biblical representation
to
1717
in
comprises what
can best be interpreted as a representation of the
Almighty Father appearing
was Ten Commandments as Jews have always interpreted them. The Hand of God had indeed figured in the frescoes of Dura Europos but this went very much further. in utter
(See below pages
of
we
that, as
Amsterdam
in
tombstones with elaborate
unknown, Mantua 1742. Shows Ezekiel's Vision the Valley of Dead Bones.
in
figures,
one case even inside the hallowed Torah-
shrine.
2.
some Polish syna-
in
human
to Samuel. This
contravention of the
.
ment, standards varied. In the Latin and Catholic countries, the iconoclastic tradition
and
strong,
became stronger in the Protestant world, and
in certain respects
the course of time. In in Central
tended to be
Europe
generally,
it
was weak, human
representations being admitted even on ritual objects.
Western Europe
(e.g.,
Holland and England)
human
normally banned representations of the likeness
on
ritual objects
mestically. In Italy,
synagogue
of the
we
but admitted them do-
how
are informed
at Ascoli,
removed
1569, rested on two roaring lions.
the Ark
to Pesaro in
On
the other
What
is
remarkable
not merely the fact that
is
the carving should have been made, but that
should apparently have escaped adverse
and should have remained that assuredly could not
easy-going day. sible to
By a
in situ,
happen
it
comment
an incident
in our
priori reasoning,
own more is
it
pos-
interpret this figure as representing an
angel rather than the Deity. But this
is
not the
case in connection with the amazing frontispiece of the very scholarly Biblical edition entitled Minhat Shai, edited
by Solomon Jedidiah Norsa, which
appeared under devout auspices
Mantua
1742
in the
learned citv
hand, Rabbi David ibn Zimra (16th cent.) objected
of
even to a family crest embodying a lion over the
half a
Torah-shrine at Candia, then under Venetian rule.
kiel's
Rabbi Samuel Aboab of Venice (1610-94: Res-
miracle from above a cloud, at the summit of the
ponsa, 247) expressed his disapproval of illustrated
picture,
Ribles, it
but only apparentlv because he considered
improper for the angels to be delineated accord-
ing to the inadequate In
some
iconoclasm
human
imagination.
respects, the revulsion in religious art
from extreme
went further
in certain
in
(fig.
2). This picture contains
dozen vignettes, one of which shows Eze-
Vision of the
Dead
Bones. Presiding over the
appears the bearded semblance of the
Heavenly Father. This same engraving
is
later
repeated twice, before the Prophets and before the Hagiographa. not only that
it
Once
again, the
amazing
fact
is
should have been executed, but that
no objections were apparentlv raised against
it.
INTRODUCTION
27
2S
Hence
the "images" in the churches.
2
home they perpetuated
at
aesthetic standards,
made
preciation
their
former
and domestic ap-
rapid progress under
their auspices. This could not fail to
have
influence on their neighbors,
its
and the Ashkenazim, lowed
soon
too,
fol-
suit.
In the Italian ghettos, the Jewish
houses are said to have been decorat-
ed with frescoes representing
Leone Modena
scenes.
Biblical
1648)
(d.
in-
forms us in his Riti Ebraici that
Venice of liberty of
are
dav "many take the
having pictures and images houses,
their
in
his
especially
if
they
not in relief or embossed, nor
have the bodies
at full length." In the
early 18th century, in
in
on
(Frankfort
J.J.
Schudt wrote
Merkwiirdigkeiten
Jiidische
his
Main
1714
— 17):
"There can be no question about Jews allowing their portraits to be painted, I
Camille Pissaro, Self-Portrait. Basle
3.
Museum
scale into the
to the synagogue,
admission on a more generous
home. Some of
was apparently due
to
this
development
traits
of their parents.
spend
lovers, thev
tures
the influence of the ex-
who had been
some
of their
rooms not only
Bible stories depicted on the walls, but also por-
IV
Art thus having been admitted naturally found
myself having seen here in Frank-
fort in
and
Indeed, as keen picture-
a great deal of
money on
pic-
portraits."
Portraits
commissioned by Jews begin
to
appear
establishing their com-
here and there in the sixteenth century on three or
munities, especially in Western Europe, from the
four medallions of Italian origin. Curiously enough,
end
no painted or engraved Jewish portrait of quite
Marranos,
of the sixteenth century.
dox emerges. acclimatized
Here a curious para-
These highlv-assimilated persons, their
in
former
lives
to
European
aesthetic standards, maintained the strongest possible
ban
iconoclastic
mitigating
it
their
had been
Christianity,
image worship in a
under the semblance their
protest
the churches, and
in
—
against
especially
Protestant environment — thev could hardly
afford to tolerate even an ornamental likeness of
the
human form
in
anything connected with their
religious worship. Yet, they
up
to this point that there
the paintings
ally,
so as to save
was common-place
the fact that the raison
and
had
was no
portraits
in
clearly realized relation
between
their houses
and
known, though an
recommended
Italian
that a
man
should have his mother's likeness by him continu-
may
lie in
is
moralist of about 1600
theless,
d'etre of their lives hitherto,
of
synagogues while
same antiquity
an exceptional degree outside. The
in
reason for this
in
the
by the
him from temptation. Never-
close of the seventeenth century in Central
and Western Euand Ashke-
rope, even for Rabbis, both Sephardi nazi,
to
have
their
likenesses
it
painted and en-
graved, presumably for distribution
among
their
admirers. Thus, they obviously set an example to their flocks to
do the same, and
gave a helping hand
to the
at the
same time
Jewish portrait-painters
who were now beginning to emerge. In one case that of Eleazar Brody, when he became Rabbi in (
Amsterdam
in
1735) a crude portrait-medal was
INTRODUCTION
29 even struck, though
this
30
aroused some
disapproval (see below, chapter VIII).
However, the eminent Haham Zevi Ashkenazi refused to have his portrait
when he
painted,
1712, and the
in
London
visited
commissioned
artist
bv
his admirers to execute
sit
in
had
it
to
an adjoining room and sketch
him unawares.
What
most remarkable
is
Eastern Europe
— perhaps
the reaction against the
ement to
Judaism
in
—
as part of
Reform mov-
a revulsion seems
have taken place even
particular piety
as late as
some persons
the nineteenth century, of
that in
is
now
refusing to
have their likeness taken by the new
method
of photography, the religious
objections
which must assuredlv
to
have been relatively
slight.
This fact
constant ebb and flow
illustrates the
Jewish attitude towards repre-
in the
sentational art, concerning
which one
can say only that generalization
4.
is
Josef
Israels,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Self-Portrait.
impossible.*
V
ther than reinforced
The data assembled above have made
it
abun-
dantly clear that the conception of representa-
both domestic and synagogal pur-
tional art for
poses had
become
fully familiar in
Jewish
circles
long before the beginning of the age of Emancipation. Inevitably,
at
much
Jewish
artists also
the same time.
later stage of this
to
emerge
will find at a
work (chapter VIII) some
count of them, so far as this cases,
began
The reader
is
possible. In
ac-
manv
no more than the names are preserved, and
perhaps Zoffanv)
saw the number
remembered outside
in
in
the Sephardi world but rather
the circle of the Court Jews and their associates
among
the Ashkenazim in Germany, Holland and
England tation *
—
may
few academic painters
a
began
to
of local repu-
emerge. These were weakened
ra-
remember
style of painting,
work
their dav,
increase,
artists
name now
a very limited circle, or artists
was
collectors.
we must
But
also the fate of the great
choice of subject, and indeed
as well as aesthetic
some
of
approach are
Nevertheless, in
them were considered eminent
and enjoved a very great reputation, their technical
competence
as
indeed
fully justified. It
is
not
unlikely that in the course of the next generation or so their style of painting again,
executed
the
time after time in painting, engraving, medallion and bust, a portrait even being prefixed to an edition of the prayer-book produced under his auspices.
early nineteenth cen-
such
hopelesslv out of fashion.
period
be
that this
art
majority of their non-Jewish contemporaries whose
remarked that Solomon Hirschell, chief Rabbi in England from 1802 to 1842, although of profound orthodoxy in the pre-Emancipation sense, had his likeness It
of
whose works are prized by
now
been expected
The
world of
in the
without however producing a single
period that rises above mediocritv. At the close not as might have
the Jewish community
left
generally in their day.
tury
scale of
—
who
and made a considerable mark
there does not appear to be any instance at this
of the eighteenth century
by one or two persons (Mengs,
much as that of the who have become
during the past few years.
names of
may be
appreciated
painters of the
Regencv
fashionable
England
If that
in
should happen,
Bendemann, Oppenheim and Magnus, whose work is described below in the Veit,
;
INTRODUCTION
31
chapter devoted to the Jewish Artists of the period of Emancipation,
may perhaps
regain their former
32
may
extent
their production, nevertheless, be cha-
make
of the first rank
artists
and
their
appearance led bv Pissarro
(fig.
4). Then, in the twentieth century, a sudden
3)
(fig.
Israels
cannot concern that
itself
ghettos storms the studios of Paris, with dazzling
art.
results.
tion the validity
noteworthy- There
is
ob-
is
dramatic value as well as logical
quence
in
se-
the traditional story that meticulous
it
Yet
have
it
may be
in
the sense
an
Spanish
or
or
itself
Israeli
observed that one might ques-
even of those
common
terms that
set
down;
for
artificial
unity,
based on geographical
been
just
French
or
Italian
lating
with Jewish Art,
volume
companion volume might concern
a
with
The phenomenon
is
artists ?
at the present stage. For, obviously, this
outpouring of genius from the Eastern European
a
what extent
to
These are questions that need not be answered
In the second half of the nineteenth century a
handful of Jewish
viously
And
racterized as "Jewish"?
proper to speak of them as "Jewish"
distinction.
only by postu-
is
it
and similar considerations, that one
able to re-
is
obedience to the literal interpretation of the Bible
gard the art of any country
long kept the Jews from
whole. French or English art does have an ob-
and that when the ban was tage of
it
we have
manifestations,
all artistic
they took advan-
lifted
to the full, with prodigious results.
seen that the premise
incorrect, for
is
Jews did not eschew the visual
But
arts
even
in the
Middle Ages and the Ghetto period. Under the circumstances
is
it
remarkable that so few did
embrace the career
fact
indeed explain
the
phenomenon
—
nineteenth
figure of
Social prejudice
.
that
until the
is
—
century
began on
pouring of
second half
hardly
a
single
artistic
is
to the
explain
its
was
opening of the gates of the Eastern
European ghetto, with
its
stronger inhibitions and
extraordinary store of pent-up
Pissaro, Israels,
Liebermann, Modigliani
genius (fig.
5),
came from wholly different environments in occidental lands. The problem is one to which no
all
solution readily suggests
the artistic career sible for persons
had
to
itself,
same
except perhaps that
become economically
pos-
without social connections and
area, with the
same standards and under
On
the other hand, there
between Cimabue and
factor
between Fouquet and Cezanne, other
Titian, or
than the fact that they were born
What one simply the sum land.
persons,
is
however influenced, born or active
in
it
is
the
artistic
legitimate to include in the
category of "Jewish Art" the
artistic
production of
however influenced, professing the Jewish
religion, or of
Jewish stock.
Whatever mav be the
final conclusion,
of
bond between
the spiritual or psychological
them, the Jewish
artists,
generally speaking, reflect
faithfully the fashions of their countries
and
age,
ment
in
it
is
their
difficult to find
any
is
tions of the
or
numerous
extraction, wi h is
little
no
superficial relationship
of course
(
whom
between the produc-
artists
this
of Jewish birth or
work
will
be concerned,
nious and indisputable. To what
dieir
work than can be designated
as
"Jewish." In everv case, the national feeling and
atmosphere are uppermost. The Anglo-Jewish tists
of the nineteenth century
Victorian as
were
as
possible to distinguish
between the work
union
may perhaps be
Jewish
discerned
is
is
of the
trivialities
A bond
rites.
among
painters of the Paris school, but this
It
of a Jew-
and a Christian manuscript illuminator
as fidelity in depicting
ar-
profoundly
Max Liebermann was German.
Middle Ages onlv bv such inconclusive
the vast majority of cases
and
superficial ele-
commissions before Jews could afford to embrace
That there
one thing
must necessarily impress the student. Irrespective
ish
in
fact
in
of
of
without the possibility of executing ecclesiastical it.
same
the
in
terms "English Art"
production
England, so that
persons,
phases, the
its
persons living in the
in
similar social conditions.
was no common
periods as a
all
vious homogeneity in certain of
homogeneity inevitable
a prodigal out-
Nor can one
abilitv.
the changed atmosphere by saving that this
with
a
more than mediocre importance emer-
ged, whereas afterwards there
due
may
that for fullv one
after the penetration
fairly large scale
of
)
some degree. But we must
this in
then explain the
hundred vears
(as they did for
of art
example that of medicine
in
in
of
the Jewish
due more
to
common physical background of the Eastern European ghetto, from which so manv of them emerthe
INTRODUCTION
33
5.
Amedeo
Modigliani,
Portrait
of
34
Chaim
Soutinc.
ged, than to the essential Jewish heritage, which
their authorship
they shared with their more tranquil occidental
term "Jewish" thus applies here
colleagues.
to object;
is
proposed then
artistic
achievements
to describe in this in
everv
medium
volume the of Jews
and
chapter
down
tistic
and buildings
to authorship
of specific Jewish ritual use,
whether
and
not intended to apply to the content. Israel
is
devoted to pre-Israelite Canaanitish
which must necessarily have affected the
art,
together with objects
The
cannot be considered separately, a preliminary
persons of Jewish birth, from the earliest times to the present dav,
or not.
Because the Jewish people and the land of
VI It
it is
was provably Jewish
production of the early Israelites and
tegral to the past culture of Palestine.
is
arin-
INTRODUCTION
35
36
the student, than adornments for the synagogue.
The
which was almost
centralitv of cult-objects,
fundamental
and was thus respon-
to Christianity
for the finest artistic achievements
sible
Middle Ages, was hence absent
of the
Judaism. Jewish
in
gained in warmth what the synagogue
life
artistic
lost in
beauty.
VII
Recent investigations and
theories have sug-
gested that the place of "Jewish art" in art history
may be far greater imply when taken
than the slender
the
gest
(fig.
synagogue frescoes
be described
6) (to
The discovery at Dura
in themselves.
of the great series of
Europos
in
Chapter V) sug-
Christian
that
possibility
would
relics
ecclesiastical
— on which medieval and eventually modern European ultimately depend — may have de-
art
art
veloped out of an anterior synagogal the
same way
as church
music
is
art, in
much
believed to have
developed out of that of the Temple and the JewObviously, the sparse instances
ish liturgical chant.
^Jt;^*** £~A$k The Hind
(>.
of
God. Detail from
a fresco in the
Synagogue
from
of Dura-F.uropos. 4th century.
Ages and the subsequent centuries manifest
in
reading these pages
VIII in particular).
It
it
will
become
(chapters VII-
must be admitted, never-
theless, that except, perhaps, in
cases,
Middle
variety of Jewish religious art in the
one or two isolated
does not bear comparison with the extra-
ordinary achievements of European religious art in general of the period.
for all
this.
Poverty,
There are many reasons
tension
and destruction must
be taken into account. But there
is
a
more fun-
this
period do not stand alone, and
we have
imagine that the Dura Europos ruins represent
to
The
have survived
of Jewish artistic productivity that
norm
not the exception, but the
of the place of
worship of a well-to-do Jewish community in that environment.
It
has been pointed out that the
frescoed scenes necessarily present a continuous story,
not a number of disjoined episodes, since
the intention
was
to illustrate
and emphasize the
moral teachings of the Biblical accounts. This style
which was carried over
into early Christian art,
has been described as an original Jewish contribution to pictorial art.
damental point. The synagogue was essentially a place of intimate prayer;
it
was not a place
of
The collaborators on
assembly for a dramatic public function. Public
in their fields
worship among the Jews had as
different
its
focal point the
Scroll of the Pentateuch, not the altar at
the perpetual miracle of the
The
Scroll
which
Mass was performed.
demanded indeed meticulous penman-
—
are
this
drawn from
and have
countries
backgrounds. Each has been subject in the
way
of interpretation. This has
ed
among the Christians with the conception human salvation and the perpetual manifesta-
we
of
tion of the actual Divine presence, did not
impose
are
theses
and
will
all
many
as
experts
different
deal with his
that appeals to him.
appurtenances of public worship, not being asso-
to stand,
—
half a dozen
left to
will note considerable difference of
ship and received deferential treatment. But the
eiated as
volume
The reader
approach and
been deliberately allow-
be a perpetual reminder that
still
working a new
are
not yet sufficiently established.
field,
where the hypo-
The
Rabbis of old said that there were a hundred wavs J
approach the study of the Torah.
not beside
such elaborate treatment. Scholarship, or charity,
to
was the highest form
the point to emphasize that the same applies to the
of service. It
was more meri-
torious to p ovide bread for the poor, or books for
studv of Jewish Art.
It is
Spring symbol,
detail of
mosaic floor
at
Beth Guvrin.
PART ONE: JEWISH ART
IN ANTIQUITY
ART BEFORE THE
PALESTINIAN
by
It
is
said that the history of origins
because
easiest to write
might well apply
A N
E
to the study of the first Palestin-
during a period which
we
reckoned
is
in
millenia,
cannot in our present state of knowledge
trace continuity of artistic evolution or attempt to isolate
common
features.
we may
At most,
en-
deavor to determine the origin and degree of alien
Mesopotamian, Aegean and
influences, Egyptian,
Syrian, art
which successively distinguish Palestinian
and give
for the
it
most
and predominantly so
part,
we common
origin
them through the
links
study of Jewish and ancient
be disassociated from that of
and
in
at the
end
of the
sibilities
sparse
it
which found natural
population,
in caves
tine
did not then constitute a handicap to the
was not yet the corridor
was
closed
to
become
region
passing
shelter
throughout the mountainous zone. Pales-
it
second millenium, but a
protected
bv the deserts encom-
on the south and
we
Neolithic times that
country the
which
of invasion
in the
first
east.
It
not until
is
find in the south of the
traces of penetration from Africa
the
shared by
is
the works of art produced on Palestinian
decessors,
however,
so,
have only isolated works.
Nevertheless, a
bond
This was not
Stone Age. The country's slight agricultural pos-
essentially composite character;
its
remotest periods,
subtle
PERROT
always the
has no documents. This
works worthy of consideration are so few,
ian art;
that
it
is
J
CONQUEST
ISRAELITE
in
the
all
soil;
centuries.
Hebrew
art
a
A
cannot
Canaanite pre-
its
same way,
if
to
a lesser
degree, a knowledge of pre-Canaanite art must necessarily contribute to a better understanding of the art of historic times.
The rapid
trace here, has as lestine is
which
sketch,
it
is
our intention to
geographical framework Pa-
its
on both sides of the Jordan. In
all
periods
possible to isolate a zone south of the
it
Dead 7.
Sea on the fringe of the Arabian and African deserts. All the civilizations
whereas
ditions
north more favorable con-
permitted a settled population
development This
to the
is,
of
an agricultural
and the
civilization.
on the whole, a poor country, where the
conditions favorable to artistic achievement sel-
dom converged
throughout the historic period;
while the geographical situation on the frontiers of the
Egyptian and Syro-Mesopotamian empires
frequently
made
it
a
head from cave of El-Wad. Carmel, Natufi art.
which follow one an-
other in this semi-arid region are essentiallv pastoral,
Human
battle-field.
or contacts with nia, the
it.
During the preceeding
timal conditions of
life
it
that Palestine
was
lization at
beginning.
its
op-
— wheat, should not be — and
forgotten, grows wild here a
mille-
men
country offered to Middle East
first
is
it
focus of the
These considerations compel us study into two main parts. The
possible
new
civi-
to divide our
first
will
be de-
voted to the art of the late Stone Age beginning with the Natufian
—
the oldest Palestinian art
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
43
44
great relief of palaeontologists faced with a fauna
which has long disappeared.
The Natufians
whose
of Palestine,
original cul-
bv recent
ture has been revealed for us chiefly
excavations
Wadi
—
"Natufian" being
from
derived
Natuf, in Western Judea, where the culture
was encountered
for
the
—
time
first
dwelt
in
the caves of Carmel and Judea. Like their palaeo-
they
predecessors,
lithic
lived
still
by hunting,
but their existence was already semi-sedentarv; harvested
they
ground
it
winnowed
cereals,
in querns.
grain
and
Thev had tamed the dog and
perhaps other animals as well. The Natufians had their cult of the dead, as testified
decorated
rous
found
skeletons
by the nume-
in
the
Carmel
they had a taste for self-adornment, as
caves,
proved by beads and pendants; and
tools
which
they decorated with carvings in high relief reveal
them
as highly skilled artists.
The cave of El- Wad (Carmel) has provided a human head, carved rather than sculpted,
small
on a high, 8.
it
wide
pebble
apart,
a light incision; the
whose
may be placed
in
the Christian era.
furrow which
neck
joining of the
head
to
the 6th or 7th millenium before
able material.
The
skull,
first
In the second part,
we
shall
lines
seem
centimeters
nose and large eyes
is
is
underlined by
marked with a
may have a body made
manifestations
to us at present,
Some 4
7). flat
whose contour
set
Wilderness of Judah. Natufi
art.
(fig.
shows a broad
Couple enlaced. Cave of Ain Sakhri,
cular
known
calcite
facilitated
of
some
cir-
the
perish-
on which several oblique
to represent hair,
is
capacious, with
review briefly the art of the successive phases of
Age down
the Bronze
to the Phoenician art of
the thirteenth or twelfth centuries B.C.E.,
when
the invasion of the maritime peoples on the one
hand, and the Israelite conquest on the other, put an end to the history of Canaanite Palestine.
II
Art does till
not
make
its
appearance
Palestine
the Natufian phase of the Mesolithic period.
No work
of art
same period flowering.
in
accompanied the Palestinian
Upper
dustries of the
cave
The engravings which
in the desert of
procession
*
i
in-
Palaeolithic, although the
Europe evinced an unusual it
could be detected on the walls of
tic
in
artistic
was thought
Umm
Qatafa
Judea, representing a fantas-
elephants, hippopotami and horn-
ed rhinoceri, have not satisfied specialists, to the
9.
Bone necklace. Cave of El-Wad, Carmel. Natufi
art.
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
45
Crouching gazelle,
10.
ogival
and
vault,
pretty well with the
Of
Um
Cave of
form corresponds
general
in
stone.
human remains
of the period.
greater interest from an ethnographic rather
than from an
artistic
point of view
is
a curious sta-
tuette representing an enlaced couple in a seated
from the cave of Ain Sakhri,
position, deriving
Wadi and
The
Khareitoon.
statuette
is
in
10 cm. high,
consists of calcite, slightly diaphanous, cov-
ered by an amber patina.
The man and woman
are holding each other breast to breast, his hands
ez-Zuweitina, Wilderness of Judah.
the waist, which
hands show no
may be
city
head
and
details,
intentional.
measure nearlv a
should
artist
between the analogy
in
general simpli-
The man's trunk and centimeter more than
those of the woman's, and
the
this
The
8).
(fig.
is
it
interesting that
have noticed
this
difference
sexes. This statuette has
no precise
European
palaeolithic art, but
is
cer-
connected with the European tradition of
tainly
figurines
and
idols
symbolizing
and technique approximate gnacian
statuette
of
fertility.
style
Its
to that of the Auri-
Sireuil
and,
according
to
H. Breuil, Solutrean stone sculptures at Solutre in
France.
tion
With
may be found
tuette
very schematic height
ment
is
the
same
associated at
Shaar
human
a
palaeolithic slightlv
Hagolan.
figurine onlv
tradi-
later
This
65
sta-
small
mm.
in
characterized by considerable develop-
of the buttocks, while the trunk ends
above
line,
an exact replica of a Late Magdalenian
rine
is
rine
from Mauern
in Bavaria,
figu-
and of another, pro-
bably of the Grimaldian epoch, found in Tuscanv.
These representations are
also related to the sche-
matic images of Petersfels
in the
Jura and to the
curious late palaeolithic stvlizations of Mezine in
The lumbar
hardly indicated
indicated by an incised
is
with a median furrow to show the legs. This figu-
the
is
art.
merely a rough cylindroconical peg
is
which seems
regions of both are strongly arched,
Natufi
without any sign of the head and arms. The
lower part
on her shoulders, her legs resting on his thighs.
and the neck
46
Ukraine.
repeat
All
same symbolism,
the
have been common
to
to the entire
European palaeolithic world. Although signposts are lacking
between the plain
and
Russia
of
Palestine, the possibility of a relationship should
not be discounted. This would be further con-
firmed by the resemblance to be observed bet-
ween another fragmentary Hagolan,
a
figurine
found
at
Shaar
woman's bodv whose modelling
is
not ungraceful, and an Aurignacian figurine from
Linsenberg
in
the Rhineland, a
presence of bilobate pendants
Wad
have been reported
piece of Natufian art
animal statuette in
from
length,
is
gazelle,
neck outstretched
are flexed
and
fine,
The master-
unquestionably a small
cave
Judean
the
10).
head unfortunately,
short
9).
grey limestone, 15 centimeters
in
(fig.
slender,
those of El-
(fig.
Zuweitina its
where the
site
like
It
is
of
represents as
broken.
if
a
Um
ez-
crouching
to drink; the
The
legs,
under the body, the
verv tail
is
while a light relief separating the
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
47
it
48
attained a purety of line and a balance of mas-
which
ses
mark
the
is
of all naturalistic art at
its
apogee.
The
Natufian
of the
interest
forms found further expression in
high
at
El Wad,
Kabarah, and
Wad
from El
(fig.
it
is
movement
as
Wadi
Fallah. That its
to suckle, in a grace-
if
more remarkable because
the
all
animal
represents a fawn,
11)
head drawn backward ful
in
the decoration
reaping-hook hafts found
relief of several
at
artist
in
imposed on the sculptor by the shape of the
The bodv and head
epiphysis.
worked
in
high
the end of the bone,
at
relief
of the animal are
while the feet stretch along the stock. They are
marked
at
parallel
incisions
much
skin
the
as
doubtless
as
felicity
of
adapt of gazelle (Reaping-hook haft), bone. Cave of El-Wad, Carmel. Natufi art.
ence in the color of the can
still
quarters.
cuted,
hair.
out on
differ-
Traces of red paint the
bellv
and hind
Quiet and graceful, and perfectly exe-
this
witness
made
be
to
work, the
despite
Natufian
its
bears
mutilation,
sculptor's
love
of
full
forms and beautiful shapes; without losing the feeling of life lification
and movement, bv
intelligent simp-
and the elimination of the accidental.
12.
Reaping-hook
hafts,
of
artists
this
Natufian Palestine understood
figure
at the
to
A
material.
end
of
head with prominent les
(fig.
12)
of
folds
With the same
its
period,
how
to
complete reaping-
with a groove for the insertion of
shows back from the belly appears to indicate a
the European
d'Azil.
hook from Kabarah, 32 centimeters
Head
11.
indicating
on the figure of a wild goat of
Magdalenian IV from Mas
those
and breast by
shoulder
knee,
in
length,
flint
blades,
grip a charming deer's
eves.
These decorated
may be compared
sick-
with the more
recent and less beautiful examples found in the
lower plateau.
levels
Thev
of
Tepe
human
figure.
on
are decorated in the
with animal motifs and,
a
Sialk
in
the
same fashion
one instance, with
This relationship
is
of
Sialk
bone. Cave of El-Kabarah. Natufi
with those of
art.
a
emphasized bv
comparison of the bone-remains of the
inhabitants
Iranian
earliest
Bvblos
and
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
49
Fawn. Rock-carving
13.
Megiddo who belong
at
Kilwa.
an ethnic group show-
to
man
ing sufficient affinity with Natufian port the assumption that there
While not venturing on
was
to sup-
the immediate origins of Natufian art and cul-
we may
ture,
say
apparently
that
there
may
have been contacts between the Middle East and
European
the
fairly late.
We
Upper
encounter
survived
Palaeolithic it
still
vigorous in the
art.
Some
scholars
of Kilwa
in
attribute
rock
the
engravings
the southern Transjordanian desert
to Natufian art
(fig.
encounters
ever,
first artists
Middle East.
of the
how-
13). This suggestion,
considerable
and
archaeological, aesthetic
an
of
difficulties
cultural character.
These engravings were discovered
the northern regions, where the artistic tradition of
Neolithic
with some animal motif. They were the
racial affinity-
conclusion on
a hastv
Transjordan.
50
in
1932 on
the standstone rocks of Jebel Tubaik, a mount-
ainous massif of
S.
Transjordania, at the cross
Mesolithic age in the Baltic lands, on a horizon
roads of the natural routes leading from Palestine
chronologically not very remote from that of the
to
Palestinian Natufian.
membered
Palestine
tory,
the
It
should above
that as far back as
ancient
we
all
can go
be
were,
industries
towards Lower Mesopotamia.
The
in his-
appears linked to Eurasia, Palestinian
re-
and in
Hedjaz and Arabia and from the Gulf of Aqaba
than to those of the Nile." This remote depend-
rarely.
ance of Natufian art does not deprive
is
of
its
originality,
for
the
Carmel understood how
sculptors to
of
anv
Mount
renew the ancient
formulae and to apply the old decorative subjects to
new
basalt
types of tools such as reaping-hooks or pestles;
which were
also
often
adorned
generally
animals are also seen.
The animals
are
shown
Men
appear only
life-size (the
2 meters 35 long). The technique used
of a
wild
represent
but a bovid, a dromedarv, a hare, and
goats,
other
of
engravings, of which only a few
occupy us here,
will
Neuville's words, "nearer to those of la Vezere
it
oldest
broad deeply cut
not allow for surface,
much
line,
bovid is
which obviously did
refinement of drawing:
framed by the
that
lines,
is
the
never worked.
These engravings are often clumsy and schematic,
but
in
some
cases the accuracy of the outlines
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
51
testifies to
and a sure sense of
careful observation
form and movement. The very coarseness of the line vibrating in the
imbues these images
light
One
been caught
fine beast has
at full gallop,
his nose to the wind, his long horns descending
behind,
gracefullv
gathered under
forelegs
his
by arrows,
his outstretched neck. Others, pierced
two regions belonged
that the inhabitants of the
same ethnic group, the
to the
would remain
fact
that their arts are quite different from one an-
While the Natufian
other.
with a surprising animation.
52
who prolonged
artist
and renewed the European Palaeolithic
was primarily a
sculptor, the
Kilwa
tradition
artist
was an
engraver whose source of inspiration and models
have
be sought
to
in quite a different direction,
— on
have halted motionless, already seized by death.
namely, southward
One, coughing out
Lybia, of Fezzan, the Saharan Atlas and as far as
prototype
his
life-blood,
almost
is
wounded animals which
the
of
a
the
Morocco.
It
is
from
Assyrian sculptors were later to represent with
art that
such forcefulness. Only hunters, by daily experi-
their
ence which enabled them to accumulate power-
and even some of
and dynamic
ful
visual impressions, could possess
We
such familiarity with animal forms.
world
hunter's
true
a
in
animals,
mating beasts. This
is
with
marks
bearing
figures
arrow-pierced
bovid.
and
huntsman's magic. These
are rites to ensure the success of hunting-parties, a
magic
the
for reproduction,
game multiply and
should be enough to
Some
that
vital
is
that
there
abundance.
seem
be wearing a
it
procreate,
kill in
of the goats
bles, or to
since
to
sort of halter,
and may
be domestic animals or animals recently caught to increase the live-stock.
—
engravings,
At
are perhaps of a later period,
work of
of the
first
prehistoric
some
least
of these
which are somewhat cruder and
—
may be
the
for
man
technique,
their
figures,
life-size
There are ob-
their themes.
with raised arms before a tethered
This man, whether suppliant or hunter,
whom we
find a
later
little
engraved pavement
Palestine on an
in
Megiddo, proves with the
at
other Kilwa engravings the artistic and cultural
which existed between south Palestine
relations
and the African world lithic
be dragging hob-
rock
vious African parallels to a scene at Kilwa show-
ing a
blows,
this far-flung school of
the Transjordanian engravers borrowed
taste
are here
of
the sandstone rocks of
and
at the
at the close of the
dawn
Meso-
of the Neolithic age.
The
hammered Aqaba and the Negev
engravings of Kilwa and those with surfaces in the region of are to be ian
compared with the predynastic Egypt-
rock drawings,
tinuity
and
and confirm both the con-
intensification of relations established
during the fourth millenium.
pastoral people. But the tendency
artists
to
portray animals at the Ill
height of their physical development should not
be forgotten, and what hobbles
may
pictured
in this
been related
—
in
in
as
we have
described
time in
full
Byblos to Ascalon, inland in the mountains of
mentioned above
Galilee
comparison
is
for this as a mode common even todav among
to Natufian art
The
in-
primarily ethnograof coitus
is
not un-
the Bedouin of Israel
and Samaria and
the population
the
domestication
secured
new
of
leisure,
ress,
neously with the
The
material
first
Even
if
it
were
to
be established
transformed
made
was linked with
progress
broader basis, and the
but
in
the
rapid prog-
industrial specialization. This
same symbolism and the same
cult,
and increased
and weaving and pottery appeared simulta-
modification
fertilitv
animals
technology
Kilwa and Judean representations arise from the
they are not enough to prove the existence of a
settled
Jordan Valley,
economv. The control of these means of existence J
pared to the modern schematic engravings recently discovered on the rocks of the Central Negev.
became
in the
proportion as the development of agriculture and
and Jordan and the Kilwa engravings may be com-
link.
this
way. The Kilwa engravings have
phical;
cultural
at
Neolithic evolution. Along the entire coast from
particular to the statuette at Ain Sakhri,
of this
Northern Palestine was
be traps which are often
fact
described above, of an enlaced couple. terest
as
of
society, first
now
a
profound
organized
villages
on
a
were founded.
These changes took place slowly, perhaps under
the
influence
of
the
north
Mesopotamia!!
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
53 regions,
which were richer
sources
and
achieved
therefore
progress. But
agricultural
in
the
54
re-
speediest
break with the past
in Palestine a
cannot be recorded. The figurines of Shaar Hagolan described
above evidence the survival
in the
Neolithic period of certain religious and aesthetic
conceptions of the preceding epoch.
On
the other hand, the cultural evolution was
conditioned by physical conditions, whose diversity
resulted in a well-marked cultural particu-
While the population of the Judean
larism.
led
hills
an existence not essentially different from that of Mesolithic predecessors, in the Jordan Valley,
its
the brilliant Jericho culture, the most original of the Palestinian Neolithic cultures,
and gave testimony
to
new
was
religious
flowering,
and aesthetic
conceptions. These found their expression in those astonishing clav statues, discovered in the lower levels of the
among
mound, whose remains must be placed
the
chief
Middle East.
A
works of ancient
strange
head
flat
the
in
art
14), evi-
(fig.
Head
14.
dently only meant to be seen from the of nearly natural size,
at
Jericho.
art.
served as supports on which the outlines of faces
of sea-shells inserted in the clay, are set
were modelled, the eyes being encrusted with
face
is
The
These decorated
chin
is
shells.
the cheek-bones are projecting, the nose
is
related, as Miss K.
and
small
The
up-turned.
pouted, fine and thin. in
Found
clay.
idol,
Neolithic
measuring 20 centimeters
very low under prominent brows. flat,
of an
is
a rounded oval, the eyes,
The
in height.
made
front,
mouth
is
Stiff straight hair,
dark brown-red, escapes and
falls to
slightly
skulls
may
M. Kenyon
feasibly
be
suggests, to an-
cestor worship.
painted the eye-
IV brows from below a
sort of cap, indicated
the forehead by a light pad.
The beard
is
above repre-
sented in the same fashion, bv lines radiating
around the of
artist
aimed
portraying in
divinitv,
any event he suc-
made
progress was
of a
new economic
out great changes
somewhat mysterious and solemn image
kindled
now
in
— one on
a
gether;
sented a
which continued with-
the end of the third mil-
hearts
of
civilization
Mesopotamia and Egypt; but
Palestine,
leg slightlv flexed
— modelled
full-
their reflections. If Neolithic particularism
reed framework,
whose fragments
largest
skill
of a
woman and
they display. This statue
group of three found
to-
which may have repre-
child, only
to blur, the
levels at Jericho suggest
in
an analogous
aesthetic approach, but here the skulls themselves
fundamental
cultural duality
and
the north and south persisted
ed by the emergence
in the
original culture, that of
fragments remain.
Seven decorated crania recently discovered
were
remote from these centers, knew only
to a
of the smallest,
same
The discovery
The head belonged
surprised us by the
was the
era,
till
great
and
Palestine.
in
new
and growing use of metal marked the opening
Two
figure
the
half of the fourth millenium,
lenium.
in spiritualizing his vision
not lacking in grandeur.
body
at
this
the second
in leaving
ceeded a
Jericho
We
know whether
do not
been suggested, but
as has
us
face.
In
Its origins
are
still
is
began
between
well illustrat-
southern areas of an
Beer Sheba and Ghassoul.
unknown;
it
is
possible that
they are to be found in the marginal area of the south Transjordanian plateau, to
be known
as
in
Edom and Moab.
the country later
At any
rate, the
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
55
56
Beer Sheba were able to carve large
of
thin-
walled bowls decorated with lines and incised
chevrons and delicate cups with hollow feet and four openings.
The northern and
now
inhabited,
eastern Negev, hitherto un-
experiences a phase of fixed set-
Side-bv-side with stock-raising, agricul-
tlement.
ture developed in the vallevs wherever the
meager
water supplies allowed. Surprising underground
hollowed
villages
the loess and alluvial soils
in
afforded the settlers effective shelter against the
extremes of the climate.
From
these dark dens
have emerged the remains of a
and genuine a
taste
bone,
These remote inhabitants had
art.
adornment, which manifested
for
pendants
in
brilliant culture
and ivorv
and
turquoise
mother-of-pearl,
of
stone
itself
copper
bracelets,
rings,
necklaces and palettes for cosmetics. That thev
loved beautiful shapes
is
revealed by their often
elegant stone and earthenware crockery. all,
Above
they possessed a deep aesthetic feeling, as
shown by the extraordinary
ivorv statuettes found
at As-Safadi.
One
of
height
tions.
in
a sort of narrow loin-cloth
which
predynastic Egyptian representa-
certain
The work, however, and the
particular care,
shows a pronouncedly
Egyptian neither
is
The head
nor execution.
in detail
centimeters
15), represents a naked male hold-
him
ing before recalls
measuring 33
these,
(fig.
flat
is
which
skull,
treated with is
very short,
occiput perhaps cor-
responding to some aesthetic canon or technical need, but harmonizing with skeletal remains that
have been found. The head It.
Ivory
figurine.
Museum
newcomers
—
—
Beer
of Antiquities.
for
culture in Palestine intrusion
As-Safach
the
Sheba
culture.
appearance of the
new
seemed linked with an ethnic
maintained close commercial
rela-
by an emigration from those
parts.
The very
highly developed copper industry of Beer Sheba
could hardly have originated except south-east of
Dead Sea
in the neighborhood of the rich
copper-sites in the
Wadi
Feinan, which were to
be subsequently exploited throughout the historic period.
provided
The als.
Transjordanian
hollow and
re-
of the
statuettes
from Negada, but the hollow mav have
Jerusalem.
tions with southern Transjordania, best explained
the
is
cup-mark on the head of some
minds us
plateau
probably
the basalt in which the craftsmen
contained the knot of the wig which the statuette
wore,
whilst
beard
the
would have been made
surrounding of strands of
sing through holes in the chin
eyes were ly
the pupils.
minent.
with
ears
circular swelling. this detail,
mean
wool pas-
and cheeks. The
mother-of-pearl
The nose
The
are
is
representing
long, straight
marked by
The mouth
it
and pro-
a perforated
not rendered, and
coupled with the man's nudity,
that this
his god, rather
face
with black material and original-
filled
encrusted
the
is
may
the portrait of a devotee before
than the representative of a god
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
57
a
woman, whose arms
ing this
akin
object
58
mak-
are not represented,
schematic figurines
the
to
of predynastic Egypt.
Here, however, style and
execution
for
also
differ,
the
face
highly
a
is
elongated oval, the nose very long, and one of the eyes preserves encrustation;
mouth was not
the
The
hole represents the ears.
perforated
necklace,
a
for
have been
could
an
of
figure
that of
site
pelican
a
simple
a
front
some
was
figure
this
sort.
A
decorated with
is
(fig.
appears that
figure's
so
amulet
bone pin from the same the
it
while
indicated,
17),
and
lively
vigorous in stvle despite the small dimensions of the
object
analogies
cm.
(4
not
are
Here again, Egyptian
5).
absent,
though thev seldom
same qualitv and the same
possess the
aesthetic
sense of proportion.
Much
rougher work
is
an ivory hippopotamus'
The
head, meant to be attached to a support.
and
eyes
incisors
nostrils
are
indicated.
Hippopotamus
as well as elephant tusks furnished the
Beer Sheba ivory workers with their raw mathey could have seen the former animal
terial;
swamps of the coastal plain where it was to be found down to the last centuries before the Christian era, while the elephant, who may then have lived in the Jordan Vallev, was still in the
abundant
The
in
Svria long after.
affinities
of the Beer
Sheba culture with
those of predvnastic Egypt are probablv to be explai-
ned by the
Head
16.
of
Beer
figurine.
Ivory.
As-Safacli,
earlier penetra-
African
tion
of
into
southern Transjordan
influence
alluded to above
in
refe-
Sheba culture.
rence to the Kilwa engravitself.
The arms emerge from
body, the
artist
long
a
slender
having extended his observation
The
to the detail of the ribs.
figures are flexed,
the hands long and slender and held forward to
support the loin-cloth.
The
which are very
legs,
and delicately
long, are apart, the feet are short
treated, while the thigh, set very high, projects
backward
in
a
way which
satisfies
the eve, im-
parting an equilibrium and sense of
which
rids
the
figure
character. This statuette figurine
broken
at
the
of is
some
of
not alone.
waist
(fig.
movement hieratic
its
A
pendant-
16)
shows
But
ings.
it is still
to define the
too earlv
mechanism
of
the formation of the culture.
It
otherwise with
is
those elements of the culture a
which
invite search in
direction
Egypt, larly
than
being particu-
this
the
other
case
with
the
painted and engraved pebbles, linked lithic
with the Neo-
examples from Shaar
Pi nhead
7
° rna i:cnL '
l , A u Bone, from Abu-Matar. Beer Sheba culture. '
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
59
Star-design on wall of dwelling-house at Tullat-at-Ghassoul. Beginning of fourth millenium B.C.E.
18.
Hagolan and farther
A
afield.
schematic
small
man
figurine in grev stone, representing a
on
seated
with his knees on the ground and
his heels
with flexed thighs, recalls the Aegean world. Finally,
seems than
it
60
some
in
of
its
aspects, this
again, also on an elevation, legs slightly smaller
than the preceding, also followed by a yellow
To
blob.
the rear, but this time on the ground,
appears a series of feet
We
preceding.
much
smaller than the
have here, according to the ex-
southern culture was not uninfluenced by Meso-
cavator, the picture of a princely family with the
potamia.
children standing behind, while in front a small
Contemporary
with
Beer
50
repre-
all,
large painted com-
people,
One
animals,
in length,
and
birds,
of these paintings
geometric
measuring 4 m.
unfortunately survives only in part in
bad condition.
A
series of colored spots
be distinguished inside
a vellow
which can
frame has been
interpreted as representing successively red
and
yellow rays, and then the feet of several per-
Two,
sons.
ed
in
twice
in
the center, of large size, are paint-
brown-red. Their contour has been drawn over,
then streaked
with slanting white
on a the
naked brown person, preserved
The
rays
solar disk or to a
star.
sort of
ground
shapeless
brown line.
yellow
lines.
down
to
the
ankles
These feet are resting
elevation, very distinct over
Then, on the right comes a blob,
probablv
a
chair,
then
a servant.
is
adorning individual houses and repre-
positions
motifs.
and
same southern culture Ghassoul has
senting the
preserved for us, above
senting
Sheba
Another painting represents
and
a
diameter
would have belonged
large
(fig.
with
star
18).
be monsters
five
less
Around
motifs, hard to identify, to
to a
at Ghassoul, better preserved,
measuring not
black,
breastlevel,
to
it
rays
red
of
than lm. 84 in
appear various
which have been thought
and mythological
beasts.
The
large star appears like other motifs encountered
Ghassoul to embody aesthetic interests ana-
at
logous to those of the Beer Sheba sculptors. is
the
same
beyond realism
From
a
It
taste for abstract expression carried to the point of
technical point
of
being geometric.
view, the
Ghassoul
paintings are less isolated since the discovery of the
Mesopotamian
Gawra and
mural
of the later
paintings
(Protoliterate)
of
Tepe
examples
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
61
at the
temple of Tell Uqair. The techniques,
if
may be
tine.
fruitful
and boldness, and
ginality
to determine,
connections.
presentations, have prototypes in the animal-heads
period in Pales-
with triangle on forehead from the Diyala and
features are of astonishing ori-
artistic
Its
that
said of the southern culture
marks a particularly
it
it
These, though recalling the white triangle on the
forehead of the Egyptian Apis bull in later re-
not the themes, are comparable. It
be interesting
will
when it becomes possible, its ethnic The northern area has nothing com-
parable to offer in this period, although
its
mate-
Middle Tigris regions. The eye
centric arcs) on the heads
from Jericho and Beth
the lyres of the royal tombs at Ur. In Palestine,
Age is characterized too by the new ceramic technique (Khirbet
the Early Bronze
we
already find the image of what Palestine was
intrusion
of a
Kerak ware) whose
in the third millenium.
executed in the
Yerah, and on the copper examples that adorn
progress follows a parallel course, and there
become
is
same manner (encrusted and surmounted by con-
rial
to
62
and red products,
fine black
and
carefully polished, are well-known in Syria as far as Anatolia, where,
The transition
Age took place
the Bronze
to
:nium
!
finds
may
unknown
reveal
to us
and new
re-
but at present the onlv
it,
which can hold our attention are cylinder-
stamped a
virtually
is
searches
some engravings
jars,
few objects
bone and
of
The cylinder-stamps and
at
Megiddo and
seals
found
at
Megiddo,
Beth Yerah and other
Jericho,
sites of
northern Palestine comprise, like the well-
known examples from
Byblos,
floral
or
animal
motifs and four-legged beasts in continuous friezes or animal-heads in irregular order.
These belong
group of Egyptian and Mesopotamian
to a
whose center
of
diffusion
affinity
seems to have been
It
we
is
also to
it,
an influence from the north that
must attribute two small ivory bulls' heads,
route
tery
is
evidenced by Palestinian pot-
the tombs of the Pharaohs of the
in
dynasties and even in
schist
from
palette
Jericho and objects of attire such as the hippopo-
tamus-head sawir,
in
may be
cornelian from the
tomb
of As-
considered as resulting from trade
contacts with Egvpt.
The
alabaster cups of the
Ai sanctuary, identical with those of the tombs of the
second and third dynasties, are another
example of these imports.
A
curious zoomorphic
vase imitates a pig whose legs are bound to cords, as
for sacrifice.
sanctuary
is
A
if
its
the animal were prepared
fine object also coining
from the Ai
an ivory knife-handle of very
workmanship decorated by small incised
and Beth Yerah,
perhaps intended to receive an encrustation.
second half of
first
some proto-dynastic tombs.
nearly identical, discovered respectively at Jericho in levels of the
of
nevertheless, established direct trade relations
with Egypt, as
body by
southern Syria.
principal
commercial exchanges between Syria and Egypt,
In Palestine, a rectangular
ivory.
Fr.rah,
Et-Tell,
was not the
Palestine
If
true that Palestinian art of the third mil-
seems, their origin
must be sought.
without apparent upheavals. It is
it
fine
triangles
Technically these objects
In the deep levels at Megiddo, potsherds have
are less surprising since the discovery of the Beer
been found bearing representations of persons or
the
third
Sheba
millenium.
ivories,
among which we have noted
hippopotamus' head attached with the help
two
lateral perforations at the
to a
bodv
The
Jericho and
Beth Yerah heads show similar arrangements
as important
(it
of
base of the neck
of different material.
attachment. But,
a
for
we do not have to regard them may in fact be imagined that
if
animals incised with a
comparable in
flint
point in a naive style
to that of the predynastic engravers
Egypt. These African analogies recur at Me-
giddo
in the
engravings on the pavements forming
the floor of a building at level XIX.
One
of these
engravings represents a giraffe; the animal's bodv is
covered with hatching, doubtless to express his
Another
the tradition of the ivory-sculptors did not dis-
coat, as in the African rock engravings.
appear with the Beer Sheba culture), they never-
engraving represents a bull with long hatched
indisputably to foreign influence.
horns, also of African type, but the drawing has
theless
testifv
new
Both actually have a triangle cut on their fore-
a
heads certainly designed
separate
to take
an encrustation.
interest in the treatment of the
masses,
much
as
in
anatomy
certain
in
Egyptian
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
63
proto-dvnastic representations influenced by Meso-
potamian
a
of the animal's fore-
withdrawn against the body,
foot, istic
The drawing
art.
A
of this style too.
man walking
character-
is
third engraving shows
with raised arms; a
to the right
cord hung from his neck holds an amulet, and
he wears a broad oblique striped attitude, is
well-known on the rocks of North Africa,
Megiddo
It
difficult
is
it
many stringed the man holds
to
in the other;
bow
see a
this
same period. The Shihan
man
jection
(now
stele
in
with naked torso, the loins girded
From
style.
a pro-
on the helmet hangs an appendage which
passes behind his shoulder and ends in a
The man
brandishing
is
whose point
in
him stands an animal, considered bv some a lion
coil.
both hands a spear
turned towards the ground. Near
is
and by others a
bird.
The
to
be
general shape
of the stele, the position of the figure, the
head
in profile, the
shoulder and chest seen frontallv,
and the
again
legs
Egyptian
in
profile,
Pyramid age. Such dating its
difficulties, for
additional is
lel
object
it
certainly
contemporary
influence
is
makes
it
show
with
the
not entirely without
hard to explain the
from the helmet. This
falling
which we know no paral-
a Hittite attribute of
older than that of the Guardian at the roval
gate of Boghaz Keuy, also not dissimilar. as late as the
A
whose general stance
is
date for the Shihan stele
end of the Bronze Age
is
not there-
fore to be wholly excluded.
of the third
upheaval, Beth Yerah,
Ai and Jericho being destroyed. At this time, the
Amorite nomads of the Syrian desert began to invade the neighboring settled.
This n
in Palestine
whi
its
pottery testifies
as caliciform.
Egypt
of the 12th dynastry,
recovered and reestablished
by binding the kinglets
influence in Asia;
its
Palestine and
of
Syria
with a system of alliances and friendships, thev reinforced
Asiatic
their
simultaneously
frontier,
own communications with
the lands materials,
such as timber. The monuments of Ugarit and
the degree of Egyptian influence on the artists
and craftsmen
The
of the Syrian coast.
princely tombs of the Phoenician
royal and
contain
city
exquisite works of art, royal sphinxes, weapons, jewels,
and scarabs inscribed with the names
Pharaoh,
most
of
which were
Egypt, but whose presence stimulated local
and
especially the goldsmiths
ists,
of
from
imported
jewellers,
art-
who
copied foreign motifs solely for their decorative
without paving attention
value,
their
to
signi-
ficance.
The
revival of Egyptian
duration; divided
by dvnastic
power was rivalries,
of brief
Egypt was
soon too weak to maintain her imperial power over the Asiatic elements,
provinces,
where
Hurrian and Indo-Arvan,
From
appearance.
new ethnic made their
the second half of the
18th
century Syria and Palestine were particularly
dependent and slowlv developed
their
and military power. Even before the end 18th century, the
first
of the
Semites, forerunners of the
Hvksos, crossed from Palestine to Egvpt. This the age of the Patriarchs and at this time set
Jacob's
migration
in-
economies
is
mav be
within the framework of
The
latter,
bearers of
armament and mounted on
swift cha-
rolled in successive
waves across Palestine
and conquered Egvpt. In the 17th centurv, Pales-
millenium Palestine seems
in a state of
known
Under the Pharaohs
riots,
have been
to us but
the great Hvksos invasion.
VI
At the end
a decline of civilized stan-
influence bv the appearance of elegantly
profiled wares
a superior
to
known
Qatna and the tombs of Bvblos give some idea of
the Louvre), unfortunately very mutilated, shows a helmeted
is
whence thev drew indispensable raw
hand.
with an apron of Egyptian
new
to
marked by art
the
in
Transjordan should be attributed
in
its
securing their
instrument, a sort of harp, which in his left
is
dards;
but
has been suggested that the steles at Shihan
and Baluah to
bow
that of prayer or of a hunter raising his
with one hand and his arrows at
The man's
belt.
period
64
districts
and
to
become
vement was accompanied bv one disturbed Egypt. This troubled
tine
was thus
empire
at the
controlled
Avaris in the Delta to the
geographical center of a vast
from the
Hyksos capital of
which stretched from Nubia
Euphrates. The Palestinian tombs of the
period have yielded, besides numerous weapons,
thousands of scarabs, gold and
silver jewels, pins,
necklaces, bracelets, buckles with pendants and
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
65
66
representing a divine pair, the best illustration of the Canaanite bronze-smith's art of this period. In
Palestine
found
at
good
some
examples
Megiddo, among them
representing a
man
a
been
have
bronze figurine
with extended forearms wear-
ing a necklace and high headdress which recalls the Egyptian crown.
goddess
A
naked
fine figurine of the
comes from Naharivah
(
fig.
20 )
wears a high conical headdress on her long
Anthropomorphic jug from
hair,
horns emerges. Her
and from
it
in front a pair of
forehead
is
adorned bv a diadem and her neck
bv
19.
she
;
a triple
row
of pearls.
Monumental
art
hardlv
Jericho,
17th century R.C.E.
other forms consisting of stamped metal discs with
A
tions for suspension.
nique
fine
ear-like
example of
projec-
this tech-
Tell Ajjul represents a bird with out-
at
There are
wings.
stretched frontlets
and two
decoration
granulated
worked
in
and
diadems
also
repousse on beaten gold
leaf,
and amulets of the same technique representing the naked goddess are sometimes grouped in necklace form; these amulets, found along the entire
coast from Tell Ajjul to Ras Shamra, are a fair
indication of the cultural unity
meated the Near
Among calcite
well
the pottery there are, besides numerous
and alabaster
This
prototypes.
Palestinian
some graceful and
vases,
forms
proportioned
metallic
which then per-
East.
which the
is
often
imitate
golden age of
ceramics in which the polishing of
vases, their finish
and execution and,
of the period, their paint
and
reflect true aesthetic feeling.
head from a tomb
vase with (fig.
face with a fine prominent nose
by brows which,
end
plastic decoration,
A
at Jericho
at the
human
19) shows a
and eyes framed
like the ears, are
somewhat
over-
emphasized, the ears serving as jug-handles. The
beard and coiffure are represented bv stippling of
the head
human
type
plated with are,
encrusted in white material. recalls
the
fine
silver
This
statuettes
gold found at Ras Shamra, which
together with two other statuettes likewise
20.
Canaanite Goddess. Bronze, found
at
Naharivah.
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
67
appears in Palestine; the incessant conflicts be-
of the
tween petty princes scarcely favored conditions
are
conducive to a real
work we can record
the broken
is
"Snake Goddess" found
at
The
flowering.
artistic
only
of the
stele
we
Beth Mirsim, where
Middle Bronze Age. The
dividing the surface into metopes separated from
one another by
fields of checkers,
alternating with
wavy
tion in the
sibly Hurrian, influence.
opposed
beginning of the 16th century, the
the
vase's shoulders
adorned by polychrome geometric designs
see the Egyptian giving place to a northern, pos-
By
68
bands of color
chevrons, ornamenta-
lines,
form of stylized palm leaves, triangles
and motifs consisting of two
at the apex,
superimposed
In the panels so framed,
crosses.
Hyksos Empire broke up. The Pharaohs of the
simple volutes sometimes appear whose centers
18th dynasty reconquered the country, expelled
are taken
the invader and chased
him
into Asia; after fierce
More
were
stags
battles the fortresses of southern Palestine
Me-
a
giddo, and Jericho were utterly destroyed.
The
isolated
time to acquire
this
palm
goats, wild goats facing
or
These themes
commercial
relations
the
produced
The
arts.
new development
the
and
luxury influence
artistic
of
Egypt, which had never been completely eclipsed during the Hyksos interregnum, jewellers
now
reasserted
and ivory-workers emulated the
models of the Nile can be traced at in
valley.
But new influences too
time; with the settlement
this
the coastal harbors of traders and craftsmen
from the islands,
Aegean develops becomes
peck the backs of
fish,
living
swim
fishes.
persist in the following centuries,
but the drawing becomes poor and schematic,
conquest.
The wealth brought by
itself;
small
in
tableaux; cranes preen themselves, dolphins in groups, birds
stimulated
grouped
sometimes
but henceforth based their Asiatic policy on effec-
of
one another or
most frequently, birds and
tree and,
the precarious alliance of the country's princes,
tive
crosses.
often, there are naturalistic motifs such as
and
retaken one after the other; Beth Mirsim,
Pharaohs were not content
up by many-colored Maltese
the
artistic
to the point
the
of
sometimes
it
between
distinguish
to
difficult
influence
where
local
A
the color uniform.
serve as illustration. Here
we
find the inevitable
goats placed on each side of three sacred trees.
The
by two
animals, indicated merely
triangles
joined at the apex in the center of the composition,
they
appear to be looking back at the trees which are
Aegean
leaving,
movement among
classic
up by
free spaces are taken
fawn and birds and the center of the
cup by a small is
a
The
beasts.
a frisking
picked out
at
VII
may
with internal decoration from Ain Shems,
elliptical figure
small dots.
in
whose center
We
Ras Shamra
—
it
is
line
have evidently
travelled far from the superb golden
products and imports.
cup
single example, a small
bowl found
true, a public object.
Of
same period are the imported luxury vases
the
Palestine has yielded indeed nothing of the
such as the great rhytons and faience goblets
highest quality, comparable with the objects found
discovered at Tell
at
Ras Shamra and elsewhere. The country, natu-
imported
from
poor and subject to constant exactions by
Whereas
at the
rally
Abu Hawam. These vessels were Cyprus
in
13th
the
century.
end of the 16th, the current was
flowing from the east, as evidenced by the
Egyptian military governors, was disturbed by
still
frequent rebellions,
bichrome pottery exported from Palestine as
ly
civilization declined rapid-
its
between the 15th and 13th
little
originality
Syrian
retained by
influence,
illustrates
civilization better
this
on pottery
end of the
1
tion
still
a fine
beloi led
it
owed
to
found
at
Megiddo.
decline of Palestinian
in
the
same
6th century had been f
art
than the evolution of the painted
decoration
appearance
its
and the
evidenced bv two bronze
as
figurines covered with gold
Nothing
centuries,
by
period.
The
marked by the
ware whose painted decoraorigin to the great tradition
as
Ras Shamra and the
the Bronze
Age
islands,
end
at the
of
the current had been reversed,
and the products
of the island
flooding the coastal ports. of northern Syria, fited
—
far
The
workshops were flourishing
grown wealthy on
towns
trade, pro-
from these external influences which also
stimulated local
artists.
But Palestine, impover-
ished by the Egyptian occupation, not only did
not benefit from these exchanges but saw culture in danger of suffocation.
its
own
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
69
70
between a mastiff and entire subject
Its
been
obscure.
is
suggested
a lion (fig. 21).
the
that
has
It
struggle
by symbolically interpreted,
should
the two animals representing two peoples
gods,
their
or
nowhere
in
combat, but
do we see
else in the East
simple animals without attributes in
such a symbolical the
monument
role.
The
style of
however, so remi-
is,
—
niscent of Syrian representations
the lion has been compared to a simi-
on the gold bowl from Ras
lar beast
—
Shamra ascribed
work has been
that the
Syrian
to
art,
perhaps an
import which came into Palestine as
war-booty at the
at the
end of the 14th
or
beginning of the 13th century.
However, the recent discoveries
Hazor may lead us
at
to consider this
monument,
hitherto isolated, not as
local work.
The
small sanctuarv un-
covered at the foot of the rampart surrounding Hazor contained a unique collection,
wall,
from an 21.
Fight between lion and dog. Basalt tablet from Beth Shean
arranged
which
in a
niche of the
will interest us here solely
artistic
The
point of view.
niche was decked with a row of seven
14th century B.C.E.
basalt
In 1360 the Hittites conquered Mitanni.
With
the disappearance of this buffer state the tension
between Egypt and the critical,
the
cal situation
Amarna
Hittite
Empire became
letters illustrating the politi-
during the period. Syria and Palestine
now passed under
steles
of
different
inscribed except for the central one, which bore a
two hands outstretched towards an
cutting of
of the
moon)
in a gesture of prayer. In front of
the steles, to the
left,
was a small
of a
bareheaded god
on a
stool
and holding a goblet
and Rameses
(fig.
23).
The execution
II.
Palestine
and
its
ports
I
were reconquered. But
the indecisive battle of Kadesh on the Orontes left
the Hittites in occupation of the rest of their
which
is
well proportioned,
is
and the head pride.
in a
On
in
basalt statue
long garment
Egypt did not
Pharaohs of the 19th dynastry, Seti
is
by a good
and forepaws only being free-sculpted of the slab, while the animal's
the cities of the Mediterranean coast experienced
in
troubled period in Palestine orthostat,
is
the Beth Shean
representing in two registers
a
fight
bodv
head
its
at the
is
end
prolonged
shallow relief on one of the faces of the stone.
The northern this
was
the right extremity of the niche
mise peace under the stabilizing influence of which
about
artist,
particular has an air of lofty
sequently by treaty. This established a compro-
at
hand
rough, but the work,
the figurine of a lion cut in a basalt slab,
new period of relative prosperitv. An interesting monument dated
seated
in his right
Syrian conquests, a situation acknowledged sub-
a
astro-
nomical svmbol (the disc of the sun and the crescent
begin to react before the end of 1320 under the
Hittite control.
un-
sizes,
influence
is
here
dominant;
man's dress and the stool on which he are
of
Syrian
Syrian
type.
It
is
moreover
the
is
seated
in
North
sculpture that the best analogies of the
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
71
Engraved scene on ivory
22.
lion
The
are to be found.
stylistic
homogeneity
Hazor objects can only be explained by
of the
their local production; thev reveal
angle of Canaanite
art,
an unexpected
Found
well be explained by
and
town's geographical situation
political
at
Megiddo, 12th century B.C.H.
made
ing been
for a
king or for some
Hittite
northern prince, and brought to Meggido as war
booty during the time of Egyptian domination.
Four small ivory plaques which possibly belong
which was revived by
mav
northern influence and the
tablet.
72
same furnishing are of particular
to the
interest;
they show the king of Megiddo leaving for war
with his chariots and footmen; the chariots are
independence.
each drawn by two horses and ridden by one man. Battle
joined and the chariots thrown into a
is
VIII gallop destroy the enemy. Victorious in the fight,
From the same
period
in
Palestine there have
number
come
to
us
found
at
Farah, Beth Shean, Tell Duweir and,
above than
all, at
large
a
ivory
of
Megiddo. The Megiddo
380 pieces and fragments,
objects
ivories,
more
constitute
extraordinary collection such as no other
site
an has
afforded.
The
century,
the most recent to the middle of the
oldest of
12th; but thev
all
them go back
show the same
to the 14th
artistic
tradi-
tion which continues elsewhere into the succeed-
the king accepts the subjects, finally,
a
of the period. typical
A
We
shall brieflv describe the
most
among them.
should be set apart from the ranks
of people,
rest.
It
represents
bull-headed men, hel-
meted gods and monsters, who on the upper
re-
gister support a Hittite king clad in his characteristic
disc.
of
garment and protected bv the
Hittite
winged
The panel composition and accumulation
figures
are
obviously
Although the
Hittite.
Canaanite ivory workers usually displaved a
markable
versatility of technique,
bable that this plaque, which
Megiddo,
at
It
undoubtedly preferable
is
it
seems improunique of
its
the work of a local craftsman.
type is
is
re-
to regard
it
as hav-
and
seen seated on a festal throne,
hand, and a lotus in his
in his right
the scenes are
who
left,
before him.
sit
shown according
to
Egyptian convention, the objects are Asiatic. The throne statue
is
a simple stool, like that of the
and those which appear
later
Hazor
on the As-
syrian reliefs.
The
subject of the king's victory
much freedom.
We
find
beverage,
while
treated with
seated on a throne
is
the queen
servant
a
is
again on an ivory at
it
Farah, but here the king of Egyptian style,
small plaque of quite exceptional character
several
is
presence of his wives all
of his vassals
bring him an offering of ducks;
the king
Although
ing century. These ivories illustrate better than
any other monument the svncretistic tendencies
cup
in the
who
homage
is
pouring him a
stands
behind
the
woman dances to the sound On another plaque from Me-
throne and a naked of a double flute.
giddo
(fig.
22) the king
first
appears on his chariot
bringing back naked circumcized prisoners pre-
ceded by an
officer
a warrior.
Behind the chariot marches
carrying the royal harp.
The king
is
protected by a somewhat confused winged motif typical of the Levantine
manner, and imitating
some Egyptian prototype. To the
left,
the
same
king appears on a throne addressed by a winged sphinx of a type
unkown
in
Egypt but found
again at Bvblos on the sarcophagus of Ahiram.
PALESTINIAN ART BEFORE THE ISRAELITE CONQUEST
73
He
is
served bv the queen
in
Syrian dress wear-
ing a low cylindrical crown. She proffers
and a napkin
lotus-flower
to
wipe
two servants stand near a big basin and in
a
Behind the throne,
a harpist plays before him.
on which are two cups
him
his lips, while
a plate,
the form of animal
heads. Birds in the field of the composition have
no parallels
in
scenes
of
this
tvpe
shown
Egvpt, and must be an addition bv the
in
artist,
who thus shows the same horror vacui so frequent among primitive people. Of this we have seen numerous examples above.
The same concern
to
out the composition,
a remarkable
Mycaenean
of
A
mastiff
is
admire the
again on this
time
influence, portrays fighting animals.
attacking an ibex bv slipping under
body. The position
its
skillful
unnatural, but one must
is
composition of the scene and
the ability with which the artist uses to the ut-
most the est
field at his disposal.
With the
slender-
means, by the simple entwining of the bodies,
he imparts an astonishing intensity
to the fight.
Beside this livelv scene, the Beth Shean orthostat looks quite clumsy.
To
the
same group
also be-
long four rectangular plaques showing recumbent griffons
merous decorative fragments, among which ducks' heads abound, as figurines with
with outstretched wings. The execution
woman
which serves
ivories.
More
detailed
description should be devoted to the remarkable bulls' heads, the elegant
the form of a
in
as
To
spoon.
a
same tvpe
the
of
representations also belong a Hazor head or cone-
shaped objects from Megiddo ending heads,
What
eyes
their
with
encrusted
in
women's
glass
should be emphasized, above
complex play of
of the
Aegean
all,
pearls.
that
is
With
gaming
tables,
and nu-
Asiatic,
consummate
skill
end
of the
Bronze Age.
craftsmen
these
move
borrowed usual-
into their compositions elements ly
Egyptian, and
influences brought to bear on the Syro-
Palestinian coast at the
simply for their decorative value, from various
and often succeed
repertoires,
of striking force
At the end
and
in
producing works
originality.
12th century, the invasion
of the
of the Peoples of the Sea rolled
upon the
coasts
and Palestine and reached
of Asia Minor, Syria,
the Egyptian frontier. As early as the end of the
preceding century the
Israelites
had begun
to
settle in the
mountainous areas on both sides of
the Jordan.
The
composite
influence.
These objects give but a feeble notion of the
Megiddo
the
to
with outstretched arms holding a bowl
Mycaenean
the
from Duweir
bottle
comes
of
to the astonishingly
modelled back of a naked woman, or
perfume
shows a similar master and reveals the same
variety
Duweir; to the female
at Tell
rounded bosoms,
these small works of art are perfect reflections
fill
much greater skill, is found comb whose decoration,
but with
74
history
an end. But
to
art
whose
of
this
birth
Canaanite Palestine
is
not the end of the
and development we
have followed over the course of the second millenium,
and whose
subsequent period, Philistines
and
tradition
now having
Israelites.
continued as
its
in
the
protagonists
ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE MONARCHY
ISRAELITE
by
Israel entered into the
BENEDICT
of
light
full
history
with her immigration into Canaan; and the
his-
must take the same period
tory of Israelite art
S.
ISSERLIN
up
ever, archaeology has
point out any objects
which
to
now been unable
(weapons, pottery,
can be assigned
etc.)
newly-arrived
the
to
to
fifteenth century B.C.E., Israelite tribal elements
nomad Israelites. (The attempt might indeed be made to close this gap to a certain extent by
seem
drawing
for
starting point. Present perhaps since the
its
definitely
have established themselves
to
uplands of Canaan in the thirteenth and
in the
Locally sweeping everything be-
early
twelfth.
fore
them with
fire
and sword, they could, never-
make good any
from a study of the
conclusions
known among
the other
nomads
art
both
of Asia,
ancient and modern; an art which to some extent
seems
to lean
on that of the settled countries
theoretical claims to
nearby. However, to what extent deductions from
ownership of the whole of Palestine; and the
such a study could legitimately be applied to
theless, not
Canaanite
cities in
the plains, such as Megiddo,
the ancient Israelites
Taanach, Beth-Shean or Gezer, remained inde-
after
pendent. As a result, the warlike invaders, poli-
letariat
grouped
tically
tled
down
to
soon
set-
peasant agriculture, and remained
in juxtaposition
These
in a tribal confederacy,
latter
simply
any
finer
they were grouped into city-states
who
in turn
Egyptian empire. This late
owed
latter,
century
thirteenth
allegiance
enfeebled dur-
had
B.C.E.,
apparently by the twelfth shrunk to the control of
few important centers
a
plain belt,
ed
out.
and
in
the
Palestinian
in the eleventh century
The whole
it
flicker-
picture of a dying empire in-
vaded by warlike outsiders
recalls in
some ways
Boman empire and
the final stages of the rise of
the
Yet, while the art of
Europe
of the
Dark Ages
invaders and the invaded, the historian of
early Israelite art
is
much
when faced with
course,
to trying
can be said to un-
art
earlier
its
the shock administered
by the invasion.
From
the dimness which thus veils Israelite
art before the settlement in the Promised Land,
only the textual description of the Tent of Meeting and
its
appurtenances, as given in the Scrip-
(Exodus
tures
As
detail.
twined
XXXVI
for the tent,
— VIII), stands out we
tains
hear of curtains of "fine
linen, blue, purple,
with cherubim" (Exodus
and
scarlet,
XXXVI:
were joined by loops and
mention
also
of
acacia
adorned
8); these cur-
clasps,
below an outer tent of goat-hair and is
some
in
boards
and placed
skins.
There
or
frames
covered with gold (XXXVI: 20, 34), and of a
medieval Europe.
can be studied from plentiful finds related both to the
whether Canaanite
dergo any significant deviation from
shall hereafter
are thus
and
Israelite impact,
to see
ruled by petty kings,
the
We
semi-nomad ancestry.)
under the
anite art
established and highlv-developed material civiliza-
ing
of
reduced to reviewing the development of Cana-
with the older inhabitants.
refer to as the Canaanites, neglecting
to the
rather doubtful; they are,
(whom we
ethnic divisions) were people possessed of a long
tion. Politically
is
described as an escaped Egyptian pro-
all,
less fortunately placed.
veil of blue, purple,
linen,
and
scarlet,
and
cunning workman" (XXXVI: 35). to
fine
twined
adorned with cherubim, the work of "the
visualize
always
just
what
is
It
is
not easy
intended,
and
indeed, material giving a fair idea of
indeed, the whole description of the Tent of Meet-
the culture of the original Canaanite inhabitants,
ing has not passed unassailed. Critics have been
How-
inclined to regard the present text as the blend-
There
as has
is,
been seen
in
the previous chapter.
and
ing of several strands of tradition, in
much
it
giving
body
vague.
It
and
late
find
to
reconstruction
theoretical
what would otherwise have been
to
may, however, be permissible
to recall
that the statement about the cherub decoration
its
tues,
commemorative
ture,
and
tic features
2)
beasts)
go back to types well known
foreign
second
half
second
the
of
That the carpet weavings of
may closely among their
R.C.E.
millenium
nomad
a
population
follow the decorative motifs in use settled neighbors has recently
were apt
Canaanite
character
the
in
Canaanite
3)
the
cient Persia.
Northern
Asia
There would thus be no prima facie
objection to the occurrence of the cherub motif,
developed
in ancient
among
Egypt,
Israelites sojourning in the deserts
the
nomad
bordering on
those two countries. also
of
work
scroll
(see
tine,
home among
parallels
paintings
sacred
and
profane
be
can
Winged
quoted.
guardian figures sheltering a sacred object are
developed in Egyptian seat"
of the
art,
while
the "mercy
(if
regarded as the symbolic resting point
is
Godhead) the throne drawn on the Meg-
to ancient Pales-
and connoisseurs there was a
classes
Again
both
of these
on
placed is
is
the
pottery.
Typical
a tendency to simplification
and ab-
is
little
evidence of a good sense of spacing and
We
have,
what preceded,
in
known about
tried
(see
and Canaanites before they came
22).
around a movable
palladium (a thing not without parallels other Semitic peoples), employing to the artistic conventions in use
among
some extent
among
the neigh-
seems not impossible; but the
boring nations, details elude us.
Whereas the
art of the
remains largely
unknown
cient
Canaanites
been dealt with useful
to
which
will
is
well
Israelites
)
seems facts
be relevant when
Egyptian
political
(ca.
1250
we come
to discuss
sovereignty brought in
— 1050).
see
disappearing.
sum-
to
the art of Israelites
how
into
hostile
things developed
the period of the Judges
Politically this
was a comp-
Egyptian rule was weakening and
licated epoch.
The each
Israelites
and Canaanite
city-
states
fought
result,
the former were restricted mainly to the
Then the
It
now
when they met during
documented, and has
preceding chapter.
is
Let us
upland
the art of the period to follow. 1
contact.
to us, that of the an-
down, summarily, a few
in the
note
most ancient
line,
perhaps also of a certain humorous feeling.
marize what
tent sanctuary centering
attempt to
achieve realistic representation. Occasionally, there is
Canaanite type of throne flanked by sphinxes fig.
and
villagers
well illustrated by the
ordinary
geometric form; there
stract
iddo ivory gives a good idea of the contemporary
A
lotus
Besides the "great art" supported by the
4)
provided with a moulding (Exodus XXXVII: 1-9). art
and
and sphinxes.
griffins
and Mesopotamia.
simple craftsmen. This
contemporary
complicated
but formed part of the cultural heritage of
popular art at
from
These
stock.
its
the lotus
36);
fig.
certain
which formed a
motifs
These motifs were not peculiar
men-
described as a box-shaped object
may be rendered may recall Egyptian
had developed a
art
chain of Egyptian origin;
wh
is
Some-
quarters.
commonly employed
leisured
ch latter
of
cattle
lions
decoration
tioned as flanking the "mercy seat" of the ark, ;
incorporation
include the "tree of life" with
Syria
Cherubs (of pure beaten gold) are
the
many
Thus
Aegean manner;
the
part
ancient
of
bv
mixed
strongly
a
or Hittite-North-Syrian models.
been
derived from the art of an-
shows
from
in a certain tradition.
among
nomads
to affect the local tradition.
art
influence
of
clearly
buildings, sta-
official
times a certain subject will tend to be treated
number
the
some
of
relief slabs, religious sculp-
conditioned
demonstrated by the findings of carpets executed
which are
Canaan
objets dart; besides this, Egyptian artis-
intended sphinxes, or kindred fabulous in
This comprised
art.
may be
decorative arts of Syria and Egypt during the
78
train the transplantation into
Egyptian
need not be an anachronism. Cherubs (by which
as
MONARCHY
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
77
invasion
zone,
the
status of the
other
latter
a
to
standstill;
the
to
lowland
as
a
belt.
quo was further upset bv the Philistines.
These
latter
came
from the Aegean world and made themselves at
home
in the coastal plain,
to their sphere of influence.
were very near
reducing the
hills
For a moment they
to establishing
an empire over
all
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
79
80
applied arts connected with everyday things seems
making and pot
generally to have been poor. Pot
The
painting alike are decadent. resentations
women
of
charms, are without
terracotta rep-
intended
labor,
in
artistic
as
The
or merit.
skill
products of the art of the sealmaker also show a
much lower
some centuries
Both scarabs and stamp
earlier.
tend to be
seals
had been achieved
than
level
with a simple "blob"
satisfied
the most basic geometrization. Vigorous
style, or
but crude, these seals employ motifs partly derived from Egvpt, like falcons, monkeys, snakes, or
Asiatic motifs
as
scorpions, animals
some
for
time.
such
antiquity
great
of
representing "tete beche,"
men. This simple
ostriches,
vogue
often
It
was
style
seemed
to
remain
in
be linked with
to
the general decline of civilization in the Near East
between 1200 and 900 B.C.E.; and
same period
of roughlv the
have come
As
Cyprus and
to light in
for the Philistines
About
Syria.
who made
lowland regions their home,
much about any
similar seals
as those in Palestine
difficult to
is
it
the Canaanite
of their
artistic traditions
say
own.
and profane,
their architecture, both sacred
we know next to nothing; the brief notices about Dagon temples contained in Judges XVI, 24ff and I
Canaanite deity basalt found
23.
about
Hazor
at
I4th-13tfa cent. B. C. E.
Western
down skill
Palestine,
but
end thev went
the
The
their
sphere
before the superior military and political
some extent mirrors
history of art to
We
witness at
this
first,
Egyptian-dominated zone, the existence
insufficient to enlighten us
artistic
to
special
them
is
"Philistine"
vase painting.
of
employing such motifs
painting,
of
has been recognized. However,
it
Egyptian statuary, and frequently the continued
that the so-called "Philistine" style
existence of Egyptian
to
occasional Egyptian of
Canaanite
objets d'eut at the courts
influence
subject
in
kinglets.
building,
The
continued to treasure ivory carvings
Palestinian
traditions is
were
blended.
the
Israelite
it.
thrust,
the local
However,
in
the
away from
more exposed and
favored parts of the country, the
less
level of aci
low
also
true for seats of the fairly opulent
rulers in the richer part of Palestine,
naturally
in
some
where Egyptian, Aegean, and Syro-
tradition,
while this
latter
\
ement seems
to
have been much
Furtlu more, the standard reached in the
be attributed
under
territory
eclectic
stvle
to local potters
Philistine
the
as
swan preening
the lozenge, and the
polychrome
of
stvle
in
might
general,
in
that
only
different
tradition,
from that of the Canaanites be ascribed
The
character.
architectural
which an
in
Here a
of David.
confused state of things. the
in
Samuel V, 2-5 are
its
spiral,
plumage,
must be said is
apparently
working
domination.
in the
It
is
an
vague memories
developed from
of the motifs current before the time of troubles in
the Aegean
world of the thirteenth century
B.C.E., and with special links to Cyprus, and, to a lesser extent, the
Dodecanese. Occasionally,
local Palestinian influence
the
makes
itself felt.
Thus
"Orpheus vase" from Megiddo, showing a
musician with a lyre
crowd
of
animals,
leading
seems
to
along represent
motlev
a a
cross-
breeding between "Philistine" and local peasant
MONARCHY
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
81
decadent lotus pattern on a "Philistine"
a
art;
vase from T.
Farah seems
el
to
go back to Egyp-
tian inspiration.
As
As this
82
remains of
befits the situation, the artistic
time
point
the
to
(Canaanite)
Palestinian
local
continued
existence
of
but
traditions,
during the pe-
also to a strong infusion of features to be as-
riod of the Judges, our Biblical texts hint that a
cribed to Phoenicia and to a lesser degree, to
for the art of the Israelites
amount
certain
and profane
of sacred
was
art
be found among them. There were temples,
to
orthodox (at Shilo) and schismatic (as at Dan); individuals
might
ephods and
idols
Judges VIII, 27; XVII,
"fosse
Such works might be
anite
manner;
well-established
of
idols
in traditional
have been found
anite types
and a
23 )
fig.
(
shortly
of
idol
little
Hazor
after
war-god from
a
the
tradition
The coming
Saul provided, for the
of the
be expected to express towards the
arts.
We
happened
tha v this
proved
to
later,
still
architec-
occur at various places,
now
remains dominant,
where amulets and
similar
The main
interest of this period,
little
however,
naturally centered in the works of art
fa-
and
is
archi-
tecture connected with Solomon's great building
program. Outstanding among these for general interest
monarchy under is
Solomon's Temple
(fig.
24). Not a stone of
who might
prestige,
his standing also
bv bounty
have, however, no evidence
'/Awyy/vw/s/^M-
at this stage; Saul's residence
Gibea, so far as
at
small
ience figurines are concerned.
Israelite
time, a central ruler
first
endowed with wealth and
and
Egyptian
Lachish.
also
the same Canaanite tradition with North-Syrian analogies.
at
tural features
belongs to
conquest,
Israelite
temple"
and Egyptian
dating apparently from a time
,
tradi-
the
very similar in plan to the pre-Israelite
Cana-
period,
this
is
Cana-
Gezer
in strata at
and Megiddo dating roughly from
by
exemplified
is
"northern" temple found in Beth-Shean, layer V,
which
1-8).
building
in
with
themselves
provide (cp.
Egyptian inspiration. Thus the Canaanite tion
ZW/, d o a a d o a
has been excavated, has
it
have been a purelv
utilitarian
i
w
strong
point without pretensions to comfort or the graces of
Things probably improved under his suc-
life.
David, but concrete details
cessor
what we hear about
his
still
us;
fail
"house of cedar"
(II.
Samuel VII, 2) and general building program best taken with the better
documented work
is
of
Solomon.
his son
Solomon's reign seems, in
fact, to
mark
a per-
iod in the artistic development of Palestine. His rule
father's
had seen the
and Canaanites within one
Israelites
building up
the
in close
ture,
of
reorganized by to
luxurious train
nicians,
state,
25
of
and
Southern Syrian empire
with Egvpt. This political struc-
furnish
building program
its
a
union
commercial alliance with Phoenicia, and
in active contact
made
effective
court.
the
the
means
this
local
for
and
an a
for artists
foreign,
capital Jerusalem, but also at
throughout the realm.
of
was now
immense rich
and
must have brought
ample opportunities both
king,
the behest
at
All
new
many
in
w
m
C2
CD.
in
and techthe
new
other points 24.
Plan and section of Solomon's
Temple
(after
Watzinger)
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
83
the present temple platform can be ascribed to
with certainty, though
it
architectural
that
sible
ture are
hidden
still
a
to
written accounts:
Ezekiel
extent
studied
the basis
of
Kings VI- VIII, and to some
1.
when
light
these
are
texts
and elsewhere.
must
of the detail, however,
remain
still
Solomon's Temple, an oblong building orientated east-west, consisted essentially of three divi-
Holy
a
(debir)
Holies
of
.
wide and 10 deep
cubits
cording to
Chronicles
II
overtopped
wood
the
into
sibly
coffered.
main
hall
10 x 5m.); acit
Temple
hall
iu
height. Light
hall
by
built of ashlar,
store
height.
It
wood, posbehind the
Holies
to the
The whole Temple and
stories
main Temple
windows placed above the structure
was
internally panelled with cedar
wood, carved with cherubs, palm
and
trees,
floral
ornaments, and heightened with gold. The doors carved with similar elaboration. furniture of the house
nal
golden
included
the table of the
altar,
The
inter-
(besides a
shew bread, and
10 lamps) the Ark of Covenant which was placed the
in
Hob
and guarded by two huge
of Holies
winged cherubs carved
On tall
in olive
the outside, the porch
wood and
gilded.
was preceded by two
columns 18 cubits high. These were
brass
This somewhat bald outline receives considerable amplification and interest
archaeological
parallels.
use
if
house" temple;
this
is
Canaan
forms, in ancient
of
Solomon's of the "long
be found,
to
made
is
Basically,
various
in
Megiddo, She-
(as at
type divided into porch, main Holies,
now be
can
zone from
its
With-
alia.
and Holy
hall,
of
followed in the Canaanite
early adumbration at Bvblos via the
9th century B.C.E. temple at T. Tainat in Syria.
chambers, three
was admitted
clerestory
store chambers.
were
on wheels.
proper 40
door
was 20 cubits square and 20 high;
and south by
est.
placed on twelve oxen, and ten movable lavers
impressive pie-Israelite temple at Hazor to the
in
a ceiling of cedar
of
altar, a
water container called the "molten sea,"
great
of
double
a
hall.
w
Within the court there were, besides the
wider category, the evolution of the temple
may have been raised in level above the main The Temple was surrounded to the north,
it
chambers between the jutting-out door jambs).
in this
may have been structures. From the
The Hob'
lateral
The porch was 20
and 20 wide, and 30
cubits long
was provided with
were of
Ezekiel's description can be applied,
composite type involving a succession of
Ugarit) and even at Assur, inter
(ca.
tower-like
to
stone
to this,
chem r
hall
III, 4,
porch one entered through express
if
(The gates
of cedar beams.
(hekhal) and
a porch (ulam), a main
sions:
and one row
Temple comes within the categorv
questionable.
hewn
walling founded on three courses of
from archaeolo-
available
gical evidence obtained in Israel
Much
struc-
neverthe-
is,
extent on
fair
XLI-III,
the
in
the
of
the accumulated masses
reconstruction
lacking,
is
possible
less,
members
while visible archaeological
Yet,
of later filling.
evidence
in
indeed quite pos-
is
it
84
The
comes verv
latter
store
close indeed to the place
main building, while the
Solomon's
of
lateral
chambers of Solomon's Temple can be paral-
leled at the nearlv
contemporary "southern" tem-
ple of Beth-Shearim, level V. Various individual
features
Solomon's building can likewise be
of
paralleled
"long house" temples
the
in
the
of
ancient Palestine-Svria and nearby countries.
was
there
quoted again
Beth-Shean, T. Tainat, and rather
T. Atchana
earlier, at
was
at
in
Northern Svria.
tower-like porch,
a
parallels
duced from Egvpt, but perhaps
at
Paphos
in
we
much
already
method
V
of
later
that
ashlar
walling,
and the Aegean
but also
was known
during the second millenium
is
still,
Cvprus. Coming to constructional find
ashlar with courses of cedar beams,
Anatolia,
there
If
could be ad-
also, in a differ-
ent variety, at ancient Assur and
methods,
If
can be
a raised sacral end, parallels
in
Syria,
area; in Palestine, the
illustrated at the
comtemporary
level
Beth-Shean, and at Megiddo, stratum IV
what seems
provided with complicated composite capitals 5
(Megiddo IV
cubits in height, involving such elements as chain
very close approximation to the gates described
and cheel ple it
may
ir
h
was surro
work, and pomegranates. The e
Tem-
been placed on a raised platform; led
by
a court delimited
bv ashlar
bv Ezekiel tion,
)
.
we have
also provides
to
be
a
Dealing next with internal decorato
remember
that cedar panelling,
and especiallv cedar panelling
inlaid with ivorv
MONARCHY
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
85
and heightened with gold was
at
home
86
Phoe-
in
nicia and in the sphere affected by her. Proceed-
ing
now
we have
to external fittings,
remember
to
that the two gigantic free-standing columns Yakin
are paralleled by similar free-standing
and Bo'az twin
before Phoenician temples at Tyre
pillars
laver, a stone laver
and Gades. For the gigantic from Amathus
Cyprus has been adduced
in
parallel; the portable lavers are in the
tion as
one from Enkomi
as a
tradi-
Cyprus, which
in
is
the vase support from
it-
and
supports from that island,
self related to vast
(fig.
same
Megiddo mentioned before
25). All told, there
much which
not
is
looks
like direct
borrowing from the powerful southern
neighbor,
Egypt;
much
derivation, and there
Canaanite-Syrian
of
is
a strong Phoenician in-
is
fluence embracing perhaps, the overseas connec-
Ornamental
tions with Cyprus.
on
constructed
such
detail
best re-
is
Thus,
considerations.
the
Vase support from Megiddo.
25.
composite capitals of Yakin and Bo'az with their lily
work may have been something
capital imitated
by a somewhat
to talk
shall
have
still
26); while the cherubs facing palm
(fig.
may have been
trees
later stone brazier
we
from Megiddo, about which
the
like
nician-inspired
Phoe-
like those of the later
The
ivories.
difference
age
in
with
all
may have been known from Zenjirli (ancient Sham'al), in Northern Syria at a slightlv later date. The king's private apartments may (or may not) of
judgment
kinds of wood, the
different
gilding showing strongly
and
carvings
have conformed
where a beam
though the
though the time,
word "unique"
as
Tem-
was
ours,
free
Mr. Perrot reminds
we know much
which most forest of
detail
is
given
Lebanon," a long
less. is
in
The one about 50 cubits by 100 this
building was, in later times, used as an armorv, it
has been
compared with such
military
buildings as the stables at Megiddo, stratum IV,
with their rows of internal
armory
naval
buildings
in
pillars
later
and
certain
Greece.
The
The
A
highly
romanticized reflection of these
medieval Jewish
art.
and hewn stone mixed with
may have been
What
we have
like
at
present
pillars
per-
collapse of Solomon's empire after his death
and the
sister-states
meant the end opportunities
monarchy
of the united
split
two warring
it
of
of
Israel
the
into
and Judah
an imperial epoch and the
presented.
The two new monar-
chies were, nevertheless, not inferior in territory
and resources
to
other petty Syrian states, like
Sham'al or Damascus, and
them could
like
as patrons for art both sacred
act
and profane. Fur-
thermore, a rising mercantile aristocracy was soon to
sisted in
given about ashlar masonry
no means of knowing.
us.
the "house of the
hall,
details
with the
provided with four rows of internal columns;
and
nothing of the plans,
buildings erected bv the king in his later
years
Of Solomon's public and domestic buildings Jerusalem,
else-
the house of Pharaoh's daughter or the heterodox
have been impressive; even like
we know
cedar beams sound like Phoenician work.
cult
certainly
in Syria;
and
at that latter site,
of light
the otherwise semi-dark interior, Solomon's
must
to the type of residence called
known
of large dimensions
from the highly-placed windows penetrated into
ple
analogous
the varied colors of
finery,
its
throne
of the
hall
to porticos
where
What
and the porch
of pillars
"bit hilani"
must, however, be remembered.
the
portico
join
the courts as possible clients for those
supplying the refined
life.
embellishments
Around
Judah
and graces and
Israel,
of
a
the
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
87
Stone brazier in the shape of a
2".
former subject kingdoms of Transjordan
mon, Moab, Edom) coastal
and the
city-states
(Amin
the
plain provided other possible centers of
patronage for the
arts,
if
of
a
less
impressive
We
are
much
better placed to judge the art-
istic activity of this
period; descriptions on paper
now superseded by
the great public buildings of the time of Solomon persist.
There
is
ashlar masonry,
and ashlar
mixed with cedar beam work. Both methods of construction
c; n
the surviving ex
now be
studied in detail from
nples uncovered
by excavation.
from Megiddo.
Splendid examples
been uncovered is
at
of
)
,
have
construction
ashlar
Megiddo, stratum IV (which
House
best attributed to the period of the
Omri
of
the remainders of the royal palace at
in
and more
recently,
at
Ramat Rachel,
south of Jerusalem, where the ruins of what seems to
have been a roval residence have been partlv
excavated.
actual finds.
In architecture, the methods characteristic of
still
capital
Samaria,
kind.
are
pillar
88
Construction
is
extremely careful;
consists of well-laid layers of headers
chers,
quarry
the
foundation
bosses
smoothed.
but
courses
the
left
visible
Megiddo IV has
also
and
with
work
it
stret-
rough
carefully
furnished
ex-
amples of the method of mixing ashlar and beam work.
Occasionally,
the
cost
of
some
less
im-
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
89
MONARCHY
90
portant buildings was lowered by mixing short stretches
of
is
with
ashlar
intervening
Megiddo; even
walling, as at
this
cheap dr\
kind of masonry
sharp contrast to the type of poor rubble
in
walling emploved for the houses of commoners.
The
ashlar of the public buildings
perior to
work
it,
is
vastly su-
and may sometimes have been the
of Tvrian masons, as in the case of Samaria.
Of the
palaces at Samaria and
royal
Ramat
Rachel only the casemated enclosure walls are present sufficiently known.
What
the plans and
architectural features of the palaces proper
have been
formed
we
cannot vet
tell;
at
may
perhaps they con-
to the Syrian "bit hilani" tvpe; a residence
at
Megiddo, stratum
of
Jeroboam
in
II
III
(probably of the time
the eighth century B.C.E.),
prettv definitely resembles the types of residence in
vogue
in
Northern Syria and Mesopotamia.
Gates, as at Megiddo, also tend to resemble those
found
in Svria
general period.
no indications
and Mesopotamia during the same
They of
tectural features.
are monumental, but give
Of the
art
and architecture
of
the great schismatic cult centers inveighed against
by Amos, such
27.
as those of Bethel
28.
and Dan, we
model of
Pottery
of the
anv other distinguishing archihave
at present
no
shrine. T.
el
Farah. Period
Hebrew Monarchy. real
knowledge.
We
do,
how-
ever, possess a little information concerning the
small local shrines, regarded as heretical
Pottery model of shrine, found in Transjordan. Period of the
Hebrew Monarch\
by the
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
91
Reconstructed pottery model of shrine from Megiddo.
29.
knowledge
Bible. This
models such
of pottery
Gezer, T.
el
The
(fig.
27), and in Transjordan
with
latter in particular,
supported by columns, proper with
from
ent
have been found
as
at
Farah (perhaps the ancient Tirzah)
near Nablus 28).
based on the existence
is
front
in
pitched roof,
its
rural
is
its
small porch the
of
chapel
not so very differ-
known
sanctuaries
(fig.
to
us
from
pottery models in early Greece about this time.
What
helps such and other buildings to achieve
the quality of a tions
of art are structural propor-
and additional ornamental features such
mouldings, side
we
are
often
Of
work
carvings,
usually
know
ruined
About the
etc.
very
little,
down
almost
as
structural
since buildings to
floor
level.
the details of architectural ornamentation, on
the other hand, sufficient evidence has survived for us to
form some
Egyptian to
have
and eighth
ideas.
irchitectural
fadt ct
]
out turies
in
92
B.C.E.
during the ninth
The
last
piece of
shrine
tery
in this direction
a pot-
is
model from Megiddo, stratum IV,
(fig.
29); this shows at the top what looks rather
like
a
vague imitation of an Egyptian cavetto
cornice above a torus
roll
moulding. This type of
ornamentation had been traditional several centuries.
Egypt
in
The importation from
such features in Palestine at
this
for
there of
time
is
quite
possible. In Judah, to the south, the influence of
the great civilization by the Nile to
be
felt;
complete
and here we have,
monument
namely the "Tomb rock-cut-out
in
of
monumental
in
was more apt
type
of
manner,
Egyptian
the
Pharaoh's
Daughter," a
structure in the village
a rectangular building crowned
cornice which
a fairly
fact,
of Silwan (ancient Siloam), (fig. 30). It ly
a
influence seems largely Israel
evidence to be quoted
bv
was formerly topped bv
a
is
basical-
a cavetto
pyramid;
monumental tomb which was
established in
dating of this
Egvpt by the
New
tomb has been
be possible, however,
to assign
Kingdom. The
disputed. it
fully
It
may
to the eighth-
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
93
MONARCHY
94
£SKI seventh century B.C.E.,
have something as
which case
in
might
it
do with the renewed
to
artistic
well as political influence which Egypt
was
exercising at that time over the neighbor countries,
during the rule of the active Ethiopian dv-
nastv and after the restoration of her political in-
dependence under the While thus
at
features
Egyptian best
Saitic Kings.
ultimately
influence
architectural
limited,
from
derived
serve
We to
some
common
the
Syro-Palestinian tradition are widelv
was
ornamental
architectural
met and de-
discussion.
had occasion on an
the "tree of
life"
page
earlier
to refer
motif as one of the stock
features in pre-Israelite decorative tradition. This
ancient motif
now developed and
is
architectural ornamentation.
The
applied to
work go-
scroll
ing with this feature in particular
is
turned to
use in various ways. Thus the above mentioned rural shrine
model from T.
el
Farah near Nablus
shows columns topped bv what look
like inverted
primitive Ionic capitals; the shrine
model from
"The Tomb
30.
ment
utes
of Pharaoh's Daughter", a rock-cut monuSiloam Village. Period of the Hebrew Monarchy.
in
is
also
Transjordan shows the columns supporting the
model
pediment ending
Transjordan.
to
back,
in
two
pairs
of volutes
back
one pointing upwards and the other
downwards.
A
capital
made up
of similar vol-
at
T.
of
el
shown on the head
of a little clav
an hermaphrodite caryatid found
The mutilated
Hesv and re-emploved
mav belong
to the
same
in
/,vj;u^
Reconstruction
of
a
row
of
engaged
pilasters
later
general tradition
JimJ.,/fJZ.
31.
in
wall pilasters found
with proto-Ionic capitals from Samaria.
work which
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
95
96
dow;
imitated on contemporary
is
it
furniture,
as
Zenjirli-Sham'al;
at
a
mutilated full-size example has turned
up
at Assur.
But relations are
parti-
cularly close with the tvpe of capital
represented in Anatolia at Neandria
and elsewhere. Again our evidence thus points to the close links existing
between the
artistic traditions of Is-
and Judah and those of North
rael
which were carried
Syria, traditions
West and influenced nascent
to the Stone slab with imitation of column capitals from Ramat Rachc
32.
Greek architecture. Again can be linked with the evolution of kindred
somewhat
if
architectural features in the
different
tral
this general ances-
stock seems to be the so-called "proto-Ionic"
which
is
attested, with little basic-
from Mesopotamia
variation, this
from
special derivation
pilaster capital
to Cyprus. Basically
form of capital consists of a central triangle
flanked
by
painted
in
Simple or
volutes.
various
when
and
later,
Thev seem
deibi.
have
capitals
Megiddo
sites: at
Omri held sway;
of
and Ramat Rachel century
or
31), from buildings of the time
(fig.
House
the
plain
florid,
these
colors,
turned up at various Palestinian
and Samaria
of purposes; thev
on the
to rest
The
dition of pre-Israelite Canaan.
neighboring lands.
One
monarchy seems
of the
in
at
Hazor,
Judah, probably about a
Me-
also in Transjordan as at to
have served
a variety
for
might adorn the entrances of
also,
the
vogue during the period
style of architecture in
earlier tra-
capital with
drooping leaves seems derived from a simpler
among
type represented this
Megiddo
the
ivories,
and
again an adaptation of an old established
is
Egyptian type of
capital. Architectural traditions
which seem mainly
home
at
outside the Syrian
sphere are rarer; part of a crowstep battlement
from Megiddo might perhaps go back
more
to a
properly Assyrian style of building. Architectural sculpture did definitely occur in the peripheral regions of the Israelite monarchy. In the disputed border-land
between
Damascus,
(ancient
there
at
Sheikh Sa'd
was found
a lion
(fig.
Israel
and
Qarnaim)
33), which must have
served to defend a gate entry.
It
recalls
North
public or religious buildings, as at Megiddo, or
Syrian gate lions of the "Svro-Hittite" type, but
help to beautifv porches, as at Samaria.
already
There
is
evidence, also, concerning other types of
capitals in use for topping free-standing columns.
A
brazier from
Megiddo
referred to earlier
(fig.
26) seems to imitate a composite capital consisting
essentially
of
two rows
of
pendent
leaves*
under some Assyrian
treatment of the mane;
it
influence
in
is
the
might belong to the
latter part of the ninth, or the early eighth
century
B.C.E. In the central region of Israel such things
must have been
now
excavated by
enough
rare;
cities
have been
to give significance to the ab-
topped by a bowl element. Attention has been
sence of even mutilated fragments of monumental
drawn
sculpture at such places as Megiddo. Yet while
and
to other objects imitating similar
capitals,
A more
columns
such as a potterv stand from Gezer.
rare,
something of the kind must nevertheless
Ramat Rachel near
have
existed.
recent
from
find
Jerusalem, a stone plaque which
mav once have
formed part of a decorative screen, features dwarf
of pottery
man
or
This
models of buildings adorned with hu-
animal figures; for these figures show
columns, again with two superimposed rows of
such definite
pendent leaves
the products of
is
(fig.
32). This family of columns
well knov n in the ancient Near East during
first
milleni
m
B.C.E.
shown suppo. ing '
On
ivory
carvings
a railing across an
open
it
the' is>
win-.
imitate
One
proved bv the occurrence
is
stylistic
things
of these
traits
mere
actually
models
ed from Megiddo
is
(fig.
that they cannot be
fantasy,
known
but must rather to
their
makers.
the example already quot29).
It
shows
at the cor-
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
97
!
Basalt lion
33.
ners
replicas
of
architectural
colossal
from Sheikh Sa'd
sculpture
known in Northern Syria and Mesopotamia. The high cap and long curls of the sphinx on
as
the left seem
particularly significant, for
in the Svro-Hittite tradition.
A
by T. Taanach adorned with in
poor execution
and sphinxes
lions
style
of
or rather
the
figures
Megiddo, and that in the
similar objects
seem
to
dating from the time definitely after
layers
the coup d'etat of Jehu; perhaps the prophetic
awav with
revolution did
this as
with other "abo-
minations." In Judah also, the feeling against this
this
apparently
We
tent.
(
fig.
28 )
precincts
sculpture
sparingly:
Ezekiel
seems
though on the outer to
(XL, 22;
have 26;
been
31;
34;
used 37)
mentions onlv palm tree decoration on the gates.
And
seems that architectural sculpture
it
allied arts after the
and
fell
under very strong theological approbri-
um; witness what Ezekiel has probably were paintings or
manner
and
time of Solomon were rare,
(VIII,
10;
to sav
about what the Assyrian
reliefs in
XXIII, 14). The onlv piece
from Megiddo. This
relief
a
few plain
head
"Aramean"
recalls the
exaggeratedly
the
surfaces;
There
is,
tradition of Northern
however, on the present evidence,
This rulers.
monarchv they were being placed Sham'al and Malatia.
now
its
high
pointed
cap,
this
animal
tradition;
it
again
mav be
deified
No
in
Hebrew
the gates of
Israelite gate
has up to
given indication of ever having been similarly
provided.
This seems significant, for statues of
rulers or persons of standing
temporary
Ammon
(as
were known
in con-
might have been expected,
they come within the Syrian and Phoenician tradi-
features there
comes within the Svro-Hittite
of Israel. or
Syrian heritage; and at the time of the
to
With
Land
kings
representing
to
Such statues were part of the common
tion).
of architectural sculp-
which seems
art
totally absent in the
statuary
is
illustrate the traditions
the sphinx from the" grottos of the kings."
large
Syria.
Judean sculpture known which might be taken
is
shows
latter
extreme simplification and reduction of body to
of
ture
on
perhaps also to a stone with a
;
have been
plentiful representations of
interior,
(eagle?)
the pediment of the shrine model from Trans-
Temple had possessed the
known, but
the bird
to
one type of representational
in
is
never developed to any great ex-
it
might point
kind of thing seems to have grown. Solomon's
cherubim
al-
known
type had thus been
Minor architectural sculpture
female in
No
is
country for some considerable time.
the local work.
in
;
ready featured on a Hittite-inspired ivory from
jordan
light
«s«a«-i»- ^.*,,4i««« «
in Syria.
seems to point to a Syrian tradition underlying
have come to
98
worthwhile recalling that a similar sphinx
brazier from near-
may be contemporary
Again the general
eailier.
they are
MONARCHY
As
for other statuary representing
mentioning.
is
hardly anything which deserves
One might perhaps
from Megiddo,
human
strictlv frontal,
exes and a small beard;
it
refer to a
head
with large staring
seems Mesopotamia!!
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
99
100
two fragments have survived,
or
seem very near
as at Gezer; they
in style to the older, pie-Israelite
cult statuary of the Canaanites, as found, e.g., in
the "fosse temple" at Lachish.
More has come down
to us of the small do-
mestic idols which were of
Chief
among
intrinsic value.
little
these are the so-called "Pillar Astar-
te" figures in potterv
made, splaying
34). These consist of
(fig.
thrown on the wheel or hand-
a tubular bodv,
base with
at the
rolls of clav at-
tached as arms to support the very prominent
and a head which was made separately
breasts, in a
mould and
Typical of these heads
fitted on.
are a "Greek profile," large almond-shaped eyes,
and hair
wigs
or
The
curls.
little
arranged
widelv
type,
in
rows of
Canaanite sacred imagery with Egyptian ties;
was
it
with
distributed
back to the old traditions of
variations, goes
little
neatly
to influence early
affini-
Greece (Rhodes,
Cyprus) during the archaic period. Other small crude
plastic items include
little
men
figures of
supporting tri-cornered hats on their heads (such
have
been found
also
settlement of Ibiza )
in the
These
figurines of horsemen. "Pillar Astarte" of pottery
$4.
rather than Syrian
there
otherwise
is
the Egyptian style
Gezer; T. es
at
reliefs in
derivation, but
in
Of
case, quite isolated.
from Lachish.
was
direct foreign
evidence.
little
is,
A
statuette in its
maker
has furnished remnants of
Safi
the Assyrian manner, which
been due to the
any
in
influences
unfinished by
left
and usually reduced
field
artists
mav have
of the Great
Of
plastic
attack
ivory)
der
is
any
in
case.
YVe know a
the
denunciations
Isaiah
XL,
19ff;
method
of
XLIV,
of
9ff;
little
the
overlaid
—
is
and
prophets
(ef.
to
—
by sheet-gold fastened archaic Greece,
but wen! out of fashion there after the seventh
century L C.E.
Of chryselephantine
alwavs having served as such
their
speak against (fig.
35).
On
the whole, the standards of workmanship are low; occasionally
work with more pretension
to natu-
little
Jeremiah, X, 3ff); the
known from
adults
of a
about them
manufacture apparently referred
wooden core down with nails a
of
what were
figure
would have rendered them desirable plun-
from
apparently the burials
in
Some may
and very strongly "Semitic" features from T.
(involving gold and
composition
detail.
but occurrences
representation can be found, as in a seated
quite understandable, for
during times of cultic reforms)
precious
their
more precious media
in
rendering
at
toys,
frequent
forms without
ralistic
were often idolatrous (and thus an object
statues for
work
remained. This
have been
latter are
to simple basic
little
King
on campaign.
lias
much attempt
far-away Phoenician
various animals and
;
statues one
male with high cap and long hair es
Safi.
These terracotta objects are the common man's art.
Better things can be expected from orders
executed to embellish the abodes of the wealthy
and discriminating. The for
more precious
ticular, call
we have
salem
homes
could, in par-
political
might be expected
earlier served
of the wealthier Canaanite
there were
two
and Samaria, both
under the
Thev
had some centuries
seen,
Now
materials.
could also go in
the ivorv carver, whose works, as
in
to beautify the
princes.
latter
of
royal courts, Jeru-
which had come
influence of Tyre and thus to
have developed
likings for
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OK THE
101
MONARCHY
102
Ahab is remade an "ivory house" Kings XXXII, 39). The art of the
Phoenician-style luxury.
ported to have (1
ivory carver
preciated
at
must
have been ap-
also
the
Judean court,
for
Sennacherib somewhat later reports that the tribute paid to
included
kiah
him by Heze-
ivory
The
objects.
wealthy classes shared the luxurious of
tastes
their
found cause
who were
to
Amos
royal masters;
upbraid the
idle rich
sprawling on ivory couches
(Amos
VI,
houses
(III,
4)
inhabiting
or
15).
ivory
The reference
both these cases, and
in that of
"house of ivory" mentioned
Jr.v*€VliH$&^
in
Ahab's earlier,
are to buildings, the internal panelling
and furniture which were adorned with ivory inlays and carvings.
Of the extravagant works which aroused such intense feelings, a repre-
come
sentative selection has
to light
in the excavations at Samaria.
The
pieces in question originated in
all
35.
possibility in
Ahab's ivory pavilion, though a later origin of
some
items,
nearer the
fall
the city in 722
of
B.C.E., cannot be excluded. Most of the material consists inlays,
of flat plaques
pieces
there
to
be appied
as
either to cedar wall panelling, or to fur-
niture; carving in the flat
meant
are
are also
round
usually
items
is
rather rarer.
carved
decorated
in
low
with
The
relief;
insets
of
Pottery model of
make up
horseman from Lachish.
The
the decorative patterns themselves.
most spectacular pieces were adorned both with
polychrome
The
insets
who produced
artists
from a
and gold
leaf.
these ivories
worked
which they were
fixed repertory of tvpes
fond of repeating and applying over and over again.
Such motifs are the
the palmette
(
fig.
37 )
,
lotus chain
the
dow" (perhaps intended
"woman
for
(fig.
36),
at the
win-
Astarte),
Isis
and
colored glass or paste to heighten the effect of
Nephthvs, the infant Horus on a lotus flower,
the carving;
winged
in
other cases these colored inlays
56.
tvorj
panel
from
Samaria
ornamented with
genii
lotus
sphinxes.
flower
and
Work
Inul
in
design.
the
round
in-
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
103
Reconstruction of ivory inlays
37.
eludes lions intended as arm-rests for a chair or
throne
and a lionhead which once
38),
(fig.
tipped the handle of a dagger or similar object. these
Stylistically,
known
and manv
school,
belong
ivories
them can be
of
well
a
to
dupli-
set
in
104
wooden panelling from Samaria.
media from the output
of Phoenician workshops.
Phoenician trade also carried these patterns into early Greece; both the lotus chain
mette occur
in
and the
pal-
very similar shapes on painted
pottery vases from Rhodes. In origin, this art
is
cated at the former royal Assyrian palace at Nim-
closely allied to the general, pre-Israelite artistic
rud (some of the ivories found there might
in-
tradition of
deed have been
on
the
to those
loot
Samaria
of
fall
found
in
)
.
transferred
Other
Assyria
to
ivories fairly similar
Samaria have come
to light at
earlier stage of
much bowls.
these are presumably bootv which the Assyrians
The
captured when campaigning
Damascus.
against
Hazael
All these ivories tend to repeat similar
standard motifs, and the better ones vary in
of
of
execution.
Many
little
of the patterns are obviously
Egyptian origin; the idea of inlaying ivorv
with
colored
may
substances
Egyptian cloisonne work. In
also
details,
go
back
Other
rarer
pieces
are
it
a stone lionhead
With
mixture
this
inspiration of the
ed thus
Samarian
ivories belong-
to a school of craftsmen trained in the
Phoenician school. These ivory workers apparently
went
plv their trade wherever required;
to
part of an
unworked elephant tusk found
at Sa-
maria proves that some of the carving was done quite possible that
some other
men were
local, Israelite in
descent or associations.
For the
existence
local
originally
of
carvers
is
trained
on
of
a
somewhat
school
crafts-
ivory
of
different
artistic
canons can be deduced from a consideration of certain
ivorv
and bone carvings found
as
sites
other than Samaria. These include a lion-shaped
in all particulars.
derived
of
fashion on the later Phoenician metal
in
however, the
from Nimrud to which
does not, however, conform
no hint of the genre scenes
locally. It
an Asiatic derivation; thus a lion-headed handle recalls
is
to
execution does not conform to Egyptian idiosvncrasis.
the other hand, only the
Phoenician art seems to be repre-
sented here; there
Arslan Tash, ancient Hadatta, in Syria; some of
On
Canaan.
Egyptian and
handle from T.
el
Farah
in the coastal plain;
a
Asiatic motifs, the ivories fall naturally within the
bone wand with a charging bull from T. en
mixed
Nasbeh north
artistic
tradition
which they have, on
encountered ed, in very
si
in
the
of
fact,
the
Phoenicians,
to
been ascribed. Motifs
ivories
nilar execution,
can
be
on works
matchin
other
of Jerusalem;
an ivorv box with
sphinx, a kneeling figure from
Jordan, and
a
a
Hazor by the upper
bone handle showing
genius and sacred tree from the same
a
winged site.
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
105
seems
factor with these pieces
to
be that they are not only technically inferior to
more
the Samarian ivories, but also
among
detail
stylistic
The
motifs.
inspiration for these latter seems to
have come from two
We
in the line of
the North Syrian tradition in art than the latter;
they can be matched in
106
Ivorv lions from Samaria.
38.
The common
MONARCHY
by
consideration
a
directions.
can learn something about one of these
"Shema
the
of
well-known
the works of art found in the north during the
no isolated invention de novo.
ninth and eighth centuries, to which they belong.
larger class of
The
nically less successfully executed signets
on the handle from T.
lion
Farah shows
el
the solid outlining of the legs to which
we
refer-
red earlier; the kneeling figure on the ivory from
rael
contemporary
It
including tech-
and Phoenicia, and stretching down
from
to such
imprints on pottery have been found at T.
Nasbeh and Ramat Rachel. This tvpe
genius and sacred tree on the bone handle from
back
the same site recall the crude simplifications in
and bellv
vogue
cles)
suggest
unimportant;
that
imported country
in
by
the
a
school
strongly
court,
ivory
of
inspired
the existence and prevalence of which
we had
occasion to notice in other spheres.
by North-Syrian-Canaanite
lastly refer to
another sphere of ap-
uced during the period of the monarchy, namely the
Israelite
of
still
the
of
craft
and engraver. The early days narchy
work was prodcutter
of the divided
mo-
witnessed the continued production
much rough and crude work
and geometric
in
the "blob"
"dark ages."
style of the
By
the
time of the House of Omri, however, there had
come
a remarkable revival.
A new
type of seal
(scarab or scaraboid)
was coming
Southern Syria and
Israel-Judah especially.
in
into
use in It
gave the owner's name and often also his patronymic,
and frequently,
too,
glyptic art of the late second millenium B.C.E.,
istic
some decorative
is
itself
derived from the old and detailed art.
Direct Assyrian art-
influence in Palestine can, of course, not be
ruled out; Israel had been in contact with Assvria
since the ninth century,
Jeroboam's
death,
which was
to
Assyria
and immediately began
the
after
advance
lead to the extinction of the
Is-
raelite state.
and Judean seal
mane
mouth and bodv mus-
found among the North Syrian
Babylonian seal maker's
art,
must
a tvpe
en
of seal goes
(the treatment of the
the open
hair,
the
carvers
who were
plied art in which a good deal of
to
details
its
which
derived
We
in
art
Western
the
to
Tyrian-dominated
knew
also
they
together
addition
Is-
crude simplifications as the stamp seals whose
Hazor has the exaggeratedly large head often
artistically
is
forms part of a
seals,
found among "Aramean" sculptures. The crude
at T. Halaf. In themselves, the pieces are
of
seal
the Servant of Jeroboam," for this seal
There tion
of
is,
however, a second
which the
seals
Phoenician both as to
ment, and includes is
common
its
strain of inspira-
give evidence.
This
is
motifs and as to treat-
much Egyptian
with Phoenician art
in
heritage, as
general.
Such
motifs were used by Phoenician craftsmen irres-
medium employed, on seals, and presumably textiles. The cutters may well have derived their terns from them. We know from pective of the
metal, ivory, Israelite seal
stock of pat-
the
Biblical
record that Phoenician trade reached Israel (cp. Ezekiel XXVII, 17), and a fragment of a Phoeni-
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
107
cian-type metal bowl has, in fact, turned
up
at
Megiddo. Other sources
of
inspiration
important. Mesopotanhan
in
origin are probably
are
108
less
the crescent and star, the svmbols of Sin and
which seems
to
first
on seals of the imperial period
in
(fig.
40a),
Ishtar.
The
appear Assyria
cockerel,
is
motif
a
represented in Judea on the
splendid seal of Ya'azanyahu travelled
also
during
there
favorite
39). This motif
(fig.
and became a great
Greece,
to
the
period
orientalizing
40b).
(fig.
These
doms
seals of the Israelite
and judean king-
by the mere frequency
are,
Assyrian seal showing cockerel motive.
4():i.
of their occur-
rence, an important source for the history of ap-
plied art in those
we
rivation, as
saw,
have
examples
two
countries. Their stvlistic de-
is
mixed; however, the better
everywhere
developed
marked bv good arrangement,
a
stvle
a feeling for line an
o r n anient,
d
detail.
The Judean seals are often marked bv in
elegancy
both
the drawing and
style
of
script,
while the seals Ya'azanyahu seal from T. en Nasbeh.
from the petty monarchies across the
Jordan
are
apt
to
be
stiff
the whole, the treatment cial
is
and uninspired. On purely linear; the
Judean "la-melekh" stamps
offi-
from the
differ
general run of private seals by going in for a design consisting essentially of simple surfaces sur-
rounded by curving border
On in
the art of mural painting,
much
in
painting
the
of
contemporary
of
both cases the motifs of decoration were
in
borrowed
Western Asian
known
motifs were
Phoenician
and
other
metal goods,
etc.;
these
from
textiles,
in Israel,
but for some reason
thev entirely failed to evoke the same response.
There are indeed
A
rule. if
a
few exceptions
to the general
vase from T. Qasileh figures a spirited
extremely shaggy horse; and a pot from T. ed
Duweir
two graceful
of
flower
lotus
Lachish)
(ancient
drawing
41).
(fig.
bears
an
incised
gazelles nibbling at a
(In
we
the latter case,
have a new and entirely unconventional applicaof an
tion
old Canaanite motif:
the two
anti-
thetically placed goats flanking the "sacred tree."
Yet
the
should the
as
later
general a
rule
stands.)
That
painting
whole have been avoided during
period
understandable;
lines.
of
Cyprus, or the immense popularity of painted
largely
ten-
frequency
the
when
potterv in Greece during the orientalizing period.
any
special
the more striking
is all
most varied kind on the pottery
For
turalistic
Tlii'
we compare
though without dency towards na-
39.
embellishments. This
of it
monarchy
the
was
a
time
is
when
perhaps religious
favor
Assyrian royal palaces, no significant example
has survived
seems
to
in Israelite territory,
abomination
(XXIII,
Israelite painting Israelite
though Ezekiel
have thundered against
is all
pottery,
Canaanites,
14-15). the
unlike
this
impious
Our ignorance
of
more complete because that
of
the
preceding
was hardly ever given painted
or-
namentation during the period of the monarchy.
The
patterns
tional
lines,
show but
a sense for clear simple func-
make
little
attempt
at
other
40b.
The
cockerel
motive as shown in earlv Greek
art.
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OE THE
109
air,
apparently tended to strict
and the into
fall
plastic arts also
disfavor
in
the
mental climate engendered by the prophetic
revolution
and
successive
cultic
reformations.
But why the potter should have shunned representational art less
when
the seal cutter did not
is
understood; on purely religious grounds the
making
images" might have caused
of "graven
more
offense than representation in
sions
only.
among
included
number potters' stock.
Perhaps
the
ranks
guilds
were
mainly
of the
is
monarchy
The end
(fig.
lands
passes out of the purview of these pages.
work
in
Judah within the body
Israel
A
is
politic
of direct in-
few words must, accordingly, be
said about the artistic progress of the Jews bet-
ween the "Return," and the time when Alexander
made an end
the Great
and opened up the East
of the Persian
Empire
Hellenism and Hel-
to
lenistic art.
Too to
independence of
The
limited revival of the Southern state in the shape
terest to us.
42).
of the political
in 586 Judah succumbed to The further development of the which had made up the Northern kingdom
greater
at
of the
722 B.C.E., and
a
indeed to some extent an
the
to the Assyrians as earlv
of the Persian empire, however,
village
in
the Babylonians.
the Judean state and capital during the later days of the
fell
cutters
of the
also
The remaining rump
seal
local
mixed tendencies
northern monarchv as
decisive break
a
of the province of
members of
and Judah marks
history of their art.
two dimen-
can only state the existence of this
divergence, which illustration
of
members
their
of foreigners, while the
We
110
Gazelles nibbling at a lotus flower, on a pot from Lachish.
41.
reform was in the
MONARCHY
little is
define
some
its
known about position
in
the post-exile temple
the history of
extent, the architecture
may have
art.
To
followed
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
Ill
'
I
112
l/*M
"
^»"
»•
''
i'»«».i '»««'iir.
s
"«'
m«w» ,,
.
T
,
.WVr.
,—
i
tf^m »x
\ ^\)
k'Av
i"
"'"V\\,.,
,>,
»,«
¥
j
•^saS^J fc
X\
O^P
>
iiu.
\
»>„
42.
the Decree of Cyrus
the old model: 4)
lavs
down
Gazelles nibbling from plants on a pot from pre-Israelite Lachish.
a
method
of construction
rows of great stones and a
row
Other
(Ezra VI, (three
worthy
buildings of
in
country
the
offer
comment. The "residency"
at
little
Lachish
ana-
develops the old-established "bit hilani" by the
logous to the building technique familiar from
addition of vaulting, an innovation perhaps im-
may have
ported from the East. The building has furnished
of timber)
the Solomonic sanctuary. In detail there
been significant differences:
the
decoration
in-
no architectural
details or
volving cherubim was apparently not repeated.
ing.
The
had no
The
special art of the
Josephus,
memory
of
VIII, 73).
writing
some centuries
later,
what cherubs looked like (Antiquities The main impression achieved by the
building must have been due to proportions, material,
and perhaps decorative motifs of
representative
kind.
We
know
them, however, to say more.
too
little
a
non-
about
in
the
decline
fifth
is
ornaments worth notic-
marked Judean
also in other fields. seal cutter died out
century, killed perhaps
by the use
of Babvlonian models, or religious scruples. Al-
most the only manifestations of Palestinian belonging to
this time, that are
the scratched drawings on
little
known
art
to us, are
limestone
altars,
such as have been discovered at Lachish, Gezer,
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
113
Samaria, and elsewhere, both outside
43).
(fig.
suffices
It
compare these
to
how deep
with earlier work to see
scribblings
and
Palestine
in
the regression into rusticity and childlike draw-
had become. Even
ing
some
kept
still
lion in fig.
43
decay
in its utter
very
Oriental
this "art"
decorated with a star on
is
die
feature: its
shoul-
an extremely ancient Near
der, thus continuing
The most important
feature in the history of art
Palestine during the Persian period
in
small part of which
by Jews), however,
was
is
(only a
occupied
at that time
the arrival of
new
traditions
114
The horsemen, frequently found figure,
had
might
conceivably
then
was
so.
The cherub, found
Temple and elsewhere,
is
is
ever, the motifs originally
employed are
connected (especially
have
no proof Solomon's
in
not by derivation or
with
the
how-
and often
foreign,
of
cults
other
Egvpt), though the religious
nature of the ornamental details
have been remembered. In
may
this
not always
connection,
it
seems worth recalling that the majority of Jews at this time
found
it
possible to accept together
with the adherence to the Jewish
in the coastal plain, largely non-Jewish, continu-
which
and elsewhere
later
distribution especially Israelite. Essentially,
from abroad (the older Phoenician connections
ed, as Phoenician graves at Athlit
pottery
a
as
as
religious significance, but there
that this
nations
Eastern tradition.
MONARCHY
later
heretical.
cult,
elements
generations would have felt to be
This
is,
in
fact,
the time
when
there
prove; but they do not seem to have exercised
much
influence otherwise). Cypriote statuary
appears, as at T. es
Safi;
have evoked any
to
the
humble
first
it
now
seems, however, not
As against
local copies.
indications of
Greek
this,
artistic in-
fluence in the country are of considerable interest.
Yet there
Palestine
in
no
is
visible
things began to change.
Greek
coins,
Greek
and
vases,
art
Then also
were entering the country. The
cial provincial
offi-
coinage of Judah was modelled on
Greek prototype:
a
impact of Greek
before the post-exile period.
imitated the Attic coins
it
featuring the owl. Another coin, found in
and probably
also
Philistine types
Jewish,
is
Hebron
based on Arabo-
which are likewise derived from
Greek models. In such small ways did Greek
make an impact
art first
in
Palestine.
This coming of Greek art provides, in fact, a natural limit to our brief account of the historv of art in Israel
the field see
to this
art
and Judah. Let us now review
we have what
covered as a whole, and try
special
from the
features
artistic
(if
any)
divide
output of the neigh-
boring countries.
That
Israelite
and Judean
iod dealt with, were not
by matters and
of a religious nature should
Israelite art
be
clear;
cannot thus be singled out for
any special contents. Similarlv, to establish,
ed,
during the per-
art,
overmuch pre-occupied
among
the
the occurrence of
it
seems
difficult
common motifs employcommon Jewish religious
symbols as known to any significant degree
later.
jijJT^-
•
_
4 J.
Ornaments on
post-exilic
stone altars from Gezer.
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
115
existed in
Egvpt the schismatic temple
Elepan-
at
where an aberrant Judaism was clothed
tine,
in
which may one day be
art forms, the details of
revealed to us by excavations.
and Judean
Just as Israelite
any way dominated by Yahwistic
cult,
from the
art
do not
so they
differ
origin
in
based on the Canaanite-North-
Syrian tradition, strongly shot through with Phoenician
A
traits.
A
negative religious influence can
700 B.C.E. onwards.
ca. is
occasionally a surpris-
movement, seen
ing feeling for
as
were
it
in a
second and rendered with a few brief strokes.
consideration
have referred
two
of
which
drawings
may make
to earlier
we
our meaning
clear.
neighboring nations. They
of the
are, like the latter,
dedication to the
monarchy, from
At the same time, there
split
art are thus not in
their
of the
116
Let us look
at the
at a
by some unknown small-town
scratched
lotus
two gazelles nibbling
potter on a vessel from Lachish (fig. 41). There is
no attempt
depth to the picture;
to give
it
is
perhaps be postulated to explain the apparent
purely two-dimensional, and in fact the horns of
absence of monumental sculpture, and not paint-
the gazelles consist of one single line only.
on pottery,
ing
time
the
after
the
of
House
and Judah were more progressive count-
of Omri. In these matters Israel
parting
company with
the
the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries, to
ries of
the west.
The Egyptian
and productive of a
influence felt in
special
and the forces behind the art in
One
class
of sculpture,
orientalizing
of
rise
Greece were apparently not
Cyprus
Within the
seem to
to
limits
thus
Israelite
set,
art
does
have developed certain attitudes which
some extent distinguish
it
in
of;
from the
art of the
of observation lift
and a sense
Or
let
us look at an even
a
like
reduction
and
in the
case of relief, the juxtaposition of simple plain
made
which
more
instructive ex-
ample, the cockerel on the seal of Ya'azanyahu 39).
(fig.
corative motif was, as
we
The cock
this
common
as a de-
saw, spreading at that
time from Assyria to Greece. Yet the
way
in
which
motif was treated in the various
where
The Assyrian
seems to
of graceful line,
into the realm of genuine art.
it
Canaanites during the preceding period. art
better. Yet, in spite of all
the drawing possesses a freshness, a truth
this,
countries
Israelite plastic
much
turies earlier did
neighboring nations, and also from that of the
of bodies to simple geometric forms;
way which
the Mesopotamian seal cutters cen-
fact,
from T. en Nasbeh
tion to certain fields of activity.
cross in a
a novice in Greece would not have been guilty
or resisted.
felt,
receives the impression of intentional restric-
and body
outlines of legs
The
it
appears
seal cutter
is
significantly different.
(fig.
40a) built up the
bird from carefully observed and minutely ren-
dered very
detail; fluffiness
everything of the
is
there,
down
to
the
plumage. The early Greek
anato-
vase painters gave a fair amount of detail, ren-
mical correctness, naturalistic detail, or any evi-
dered in such a way as to produce a decorative,
dence of a canon of attitudes or proportions. The
indeed an almost heraldic, effect
surfaces.
results tic;
There
little
is
mav sometimes
attempt
at
look strangely modernis-
thev differ from the work of Egyptian or
Phoenician
artists,
though North Syrian
("Ara-
maic") analogies might to some extent be found. Israelite
drawing, as shown by seals or designs
scratched on pottery,
etc.,
is
likewise not inter-
ested in the representation of naturalistic detail. In this respect
it
is
closely linked with the pot
(fig.
40b); early
Greek coin designers followed the same paths.
The Judean
version
is
significantly different
from
both the Greek and the Assyrian. The Assyrian's naturalistic
and
The Greek's for
plastic
detail
is
heraldic treatment
totally lacking.
and preference
flowing line are to some extent paralleled,
though the Judean work
is
much
less
involved.
Yet the cock rendered by the Judean seal cutter, creature reduced to a few lines only,
paintings of the preceding Canaanite popular art;
a
but in sharp opposition to the better work of
onlv one of the whole group evincing signs of real
Semitic Mesopotamian glvptic
art.
It
shows, on
life;
those few lines are sufficient to
is
the
show the
the other hand, a fairly strong sense for flowing
pugnacious bird lowering his head aggressively
and elegant
and making
the Judean
sc
line, ipt,
a tendencv also exemplified in as found during the
later period
for his opponent. Naturalism achiev-
ed not through the accumulation of
detail,
but
ISRAELITE ART DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
117
by
"split
second" observation, reproduced
few outlines
only,
seal as of the
Lachish pot drawing
The horse from more
of vision.
at
Judean all
art,
but they seem to have
the neighboring countries.
in
liar to itself.
A
sense
for
observation,
not
we can
evoke a
city active,
III,
2-3:
Take, for instance, Na-
"The noise
of
a
whip, and the
prancing horses,
The horseman and the a slain,
This
and
lifteth
of
the
jumping
of the
chariots.
up both the bright sword
glittering spear:
and there
and a great number is
and
is
a multitude
annals.
of carcasses..."
Homer, or
in
the Assyrian
Occasionally, at least, Judean
little
art
in
from the very
noisy, alert
and
witty; brilliant, gay,
seems
It
and curious of
in
some ways
Athens rather than a Heavenly Jerusalem;
and indeed, our study has repeatedly brought us
up against strong
links
with pre-classical Greece.
Prophetic teaching and religious reform were to deflect the nels,
the
very different from the detailed descrip-
tion of slaughter in
a
somehow
Their words seem to
strictures of the prophets.
and profoundly wordly.
detail.
sense
for
simple
and particularly
out of place in Judah
Jerusalem which
gift
for
liking
but gracious form; these things seem
things foreign; skeptical
similar,
and a sharp
elegancy,
combined with a
evoking
seems
times
noise of the rattling of the wheels,
royal
same school
118
shows signs of a vision and of an approach pecu-
second impressions by a few rapid strokes
at
without further
hum
and
possibly be permissible to recall here that
Judean poetry split
T.
earlier
Such pieces are rare among the mass
no parallel
may
a
just discussed.
Qasileh, while
primitive, seems to belong to the
of mediocrity of
It
is
in
thus the basic feature of this
MONARCHY
mind
of the nation into different chan-
and the catastrophe
doom
of
of the old spirit. It
able to search out
what
it
is,
586 B.C.E. sealed nevertheless, valu-
was, and to re-create
the background of Israel's religious evolution from
the scraps of evidence that yet remain to us.
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE MAXIMILIAN COHEN
by
Jewish art
at the
time of the Second Temple
was born and grew against the background
of
cavations.
On
southern section of a large
the
courtyard surrounded on
by
sides
all
buildings,
Hellenistic influence on the spiritual life of the
stands a hall, raised on three steps and open across
Jewish people. The Greek conception of the nature
its
now began
beauty
of
to
among
penetrate
the
educated strata of the nation; even under the
Hasmoneans,
notwithstanding
the
struggle
for
On
whole length.
the western
side
the
of
courtyard, a portal with two columns leads to a
long hall and a small room bordering upon
it;
on the north and east sides are the living quarters.
liberation
from Hellenistic oppression and tyranny,
The
was
a growing understanding of the essence
architectonic decoration are missing, so that re-
there
and principles of Greek
art,
which were adopted
and integrated within the compass
Among
national values.
Jewish
of
the militant group which
stood at the head of the nation and which raised
was an ever-growing understanding
the nature of art and of
its
function in national
However, the acclimatization of Hellenistic Jewish
life.
art to
resulted from the need for artistic ex-
life
pression alone;
by no means
it
tional connection
signified a func-
with or dependence on the Hel-
"Weltanschauung." The understanding of
lenistic this
of
basic
truth
spread increasingly
educated, and reached
its
among
the
height during the reign
But
The iles
we may assume
structure of
return to Palestine of a generation of ex-
who had grown up under
Persian culture, as
virtually impossible.
is
that
remnants of
all
decoration and the
its
columns followed the Persian pat-
its
tern.
Temple
Ezekiel's account of the
the
describes
around terms:
palm
the
"and trees,
frieze
whole it
high
in
building,
(XII, 18-19)
relief,
which ran following
the
in
was made with cherubins and
so that a
palm
tree
was between
a
cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces; so that the face of a
palm lion
tree
on the one
on the other
side,
side;
it
man was toward
and the face
the
young
of a
was made through
the house round about." This type of front
common
of Herod.
columns and
construction of the front
the banner of national-religious and spiritual revival, there
capitals of the
all is
in the decorative treatment of the Per-
sian building of these days
Again,
palace at Persepolis.
—
e.g.,
on Darius'
Josephus describes
well as the direct influence of that culture, which
the "Babylonian curtain" which covered the doors
was encouraged by the Persian
of the
nistrators
stamp on the at
rulers
and admi-
of Judea, could not but impress their first
developments of Jewish culture
the beginning of the Second
Historical descriptions
Temple
period.
and archaeological excava-
tions enable us to reconstruct fragments of this
and thus
culture,
influence
to
draw conclusions
as to
on the development of Jewish
art
its
in
The
characteristic
white
and purple and roval purple;
plan of a Palestine house is
evident in the remains
of a residence discovered during the Lachish ex-
and the
work
of the curtain was marvelous,
for
colors
had not been applied
but so as
to
show the In
other
artlessly,
these
picture of the whole world."
words,
the
entrance
to
inner
the
Temple, which had an area of about 40 sq.m.,
was completely covered by
later times.
of the Persian period
Temple: "Before them there was a Baby-
lonian curtain, craftily wrought in sky-blue and
hung
at a height of 9
a
colored
curtain
m. The use of curtains
stead of doors inside the building
in-
was common
throughout the Middle East. In palaces and
tern-
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
121
The Golden Candelabra from
44.
pies
they were
situation,
richly
made
in
Presumably
if
such
would then have been
draw them Hence,
aside
the
heavy
in
could
curtains
lintel of
the
Temple
one piece,
virtually
for
impossible
it
to
on days of public adoration.
we must assume
consisted of
befitting
a fringe of gold-thread
hung from the they had been made
not have been
door
style
Temple
covered with colored applique
work and decorated with tassels.
a
the
that the
Temple
curtain
two parts hung separately from the
(Arch of Titus, Rome).
in Jerusalem
lintel,
122
but forming one single composition-unit.
The method
of
hanging such curtains has already
been investigated
in all details
in the course of
the excavations of the Persian royal palaces of Persepolis reliefs
and Susa. They are shown on stone
from the time of Darius or Xerxes, where
we may
study the hanging arrangements and the
decorative composition.
The shape delabrum
(fig.
of
the
seven-armed Temple can-
44), preserved on the well-known
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
123
a
;
45.
relief of
Reconstruction of the Tobiad Palace
Rome,
the Arch of Titus in
and
121
an
is
interest-
Iraq-el-Amir, Transjordan.
at
fluence in Palestine
may be
discerned. Attic pot-
instructive instance of Persian influence
tery of the black-and-red figurine style has not
on the decoration of the sacral implements of the
only been found in the Hellenized South of the
ing
Temple. The lower part of the stem, shaped a
bunch
ristic
of leaves
hanging downwards,
of the bases
of
is
like
characte-
Persian columns and the
country, but even in the North. But the decisive factor
the
in
and continuity
acclimatization
Hellenistic influences in Palestine
Graeco-Macedonian colonies
of
were no doubt Middle
decorations of Persian furniture and other objects
the
of handicraft of the period.
East in general, and in Palestine in particular.
The comparatively short duration of the Perhegemonv explains why most of the spare
sian
remains of the period appear to be mere imitations
no attempt
of Persian art, with
adaptation
to
the
new
conditions
of
at artistic
different
Except
for Jerusalem
build
their
principles
tine
Alexander the great's conquest closes the
ween the
and the surrounding
The new Greek
Hellenization.
may be II
first
of
the
East
chapter of the titanic struggle bet-
and the Occident.
cultures of the Orient
the
area,
the whole country underwent a rapid process of
of
classical
to
town-planning of
for-
(first
Milatus )
.
Maresha
taken as an instance of a town in Pales-
built
according to the Hippodamic
strictly
scheme. This area,
began
settlers
towns systematically, following the
mulated by Hippodamus
surroundings.
in
little
had two main
north-south
and
town, only 23,000 sq.m. streets
running
east-west.
The
in
at right angles
regular
grid-
not onlv the time of the penetration of Greek
pattern of the building blocks includes the Agora
culture throughout the conquered territories, but
(the central square of the Greek city, correspond-
It is
also
the period of extensive Graeco-Macedonian
colonization,
which now
for
carried out on a large scale.
It
the
first
time was
must, however, be
pointed out that as early as the beginning of the 5th century B.C.E., the
first
signs of Attic in-
ing to the
on
all
Roman Forum), which
citv wall
with
The century had
is
surrounded
sides by roofed colonnades, as well as the its
towers at the four corners.
of Ptolemaic rule over Palestine
a considerable influence
on the development
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
125
The
of the art of the Jewish population.
Tobiad
the
display
Palace the
all
Iraq-el-Amir
at
45)
Alexandrine
of
characteristics
ruins of
(fig.
and decoration. The excavation
architecture
the building
is
we
incomplete, so that
of
are not
126
them." This description allows us the
Hasmonean mausoleum.
to
reconstruct
was apparently
It
a
very high rectangular structure built from ashlars
which served
of the
upper storey
as a base for the
monument,
consisting of seven base struc-
form of towers surrounded by
pilas-
the
ters
and crowned by pyramidal or conical
tops.
remains of a large entrance hall with a two-
The
wall-surfaces
column
small
corated
large
similar instance of a sepulchral
yet able to study the nature of
On
and decoration.
tecture
portal;
internal archi-
its
north
the
on either side
are
are
there
rooms, one of which contains a staircase.
A
opening flanked by two small ones leads from the
Along the wall
hall to the inside of the building.
we
The
discern the remains of pilasters.
decorat-
ive treatment of the Corinthian capitals of this
building
closely related to the Alexandrine style,
is
with the characteristic lack of the central volutes of the classical
we
el-Amir
Graeco-Roman
motif consisting
find, instead, a plant
by a small ring of dividing
of a stem surrounded leaves,
At Iraq-
capital.
ending at the top
two flower-and-leaf
in
patterns pointing in opposite directions surmount-
ed by
tendrils.
The
decorated by a wide of
lions
frieze,
approaching
each
racter of Persian decoration,
The
and
tails,
Hasmoneans
of the
cover
to
window Modi'in
in
except the data given by Jose-
phus and the Book
of
Maccabees:
leum with seven pyramids
it
was
from
arising
a
mausoupper
its
ing
latter source provides us
description:
"Now Simon
ment on the grave and raised
with the followbuilt
of his father
high and embellished
it
ed stones inside and
Syrian-Hellenistic
of
rum and the
seen
Temple imple-
table of shew-bread, as depicted on
The candelabrum,
the Arch of Titus in Rome.
made by
may be
seven-armed candelab-
as the base of the
order of Judah the Maccabee, was a
one robbed from the Temple bv
replica of the
The
Antiochus Epiphanes and taken to Syria.
new candelabrum was placed on
differs
from
monu-
a
and brothers it
with polish-
And he
its
dragons on the
have human
a base resembl-
Hellenistic prototype:
of
reliefs
the Didymian bases
for the Jerusalem
the faces of animals.
while the
on the base of the can-
faces, those
delabrum intended
The
table
Temple bear
of shew-bread
according to the testimony of Jose-
phus, "thuse at Delphi."
It
stood on legs "whose
lower halves resembled the legs which the Dorians
make
for their couches." It
in fact, that the legs of like lions'
part.
The
influence
the decorations of such
in
resembles,
we know nothing
the
time of the Hasmoneans
then being finished. In one detail the Jewish base
much
here a
their heads.
Of the tomb
first
schematic cha-
stiff
the pilasters flanking the central upper
by
monument dating century B.C.E. mav still be seen at
Typically,
even
A
in Transjordan.
art at the
ments
ships.
Apollo at Didyma, the front of which was just
we have
lion's
Sueida
were de-
pilasters
weapons and
of
the
flanking
allow the upper ends of the outer pilasters to
disappear behind the
from the
between the
reliefs
showing two pairs
does not hesitate to
artist
with
ing the bases of the columns in the temple of
other,
upper window. Instead of the
freer treatment.
building was
of the
front
tures in the
The
is
well-known,
Greek beds were shaped
paws.
coins of the age of Persian domination at
the beginning of the Second
Temple period
lowed Greek patterns, and lacked their decorative treatment.
The
first
fol-
originality in
coins of this
built
period (fourth century B.C.E.) bear figures from
seven pyramids, one opposite the other, for his
the Greek pantheon and are only distinguished
father, his
mother and
at
the rear.
his four brothers.
And he
decorated them artfully, and around them he set large pillars.
And on
the shapes of
all
top of the pillars he wrought
manner
of
weapons
for a
mem-
ory forever, and beside them he sculpted ships, that those
who go down
to
the sea might see
by the of the
inscription
Judea
of this period
of a
YHD
—
found
man wearing
a
at
Gaza,
we
On
a coin
see the
head
Greek copper helmet. The
reverse bears the picture of a bearded ting on a
name
the Aramaic
district in Persian times.
god
sit-
winged chariot and holding an eagle
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
127
12S
Ill
Notwithstanding the
descriptive material
rich
Second Temple period found
relating to the
Gentile as well as in Jewish sources, there little
is,
in
too,
general awareness of the cultural tendencies
of these times.
The Jerusalem the
seat
of Herod's days
the
of
glorious
was not only
Temple,
and
rebuilt
enlarged by the king at the height of his impetuous energy;
it
was no
the city of the re-
less
splendent stadium, of the amphitheatre, the gym-
nasium and the bouleuterion (council-house) a
city
—
receptive to the Hellenistic spirit whose
symbol, the golden eagle of Rome, perched above the
Temple
mentality,
gates.
The new
which began
trends of Hellenistic
to gain currency
among
the Jews of those days, developed in course of
time into an attempt to reconcile two conflicting
Weltanschauungen. In the this
field
of creative art
new spirit expressed itself in the introduction human shape, and even in the use of figures
of the
and scenes from the Graeco-Roman pantheon. 46.
"Pillar
would be wrong
Absalom". Kidron Valley, Jerusalem
<>t
It
to regard these ideas as result-
ing only from the assimilatory tendencies of certain circles. in
the
coin
hand. Technically and
left
comes
different
close to Attic standards.
coin
was found
the profile of a shaven
ed hair held together a
diadem
at
man
A
ces relating to this period
is
completely
that the patriarchal house
which continued and
Bet-Zur.
It
shows
with smoothly-comb-
in front
bv something
like
shape of a ribbon. The reverse
in the
shows a woman's head, depicting Astarte, over the inscription "beqa" (=half).
Around her neck
the goddess wears a pearl necklace.
On
The
profil.
scanty,
it
is
known
transmitted the tradition of Hillel the Elder had
keen aesthetic sense and did not object
a
representations of the tal
A
human
figure for
ornamen-
vast
graveyard
stretches
for
several
miles
on both sides of the road which enters Jerusalem
is
faces bear an archaic, ex-
pressionless smile.
A
fundamental change
in the choice of
numis-
matic subject occurs on the coins of the Hasmo-
nean kings. The new consciousness
is
1\
first
-awakened of
all
continuation of the use of coins,
plant or fruit motifs.
The
spirit of national
reflected in the dis-
human
and the substitution of
ritual
likenesses on
symbols and
influence of the Syrian
coinage max, however, be discerned
in
the cor-
nucopias on the coins of John Hyrcanus and the anchors on some coins struck by Alexander Jannaeus.
to
purposes.
both coins
the eyes appear en-face, though the whole head
shown en
While evidence from rabbinic sour-
the
artistically,
47.
Tomb
of Zechariah, Kidron Valley, Jerusalem.
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
129
48.
from the north, his
as
Tombs
though to delay the wayfarer on
journey to the capital.
On
both sides
monuments, hewn out
rise
of the
living
These are quarried out of the flank
of the
sepulchral rock.
Part of Frieze,
of the Kings, Jerusalem.
cription of
Queen
one of them
of Adiabene, just mentioned,
lower part of
this
from the rock and ed, while the
chamber leads down beneath ground
some instances the monument
ed by a structure of ashlars
(fig.
is
crown-
46). Other me-
hewn
morials form a single architectonical unit,
out of the rock in one complete piece: these are
mausolea
family
47).
(fig.
Pausanias,
the
author of the "Description of Greece" (2nd century C.E.)
admiringly compared the
built
by Queen Helena
leum
for her dynasty
of the
Kings)
nassus,
wonders
of
Adiabene
(now known
monument
and
in
hill-side.
which has been destroy-
ashlars. Originally, the
whole
30 m. Steps
the rock, 9 m. wide, led to the funeral
dug 10 m. deep
In order to
make room
the inner part of the tomb,
into the
for this
and
for
some 10,000 cubic
meters of rock had to be quarried and removed.
Surmounting the upper
of the
three steps and has
the
middle and two
hewn
part,
rose three sepulchral
The gatewav
48),
a fuller des-
from
part,
courtvard, which was
by pyramids.
and palaces.
may be gained from
hewn
Tombs
idea of the structure and decoration of
these tombs
built
as the
decorative execution, these graves often recall the
Some
was
ashlar,
of the world. In their architectonical
which dates
comparatively well preserv-
is
upper
structure reached a height of about
mauso-
which was reckoned among the seven
fronts of temples
ed,
as a
with the mausoleum of Halicar-
of the
enormous monument was hewn
mountains. Their slanting sides serve as a tectonic
level. In
— the mausoleum
from the end of the Second Temple period. The
element of the tomb, while the entrance to the sepulchral
130
which was
built
tomb, which
raised on
is
two monolithic columns pilasters
at the
sides,
out of the rock. Below the triglyphs
we
find a
wide decorative
ing the entrance,
from
monuments topped
composed
frieze
of pine
in is
(fig.
surmountcones sur-
rounded bv leaves and other leaves and
fruits
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
131
49.
Detail
Tombs
and
tion of elements of different plants
of various units,
naturalistic,
characteristic
is
period.
The
naturalistic
stvlized
of
fruits, or
and geometrical
Palestine
art
in
approach and the
this
free-
of execution evident on this frieze exemplifv
the high level attained by decorative art in Palestine at the close of the period of the
The
ple.
an
Second Tem-
leaves do not conform to any strict de-
corative pattern, but freelv overlap in
of the Kings,
interesting
and are shown
foreshortening.
The
stronglv-
sculptured relief of the frieze resolves the deco-
and shadow,
rated surface into patches of light
which
fill
As against
the this,
whole the
area
new
with
trends
in
and
its
of a
part of the
cube standing on
as a
corative
nean
era.
ti
itment of these areas in the
Hasmo-
monument
is
in the
a large postament,
concave conical
flower with six petals.
form
ending
A
roof,
ending
in a
round drum decorated
with a rope-like raised ring (terus) provides the transition
from cube
of the
sides
cube
is
to
cone.
Each
of the four
decorated with two Ionic
half-columns touching the wall, while the corners
the
with quarter-columns attached to
pilasters
The Doric-Greek triglyph, the bases of columns with their cyma reversa which recall
Persian patterns, and the compositional principle of a tholus superimposed on a cubic body,
mixtum compositum
late Hellenistic
lack of decoration, in contrast with the rich de-
is
shaped
on a bare, undecorated surface. The cornices and
remarkable
46),
is
up
for their
(fig.
an Egvptian cavetto cornice. The upper storey
bunches of grapes, garlands and acanthus leaves
capitals of the pilasters are
Tomb
in
them.
accentuation by unconnected
Kidron Valley,
architecture of the Jerusalem tombs of this time.
Jewish art
above
called Absalom's
The lower
have
reflected in the discontinuation of the frieze
the entrance
commonly
in the
another characteristic instance of the monumental
decoration.
towards the end of the Second Temple period are
Jerusalem.
The famous monument
49). This combination within one composi-
(fig.
dom
of Frieze,
132
to a
The Tomb garded
as
and Roman period.
of Zechariah
(fig.
47) must be re-
belonging to the same kind of family
sepulchre. also
add
characteristic of the
among
Situated near Absalom's
Tomb, it is monu-
the most interesting funerary
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
133
ments of the Kidron Valley.
Its
architectonical
Tomb,
construction resembles that of Absalom's
from which
it is
134
distinguished only by the heavily
stressed Egyptian-style cornice
and by the pyramid
which crowns the composition. The surmounting of sepulchral
mid
is
monuments by
a geometrical pyra-
a usual motif all over the Eastern Mediter-
ranean at the end of the Hellenistic period.
Even the
(fig.
walls
50).
wall built
decoration
architectonic
of the southwest part of
and particularly parts
wall,
by Herod
the Patriarchs still
turrets of the cities of this
for
The remnants
Temple
the
and
were objects
time
to
surround the Graves of
Hebron
in
of the
(fig.
51), which are
extant and in good condition, allow us to
study the
treatment of this
architectonic
of structure.
The
front of the structure
type
was
di-
vided horizontally into two areas. The lower part
was smooth, constructed upper
part,
slightly
set
of
enormous
ashlars.
The
back, was divided into Wall of the Graves of the Patriarchs, Hebron.
51.
closely-placed vertical strips, alternately recessed
and protruding pilasters
was
so that
created.
se/erity of the base
a pattern
The with
contrast its
of closely-set
sonrv and the decorative airiness of the upper
between the
part of the wall produces an impression of re-
heavy ashlar ma-
monumentalitv
markable
and
grace
(fig.
51).
This building style shows marked Hellenistic
in-
fluences.
Particular
care
was devoted
the
to
architect-
onic decoration of the inside of the roval towers
and palaces. The towers were constructed
as for-
combining the functions of royal
tresses,
resid-
ences and defense works; containing a complex of living rooms, halls, baths, armories
vation-posts for the garrison, they
and obser-
were equally
capable of serving as residences or as fortresses.
According
Tower
to Josephus, the
of Phasael in
Jerusalem was "like unto a roval palace"
in rich-
ness of decoration and beauty of internal archi-
Of the Hippicus Tower, Josephus says the splendor of its structure and the beautv
tecture.
that of
its
decoration "sought
of the
its
like
among
whole world." Both were surpassed bv the
Antonia
fortress,
built
bv Herod
to
northern approach to the Temple. In mentalitv and the richness of
WBf£^^ *,/ 50.
tion, this
palace, such as
Reconstruction of south-eastern corner of Herod's
Temple
was the prototype
:
(after Chipiez).
ces at
of
the towers
we
Gallienus
its
of the
guard the its
monu-
internal decora-
Roman
fortified
find, for instance, in the pala-
at
Antioch and of Diocletian
Spalate. Occasionally, the
upper storey of the
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
135
36
Stucco plaster work, vault of Hulda Gate, Jerusalem.
front of these tower-forts
was
inlaid
colored stones set into cement, so that a mosaiclike effect ly,
for the
Jerusalem was built on four
with small
City" or "Upper Market" was connected with the
was achieved. This accounts, obvious-
Temple by means
name
Central Valley (the Tyropoeon, or Cheesemakers'
of "Psephinus" ("Mosaic Tower")
given to the tower on the northern side of the
From
Vallev).
the
is
Archaeological excavations
in
Palestine have
thus far produced but few examples of architec-
and decoration of the beginning
of Herod's
reign; but thev are sufficient to give us
pression of the art of this period.
what Josephus Flavius had
and the
the architecture of the time.
The
the opposing influences of East
which gave Herodian
The
niality.
which tely
within
some im-
Thev confirm
to sav about the
mentality, the artistic level
<
monu-
originalitv of
conflict
between
and West
is
the
art its characteristic
rapid development of architecture, a
short
period
of
time
comple-
changed the appearance of the towns of
Palestine, activity.
must be attributed
His work
to Jerusalem,
the
two bridges spanning the
"Lower
Temple Square on
these tunnels,
IV
factor
of
David" two tunnels led
wall of Jerusalem.
ture
The "Upper
hills.
in
this field
to Herod's febrile
was not confined
though he enriched the capital by
a wealth of magnificent buildings.
mentioned
Gate, and
a fair
as
main elements
ed
is
Hill.
One
Talmud by
this
name
the
called the
tunnel
of
Hulda
Double Gate.
may be art
regarded
and of the
of the Jewish art of those times. hall,
which has a square ground
in the
middle by a monolithic column. The capital
leaves
of
with long,
monolith,
the
alternating
with
acanthus,
but
without volutes or tripartition of the leaves, a
Hellenistic
tal.
of
covered by four stone cupolas, support-
Corinthian
smooth
Temple
example of Herodian
The entrance plan,
to
of
to the southern part of
the
nowadays
The entrance
"City
or
comparatively well preserved,
still
in the
is
City"
On two
adaptation
of
an
of the four cupolas
Egyptian
we
teresting remains of the stucco plaster
still
is
capi-
find in-
work which
once covered them completely. The central circular area of
one of these cupolas
(fig.
52)
is
except for a protuberance in the middle. of the cupola consists of a triple
smooth,
The rim
wreath of leaves,
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
137
The middle space
interrupted by four rosettes.
decorated with eight squares, symmetrically
is
A
arranged.
completely surrounds the squares, which are
fill-
it
one of the
examples
finest
of stoal architecture in those days.
Josephus' description of the Temple, as well
bunches of grapes
leafy vine bearing
made
building
this
138
Talmud, mainly
as that of the
relates
mea-
its
ed with geometrical designs and cassette patterns.
surements; consequently, they enable us at best
The general
to
character
which the pure,
of
The composition
decorative art of the period.
Hulda Gate
and complicated basket-weaving motif
rich
on the upper part of the cupola
essentially
to both
the vine. Characteristic of this period,
is
are pilasters with
too,
is
The decorative element common
cupolas
of
recalls the
monocentric style of cupola treatment.
classical
Greek.
is
characteristic of the Jewish
is
the second cupola of the
The
of
geometrical pattern
stylized
the main subject,
composition,
this
narrow cornice, quite
a
Hasmonean
unlike the rich cornices of the
Of the terminal
gate
tunnel
the
of
period.
nothing
At the end of the tunnel there was
remains.
doubtless a building which architectonically and decoratively harmonized with the royal basilica
and the colonnades
The Temple ts lity, set
we
still
Temple
of the
find traces in
many
some
monumen-
buildings, of
and
plan.
itself
we know
The great opening which Temple hall allowed the masses
nothing.
gave access to the
assembled look
which
of the contemporary
structure
its
About the decoration of the Temple
in
the court before the building to
and witness
inside
"For
splendor:
its
it
was directed towards the reaches
of the heavens
and the vastnesses
which have no
of the world,
Wars
limit" (Josephus,
The
5.V.4.).
Temple were covered with
walls of the
gold; presumably, the
metal decoration was in the general style of Herodian art
(fig.
Of
53).
particular interest
is
the
description of the "golden vine which stood at
the entrance of the
Temple
hall
trained on supports" (Mishnah
find
(
ibid )
purely
the
.
tall
III, 2, 8).
man:
a
as
grape or bunch of
leaf or
grapes (of gold) would bring the vine"
and which was
Middot
bunches of grapes were as
Its
"Whosoever offered a
square.
impressive
itself, in its
the pattern for
form only a general impression of
it
and hang
In the Jerusalem architectonical
it
on
Temple we
theme
of
the
Jerusalem tombs. In his description of the Temple,
doorway combined with
Josephus mentions the royal basilica built by He-
mainly intended to carry the golden vine with
rod as a monumental entrance to the Temple
its
square. This basilica, actually a basilica-like stoa
Jewish
with two storeys of columns, was directly con-
occurs in the pillars of Yakhin and Boaz, which
nected with the bridge over the central valley
were placed before the doorway of Solomon's
which led from the Upper City
One hundred sixty-two thirty feet tall, hewn of white
hill.
to the
Temple
nave with
its
in
a long perspective
form along the
Temple
The high and
square.
The
lofty
central
two-storey rows of columns evenly
illuminated the inside of the stoa and reinforced the plav of light and
work
wings.
and the
The thousand-foot-long
across the
relief-
ceilings of the
stoa
was open
whole length of the southern area of the
Temple square; side.
shadow on the deep
of the cedar roofing
its
probable that the resplendent de-
had
rich decoration of the Corinthian capitals aroused
general admiration.
It is
limestone, with Attic
of a stoa constructed in basilica of the
Temple.'
a favorite motif of
similar decorative principle already
velopment of Jewish architecture
Thev formed
whole southern part
A
art.
—
monolithic columns,
pediments, had been set on bases and aligned four parallel rows.
branches and grapes
supporting structure
a
entrance was on the narrower
The monumental impulse
of the planning of
is
echo
its
in
in
Herod's time
the neighboring countries. This
proved by the remains of the small temple of
Ba'al Sha'amin discovered in the course of the
excavations at Siah in Syria. this
was
though
it
begun
shortly
The
after
construction of
Herod's
death,
was not completed before the second
half of the
first
century C.E.
The
capitals here
are exactly similar to those in the portal of the
Hulda Gate. In the decoration the Siah
Temple
— an
of the entrance to
ornamental frieze crown-
ed by a vine with an eagle
in the center
— we
also discern, notwithstanding the primitive execution,
the influence of the Jerusalem Temple.
As already
stated, the royal basilica
nected with the bridge which led from
was conit
to the
139
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
40
3 6a
o
>
Q.
P
<M
V
•:-' ••'*,
:H.
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
141
Upper
The remains
City.
which
of this bridge,
have been preserved, enable us
Upper
City,
142
which stretched down towards the
its
Central Valley, appeared like a mosaic in which
dimensions and to form an impression of the mo-
the white patches formed bv the crowded houses
numental conception
of
the
Jerusalem in those days.
The
more than 50
establish
to
town planners
of
which was
bridge,
wide and rose more than 70
feet
were interrupted by the green of on the
roofs
flat
trees
and plants
and by the flowers cultivated
in the courtyards,
and
in
the gardens of the rich.
feet above the central valley, formed the final
section of Jerusalem's
ted the
was a
main
street,
Temple with Herod's
The bridge basilica; they had
common
and formed a connected
axis
by the entrance
linked
unit,
architec-
The
gate.
decoration of the gate corresponded in style with
and
that of the basilica
Temple to
the
square. At
its
of the colonnades on the
western end the bridge led
square
central
of
Upper
the
the
City,
Xystus. As the level of the bridge lay below that of
Upper
the
City,
stairs
V
palace.
a continuation of the royal
tonical
which connec-
were constructed
to
The philosophies
of life
of the East
West, which met and fused at the different levels of the Jewish population, inevitably
Greek architecture, the Jewish builder adopted Greek
Terms
traklin
(stoa), etc., frequently occur in to
a
Greek Agora or market place, was, together with Jerusalem's it,
main
— which was
street
parallel to
connecting Herod's palace with the Temple
—
in
Together with the basic principles of
top was surmounted by an arched gateway, which
corresponding in function
The
spirit of the
the country, or reflected the continuous Oriental tradition.
formed the
Xystus,
their
which had obtained currency
Hellenistic trends
also
The
found
expression in the architecture of the houses.
house-plan either conformed to the
lead directly from the Xystus to the bridge; the
east front of the Xvstus.
and the
the
Yet
terminology.
akhsadra
(triclinium),
we know
such
(exedra),*
about the pa-
laces of the Jewish aristocracy of the period.
any attempts
their type or structure.
We
stoe
Talmudic sources.
virtually nothing
of data prevents
as
Lack
at reconstructing
cannot even say whe-
the most populous part of the city and the fa-
ther they were essentially large dwelling-houses,
meeting place of the Jerusalemites. Jose-
or whether they followed the old Assyrian-Persian
vorite
phus has nothing
to say
about the architectonical
structure of this square; but
assumption that
it
its
name
all
separate buildings with different functions. Jose-
sides
phus mentions the places of Queen Helena of
by a roofed colonnade.
The time
layout
is
of
graphy and
Jerusalem's
history.
was unlike
capital
lenistic cities of the
streets
in
As
in
Herod's topo-
city's
street plan of the
Judean
that of the other great Hel-
Near East.
all
It
was only
new
after
devoid of
relief.
The
been modernized
it
Hasmonean
was situated
Upper
at
City,
and had
We
possess,
under Agrippa.
however, interesting information about Herod's
based
on Josephus' descriptions
ried out at
Masada and from
were
fronts of the houses
decoration;
on
ground
Only the doorposts and
of the houses of the rich bore a
ed
the end of the slope of the
the
contemporary Hellenistic
the floor
houses were hardly indicated by any archidevice.
of
results of archaeological research car-
show some
were practically without windows; the entrances
tectonic
speaks
royal
to
side of the street, the walls of the
to the
where he
and on the
architectonic
all
'
palace, he only remarks that
one
signs
that the
the external aspect of Jerusalem's streets
was monotonous. The
instance
on, only in passing. In the
quar-
Upper City began
of planning. cities,
The
Hasmoneans
the time of the ters of the
Adiabene and so
connected with the
closely
of
the
justifies
was surrounded on
and formed a harmonious composition
tradition
tion
palaces,
of
the partial excava-
Herod's palace at Jericho.
consisted,
combined within one each with
The former
appears, of three separate buildings,
it
its
own
single
architectural
unit,
function within the general
purpose of the palace. Each building formed a separate independent unit with
its
own
internal
lintels
modest sculptur-
steep and closely built slope of the
*
seat,
The exedra
in Greek, building
where the disputations
of the
was
a recess, with raised
learned took
place.
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
143
144
palace in Jerusalem
some
to
is
extent compensated by Josephus' description.
was
It
built with le-
gendary splendor and with the architectonic
elan
of
The
its
builder.
that
richness of
overshadowed
execution
Temple
characteristic
We
itself.
its
the
must assume
palace resembled the
this
instances of Oriental palace ar-
known
chitecture
ven special names Reconstruction of Ecce
54.
Gate, Jerusalem, (after Wazinger).
Herod's private living quarters were
courtyard.
southern sector of the palace; the repre-
in the
sentative
and administrative sections
Long
thern part. so
side,
Homo
with small rooms on each
halls
Oriental
of
characteristic
architecture,
surrounded the courtyard of the palace on three
Two
sides.
long
placed opposite each other,
halls,
served as ceremonial rooms of the private wing.
According to Josephus, "on the western
summit
closes off the
this
slope...
palace which was built
below the wall which
of the mountain,"
had
a nor-
Roman
the king's
"Caesareum" and the
"No
building
to this palace, It
in
world
the
which was
in
every
was surrounded by a wall
from which towers arose
at
which contained banquet guests.
Who
kinds used in building
beams which
size
in
anything which the
it;
human
four corners were towers sixty cubits
its
rooms inside and
of the
and the baths was ample and
of the halls
and everywhere there arose
pillars
and the walls and
single stone,
floors
made
rich,
of
one
were covered
top of
the second of the two peaks below the
Mount Masada, where, according
surrounded bv a row of columns, have been
uncovered.
The mountain-side
served
itself
south wall, Inning half-columns sunk into
its
The
capitals
The
order of the late Hellenistic period. sides of the
with ashlars.
it.
steep
peak below the wall were covered
The northern
also decorated inside
wall was presumably
and outside with
half-colu-
mns. Those on the outside must have recalled the
way
in
which the upper part
of
Herod's
palace at Jericho was decorated with pilasters.
The
lack
of
archaeological
data
on
Herod's
hundreds of
manner
of shapes,
conveniences and mostly fur-
Rows
of colonnades inof
The palace was surrounded by
gardens as by a sea of greenery; wide avenues of crossed,
trees
and near them there were ponds jets of
ed through copper ornaments"
The in
architecture
of
Herod's
arched gate called tion
is
its
the
still
reflects
of Oriental
may be found
in
an
preserved in Jerusalem, the so-
Homo
Ecce
Gate
(fig.
54).
Its
construc-
a characteristic instance of the architecture time. It stood within the Antonia fortress,
and served
as
fort's
an architectonic-decorative element internal structure.
of the gate has it
palaces
instance of the treatment of archways in
the streets of the towns
in
(Wars 5.IV.4).
Hellenistic art.
An
of
water spout-
an interesting way the interaction
and
as
were characteristic of the Corinthian
for
and each colonnade had columns
a different order.
to Jose-
phus, Herod's palace stood, the remains of a large hall,
all
and water basins from which
with colored stones."
On
own
its
nished in silver and gold. tersected,
equal distances, and
eye had ever seen; the
each with
The arrangement
exceptional.
the ceilings with their
fortified,
high.
way
and ornament exceeded
surrounded by a wall "high and heavily
and on
comparable
is
thirty cubits high,
halls
countless halls and rooms of
was
honor of
shall describe the rare stones of all
and was
It
in
protectors: the
"Agrippae-um." Josephus
of the fortress type
thern aspect.
of
describes the palace as follows:
the nor-
in
Two
to us.
representative parts were gi-
its
we can
The lower
part
been well preserved, and from
reconstruct the whole. It
was a gate
with three arches, with two rounded niches above
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
145
Tympanon
55.
The smooth
the lateral openings. wall, without
has
Cave
of Jehoshaphat, Jerusalem, (after Avigad).
surface of
its
any protruding basis or decorative
and with
pillars,
of the
its
straight, barely raised cornice,
the characteristic qualities of the archi-
all
tectonic style of Herod's days. In
its
simple approach this architecture
is
quiet and
completely
from the over-rich decorations of the
different
the plant which
supposed
is
it
supports
it
and
raises
it
somewhat.
of the details
tympanon the
all
art;
characteristics
of
but the composition
new approach
of the acanthus indicates a
which establishes
as a whole.
general nature the decorative treatment of
tympanon shows
Hellenistic-Alexandrine
style
free treatment
combines agreeably with the sym-
metrical composition of the its
The
tendrils.
VI
new
Fruits, leaves
or flowers appear within each of the near-circles
formed by the vine
this
of the
The
to portray.
acanthus rests on a basis of three leaves which
In
Hellenistic stvle.
The nature
146
—
execution of the decorative subject
to the
the com-
the autonomous character of the Jewish art that
bination of stylized and naturalistic details within
began
one single element.
Herod's reign reveals
in
itself in
the sur-
viving examples of decoration of this period.
The
remains of decorations on the front and inside
tombs of the time,
of Jewish
as well as
on
sar-
again
the
so(fig.
56).
cophagi and ossuaries, give us the opportunity of
tympanon, which
determining the basic principles which character-
and
ize the original
elements
the art of the Hero-
in
dian period.
new
of Jehoshaphat"
(fig.
55).
is
the triangular
known The
connecting constructive
ment
style
of the funeral cave
as the
"Cave
the
is
is
composed
naturalistic patterns,
Hellenistic-Alexandrine sition
Characteristic of the
tympanon
tympanon
Tombs of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem The selection of decorative subjects on
Different
fills
is
of
also
this
both stylized typical
of the
But the compo-
school.
the whole area without leaving any
undecorated space and betrays
its
Oriental nature
by a notable horror-vacui. This tvmpanon
is
note-
"5.--^
ele-
of the decorated area
of
called
is
provided by a wavy line of vine
which
tendrils
becomes
nar-
rower towards the corners the tympanon. In the center
of .'•I
is
an acanthus surrounded bv tenIn
drils.
its
execution
it
M
differs
both from the Jewish and the non-Jewish treatment customary
at
the
time.
The
lateral [;
leaves,
unite
rounded
at the
bottom,
the whole into one or-
ganic pattern, while the central leaf
is
^_
tent that
it
no longer resembles
-v.
*.»
stylized to such an ex56.
Tympanon
of
the
Tombs
of
the Sanhedrin.
Jerusalem.
I
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
147
for
its
excellent technical execution.
Its
technique differs considerably from the Hellenisrelief,
tic
which protrudes
background;
the
plastically
decorations
Tombs tvmpanon
are
from
its
Svnhedrin
the
of
out in a sharplv
carried
carved recessed high-relief, the highest points of
which
level with the surface of the area. This
lie
method
of treating stone
is
is
Stone ossuary, found near Jerusalem.
57.
worthy
I
an adaptation of the
the impression of
wooden
chests.
Their
are
lids
of widely differing shapes. Usually they are pro-
vided with a recessed area which serves as the
background on which the decorations are carv-
The
ed.
favorite subjects for the
decoration of
ossuaries are geometrical patterns, the acanthus,
the rosette, and leaves. In several cases remains of paint have
been found. One ossuaiy found
in
contemporary technique of wood decoration. This
the neighborhood of Jerusalem has a semicylin-
new type
drical lid decorated with a
in
Judea
of stone treatment
at the
end
of the
The metamorphosis
of
is
found exclusively
Second Temple period. fragments
structural
of
timber architecture into decorative elements of stone architecture
ment
of
is
familiar
Greek decorative
art.
of the decorative treatment of rative treatment of stone
is
several
century B.C.E.
ing
to the deco-
first
instance in
lull
of
the
its
The colonnade
in a repeating
Oriental is
trend
is
The two
of
the
decoration,
A
broad frame of
and decorat-
pillars in the center,
which are
flanked by two large rosettes, lend the decorative
pattern balance and compositional clarity. While
attributed
development of the new
to
the
style, technically as
The stone
ossuaries give
these columns have Attic bases, their stems are fluted
and
their
capitals
are of the Corinthian
order and resemble those of the Hulda Gate. about 30" x 5" x 15") in which the bones of the dead were kept after the remainder of the body had decomposed. ossuarj
is
this
clarity
first
well as compositionally.
An
a
closed at the top
remarkable for the outstanding
compositional structure.
area.
in
rhythm. Notwithstand-
leaves surrounds the whole recessed
ed
columns
find decorations evidencing the
ossuaries
we
by arches ossuary
history of this form of artistic expression.
On
single capital.
from the develop-
wood
of twin
on a single base and terminating
resting
But the adaptation
the
row
a
small
chest
(usually
The
perforated structure of the central rosette, which
1
is
composed
of
eight
triple
leaves,
appears to
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
149
VII
provide the archetypal model for the later rosettes of the Gothic cathedrals.
One
Numismatic art under Herod and
of the best instances of the decorative style
58)
end
at the
Second Temple period occurs
of the
The composition
57).
found
also
Jerusalem
in
consists
two
of
wavy
a light,
in
line,
is
exceptions are the decorative
figures;
motifs of the coins struck by Herod, Philip II
rosettes
(whose
fuses with the
outer circles of the rosettes. In general,
(fig.
(fig.
flanking a stylized acanthus, the outline of which,
engraved
later
characterized by the absence of portraits
human
or
on another ossuary,
150
we may
was inhabited mainly by non-
territory
Jews), and by Agrippa
and
his successors,
and
I
Herod
II.
were most careful not
himself, to offend
the religious sensitivities of the majority of their sav that one of the basic principles in the decora-
and therefore systematically refrained
subjects,
tion of the Jewish ossuary
the use of stylized
is
way which movement in their
geometrical or naturalistic motifs in a ensures the
freedom of
artist's
from using human or animal motifs on their
For while
application.
in art
became more and more
accepted, the multitudes were yet far from ready
In order to demonstrate the basic differences
more
for a
between the old geometrical elements and the
new
enlightened Jewish circles the use
in
human images
of
coins.
decorative patterns, the reader
is
interpretation of the
liberal
Commandment, and even
Roman
the
Second
governors
invited to
respected
Judea
of
the
religious-conservative
consider an instance of this treatment, charactescruples of the Jewish masses. of Jewish
ristic
Temple
art
The decorative geometrical
period.
ment known
the end of the Second
at
as the "whirling
wheel" and
ing of intertwined circle segments
Under Herod
was
ly
this
of Oriental
element, which original-
strictly geometrical,
geometrical lines
Its
consist-
and may be found throughout the Middle
origin
E?st.
is
leton for
a
structural ske-
imaginative flower motif with
free
curved petals
underwent a change.
became the
pointing in the same direction.
all
While the appearance of the old geometrical elements is
is
thus changed,
original
its
retained. Archaeological excavations
vered
this pattern
and on ossuaries
dynamism have unco-
on the fronts of Jewish tombs
as a decoration
on doors,
etc.
The
fact that ossuaries so widelv differing in execu-
tion
and
in decorative pattern
same time must be attributed
were made
at the
to the differences
the artistic talent and technical accomplish-
in
ment
creative imagination
new and tely
original trends in Jewish art unfortuna-
had no opportunity
full. Its
developing to the
of
growth was cut short by the tragic climax
of the Jewish political
the
which produced these
slow
War
in
70 C.E. The end of Jewish
independence marks the beginning of disappearance
which had derived
its
of
this
vitality
original
deeplv conscious of the direction of fullv established
wav.
stvle,
from a Jewish its
art
alreadv
Herodian period
of the
is
a con-
Hasmonean dvnasty, both method of execution. The latter
tinuation of that of the in pattern
suffers
and
in
from inadequate understanding and cha-
racterization
the
of
lack of technical
and more
miniature drawing. Only
and the Roman governors,
II
particularly during the Great Insurrec-
some understanding
tion,
shown, and from
subjects
skill in
from Agrippa
as
of the
art
of coining
becomes apparent. The crossed cornucopias (Agrippa
the palm
II),
procurators), nates
vine
(Agrippa
II
and Roman
branch with three pomegra-
the
(period
the
of
war against Rome), the
and the wreaths of leaves begin
leaves
more
be
to
freely
composed and drawn. The
narrow-necked amphoras and the goblets with large
a
racter
the
of their sculptors.
The
The coinage
ele-
square foot faithfully express the chaof
objects
which were
in general
use at
time.
The almost complete
lack of remains of deco-
rative murals prevent us, at least for the present,
from studying the development of art
in
this
branch of
Jewish Palestine. Nevertheless, there are
good grounds ed by the
for the
latest
assumption
excavations
—
—
fully confirm-
that decorative
mural painting was adequately represented
Herodian period. In general,
we mav
in the
postulate,
that in style the decorative mural in Palestine did
not
deviate
from the
Roman
fashion
generally
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
151
Jewish
58.
Coins,
from the Maccabean period
—
Hasmonacan
5.
6.
State
1.
John Hyrcanus
I;
I.
Second Temple:
filled
II;
10.
9.
8.
12.
First
Second Year (67—68); 14. Shekel, Fifth Year (70); 15. Bronze Coin, Second Year (67—68); 16. Half Shekel, Bronze, Fourth Year (69—70).
painting. Large surfaces, framed
with decorations which also
cluded miniature frescoes of
human
figures
neral character of architecture
under Herod.
further assume that in the course of
its
and
We de-
velopment the decorative mural of the
late
Second
Temple period continued
the
Roman
to
follow
line.
of
There
is
reason to believe that drawings
humans and animals were not unfamiliar
Jewish
art
at
to
the time of the Second Temple.
in-
mythological scenes, thus conforming to the ge-
may
the 4.
(c)
by simple geometrical patterns and suitably divid-
were
of
3.
13. Shekel,
current at the time, the so-called "third style"
Roman mural
2.
7.
11.
ed,
Destruction
— Alexander Yannai; John Hyrcanus — Matthias Antigonus. (b) House of Herod — — Herod; Antipas; Archelaus; Herod Agrippa The Revolutionary Government of 66 — 70 — Shekel, Year
(a)
(66—67);
of
the
to
152
Strzygowsky (in "Orient oder Rom") holds that early which came into existence on Jewish soil, originated from the spirit of Judaism and was spread by Jews took over the decorative art of the Jewish synagogue of those times. Only this hypothesis, he feels, can explain the fact that the murals in the early Christian catacombs of Rome invariably depict Old Testament scenes, scenes from the New Testament only beginning to occur at later date. *
Christianity
—
—
JEWISH ART AT THE TIME OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
153
As
will
be seen,
second century C.E. their
in the
common and
use had become
would appear
it
probable that halakhic sanction onlv aknowledg-
ed what
have
origin
their
Western
both the Eastern and the
tradition, occasionally reflect the charac-
which
changes
teristic
new Jewish terms of
from of the
period cannot be defined
art of this its
them
distinguish
However, the approach
their prototypes.
in
in
which
of Jewish art,
decorative elements, of their
tic-constructive application of their execution alone;
it
and is
artis-
of the technique in
no
degree
less
determined bv the principle of their combination groups which form a single compositional
into
unit. It
this principle
is
fic
exist as
an independent
merely a repetitive auxiliary motif
plicated
web
of
speci-
of
unit,
in the
but
com-
ornament which covers the whole
decorated surface. Not without justice
by reason sc
its
character. In Oriental art the geometrical ele-
ment does not is
which lends Jewish deco-
Second Temple period
rative art of the
its
emotive
effect
is
this art,
on the spectator,
uetimes qualified as a kind of expressionism,
contrast with the cold, clear sition of
of
Western
Western
art
art.
and
logical
in
compo-
In the composition scheme
the
element
geometrical
is
almost completely absent. In the rare cases where it is
used, such as in the "astragal" and "meander"
patterns,
ment
it
appears exclusively as the basic
of a ribbon pattern.
the continuous ribbon
of
But even
ele-
in these cases
repetitive
the
geometrical
web we may
complicated
visually
of Oriental art. In this respect as well,
note
Jewish art of the time the attempt to
in
combine the structure
had been customary.
for a long time
The decorative elements
discerned, unlike
154
Occidental
the
of
logic
composition with the visual-emotional tendency of the Orient.
Although
in the
compositional con-
ception of Herodian art the desire for light-and
shadow
effects
occasionally
is
gratified
expense of the lines of the element
ways remain aware
ple
mous it
background
as
for the out-
element or combination of elements
all
the characteristic qualities of autono-
and we are
creation,
justified
in
defining
as a separate style within the art of the
East.
At
first,
remained
it
faithful
principles of Alexandrine art in of geometrical
but
in
and
Near
the basic
to
combination
its
stvlized ornamental elements,
the course of
its
development, Jewish
art
found new ways of expressing these principles
and discovered
original
methods
of compositional
The development of dependent style was obviously the combination.
the artistic artists
of
of
the
Jewish
the period
—
a
spirit
changed Jewish
attitute to
new
in-
expression of
architects
spirit
new
the
reflecting
and the
trends and the
attempt to achieve a fusion between the Eastern
and Western cultures on Jewish being undertaken
in
many
fields
soil,
which was
during the
first
century B.C.E.
With the establishment
of Aelia Capitolina on
elements retains the structural clarity which per-
the site of the destroyed capital of Judea a
mits each single
era began.
elementary unit to be clearly
al-
during the period of the Second Tem-
art
had
we
of a tendency to leave a plain
and unadorned surface line of the
Jewish
the
at
itself,
new
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
MICHAEL AVI-YONAH
by
The "House of Assembly" (Hebrew: Beth Knesseth, Greek: Syn-agoge from synago
was
together")
in
The ancient world knew
conception.
worship from
earliest days:
its
—
ha"get
beginnings a revolutionary
its
places
of
temples, which
i.e.
were supposed to be the dwelling places of the god. These consisted normally of a rela-
living
tively small shrine, the sible
house of the god, acces-
only to the priests
(as regards
its
holy of
holies, the adyton, sometimes inaccessible even
to
Such a
these).
shrine,
whether
contained
it
the visible symbol of the god (a statue or a holy stone)
even nothing in
throne of the invisible deity, or
or the
at all (as
Jerusalem
)
was the case
of the
was surrounded bv
,
Temple spacious
a
court in which the faithful could gather around
and worship while
the altar
ed
to
heaven.
This
sacrifices
its
porticos, dwellings of the priests, etc.
Orient and
Classical
This was
common
the classical design of the temple, ancient
ascend-
was surrounded by
court
to the
and post-Classical
Side bv side with the temple, another kind of building existed
the
in
East:
throne room, hall of justice or the paralleled in the
like.
the
royal
This was
Such
universal feature of the market-place
Greek and Roman
halls,
cities.
called basilicas,
Thev
consisted of a
with a small place set aside for
the transaction of judicial business. It
was these
due course became the model
for
origin it
of the
synagogue has been much
seems most probably
ated in the Babylonian
exile.
to
have origin-
Separated from the
traditional center of their worship, vet unwilling to
now dawned, and
Return to Zion rose from
now
was found so the
useful, that
communal
Empire and then
spread before long to
in
that,
Temple, synagogues
towns and
in the various
villages of Judah; such places of
assembly would
have been of the greatest value
certainly
the
in
the Hellenistic king-
doms. There seems good reason to believe after the re-erection of the
were established even
and
so ingrained,
growing Jewish diaspora
gradually
Persian
it
Temple
the
ashes; but the habit of
its
meetings was probably by
reshaping of Jewish religious
life
dertaken by Ezra and Nehemiah.
for the
which was un-
A
hint of the
existence of such rural synagogues has been inferred
from
LXXIV,
8, to
apparent
the
reference
"the synagogues of
by God's enemies. In anv
God"
Psalm
in
Hebrew
(in
case,
synagogues were
most probably established
last of all in
City of Jerusalem
for
above,
we need
graphical
itself;
the Hob'
Temple
there the
admit the supremacy of the apparently victo-
and
not wonder that the earliest epiarchaeological
existence of synagogues should
outside
Israel.
The
spiritual
evidences
come
to us
content
the
of
of
from these
places of worship always remained Jewish; but their external
from the
the svnagogue.
The
could not forget. The davs of the joyous First
In view of the historical development sketched
citizens.
disputed;
and exhortation,
towards the Jerusalem they
turning their eyes
served as the natural center of Jewish worship.
judged the
basilicas that in
established, "bv the waters of Baby-
and law-courts which
became the
hall of assembly,
community
lon," meeting-houses for prayer
Greek democracies bv assemblv-
halls for the civic council
in
rious gods of Babylon, the leaders of the Jewish
mo'adei El) which were "burned up in the land"
Greece and Rome.
public
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
IN
form was
lem of the synagogue architect was foreign elements
adapted
to a large extent
basilicas of the Gentile world.
(architectural
The prob-
to express in
and ornamental)
we
the spirit of the Jewish congregation. If
member
that
mother both
the of the
synagogue was the
re-
spiritual
church and the mosque,
we
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
157
IN
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
158
begin to understand the immense and world-wide
archaeological traces. All these points will be of
implications of the attempt of the Jews of the
significance
Persian and Hellenistic period to create, for the
remains of the Galilean synagogues.
would have
contain
to
the worshippers and
all
not only a handful of priests; and which instead
from the shrine of the
of being turned outwards,
god towards the pious, was turned inwards,
to-
wards the center of prayer inside the building.
we
In the following pages
its
beginnings
remains )
,
(as
the
to
synagogue from
evidenced by archaeological
developed
fully
Byzantine period,
trace the long
shall
history of the evolution of the
at the
style
the
in
threshold of the Middle
to discuss the extant
other places
synagogue
Egypt, the next remnant of
in
speaking)
(chronologically
cularly tantalizing because
Judaea
in
fore
70 C.E.
tion,
found
We
1914.
in
the
few
a
of
Of
very term
and the
underground
served as cisterns. The
synagogue
used instead of the more
is
rary proseuche)
inscrip-
building
this
inscription
plastered
may have
rooms, which
dating to be-
Theodotus
refer to the
nothing remained but
(this
parti-
is
also the earliest
certainly
*,
Jerusalem
in
foundations
a
evidence for the existence of a
archaeological
synagogue
is
it
inscription refers to the dedication of a
Ages.
some
After the inscriptions from Schedia and
history, a place of worship which
time in
first
when we come
for the reading of the
lite-
law and
II
commandments, together with
the teaching of the
The earliest evidence
existence
the
for
synagogue comes from Egypt:
it is
of
a
the dedicatory
inscription of a proseuche (place of prayer)
the hospice, the chambers, and the water installation
—
to the time of
King Ptolemy
III
Euergetes,
who
reigned from 247 to 221 B.C.E. Unfortunately, this inscription
the only part of the synagogue
is
strangers.
found
Schedia quarter of Alexandria and dated
in the
needv
for the lodging of
all
Ill
The earliest
certain remains of
synagogue build-
ings found either in Palestine or abroad are Gali-
left.
lean synagogues, dating from the second century
Yet some idea of the magnificence of the early
synagogues
in the diaspora
may be
Synagogue buildings continued
onwards.
constructed in Palestine the Talmudic description of the synagogue of the
community
of Alexandria. Said
sephta Succa, IV)
:
Rabbi Judah (To-
"He who never saw
century
(over
found so
far).
(i.e.
be
fifty
early in the eighth
till
remains of such have been
These remains may be divided
into
the diplothree
stoon
to
gathered from
the
types:
(second to fourth cen-
earlv
double stoa: see below) never saw the turies), Jthe transitional
great glory of Israel.
It
was
like a
(late third to fifth),
and
kind of great the late (fifth to eighth).
basilica, a stoa
within a stoa, and sometimes there
were inside twice the number
of those
who
The dating to
Egypt
(at the time of the
of the early type of
synagogue has
left
be based on
stylistic
considerations,
Exodus). Seventy-one
one dedicatory inscription has been found golden chairs were there, one for each
with a sudarium
in
his
Emperor Septimius Severus and
(192-211).
Some
this derives
from a secular building. The disting-
hand"
mark
uishing signals
was
facades,
of this group
it
obvious that the great synagogue of Alexandria
found
Galilee
in
elders sat in seats of honor, probably facing the
middle there was a wooden
The attributed
construction,
i.e.,
(i.e.,
south
we
shall
direction in
which the worship-
Most
of the synagogues
supported by columns; that the
in the
the direction of their
west beyond the Jordan). As
was the
pers turned in prayer.
and that
is
is
see, this halls
however, believe that
which face towards Jerusalem
in Galilee,
have here the usual Aggadic exaggeration,
public;
scholars,
so big that
were necessary. Although, of course, we
had several
his family
it
with which he gave signals for the people to cry 'Amen'; for the synagogue
that
the
in a corner of
(piece of cloth)
—
praying for the peace and prosperity
at Qisyon,
of the
hazan of the synagogue stood
only
elder... In
wooden podium (bema) and
the middle was a
as
one which would leave no clear
secular
and the adjacent area belong
remains synagogue, are
first-century to
a
building.
found
now
at
Delos,
considered
formerly part
of
a
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
159
160
(XVI, 13), Paul went on the Sabbath "out
the
of
Philippi
gate
the
[of
Macedonia]
in
by
where there was
side,
of
citv
a
river-
place
a
of
praver."
The plan synagogues
differences
between the buildings erected
exist
the
in
uniform; although,
fairly
considerable
course,
of
the earlier group of
of is
various
places,
as
quence of the economic
conse-
a
of
statutes
the community and the generosity of
The
the local benefactors.
~>
Reconstruction
(
'.
of
Khol
(after
synagogue at Capernaum and Wazinger).
59, 60 )
including some of the best known.
to this type,
The
these synagogues was chosen
site of
in ac-
cordance with the Talmudic prescription according to
which the synagogue must be situated on
the highest point in the town. This resulted in
mountainous
Galilee,
from the terraces
The
in
consequences:
architectural
most of the buildings.
high places also had
of such
selection
paved with
stones)
the synagogue, and often of staircases
leading up to nity
its
required the con-
it
struction of a platform (usually in front of
views
marvellous
the
in front of
it;
these, in turn, increased the dig-
which was
of the edifice,
visible
a
at
dis-
tance and could be approached only with some
The
difficulty.
tectural
desire to have an impressive archi-
ensemble led
forms even
in front of
sources, as
at
(i.e.,
was on the shores
the
Capernaum.
at
of
our ancient
in
it
of the sea
synagogue
Umm
(or lake,
at
Gischala
or
the
one near
The
selection of such sites rested apparently on
el-Qanatir
ancient tradition, which
phus
is
in
who
Golan).
the
referred to
XIV, 258)
(Antiquities
had
to
Golanite villages
Umm
and
sea
in
now
the
the
small
Khirbet ed Dikke
called
could
only
apparently
afford synagogues with a floor expanse covering
no more than 130
sq. meters.
and
In discussing the plans, elevations of the Galilean
consider
synagogues of
separately
three
we must
group,
this
details
the
groups:
different
donors and their spiritual advisers, the synagogue elders;
and
the
architects
who drew up
the plans;
the stonecutters and masons
lastly,
bv
group.
Jose-
quotes con-
These decided on the
synagogue, and on
who
act-
"to
build
ral,
to their idea of
accordance
with
The
of Jewish worship.
the plans
and
what was
it
ornament, had to
place
who drew up
and who
in
some
cases
the detailed drawings of the of course, the desires
satisfy,
drew upon
of the donors, but he naturally
his
experience and observation of other (usually nonJewish)
constructions.
carried
praver
were almost certainly
their
native
the
custom." According to the Acts of the Apostles
of the
fitting for a
architect
elevations,
may have prepared
of
places
size
arrangements so that
its
should conform to ritual purposes and, in gene-
workmen who
the
Conversely,
satisfy.
el-Qanatir
who were near
whom
shows the Hellenized type of donor architect
cerning the privileges of the Jews of Halicarnassus
allowed
columns was
its
presented by one Herod, the son of Mokimos,
first
near brooks and springs
or
second
one of
the buildings were adapted to the needs of the
no express mention
Capernaum)
24 m.
interior length of
its
fact that
ually executed the work. Obviously, the plans of
gogue which was apparently allowed, although is
meters
sq.
exceeded bv
is
synagogues which were not
Another position for the location of a syna-
there
The
61]).
[fig.
length
its
is
(figs.
to the construction of plat-
on mountain slopes, as
built
Meron, with
that of
measures 360
it
;
(although
largest
Capernaum
the Synagogue of
carry
traditions their
of
On
the
other hand,
the
out the architect's plans local
the
mannerisms
masons, steeped
country.
even
Thev into
the
in
would carv-
161
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
60.
61.
Ruins of synagogue
Ruins of synagogue
IX
at
at
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
Capernaum,
interior.
Meron. front view.
162
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
163
ing
of
decorations
from the
derived
originally
Greek ornament. In addition
inherited
their
to
tendencies towards stylization and geometric repetitions,
would be
it
them
for
difficult
der in the hard basalt of the Galilean
to ren-
the
hills
supple Hellenic shapes originally conceived for
workmen seem
cutting in marble.
The
have had some sav
in the selection of
local
for
instance,
an
good-luck symbols
i.e.,
synagogues of the
proportion
of
and width
category are 11:10,
first
The
principal
of course, the hall of as-
is,
the finding cf screen slabs also suggests the
existence of an upper gallery protected
The
strade.
Women
(
Nashim
'Ezrath
was
)
originally used
the rabbis ordered an upper gal-
be
set
up
lerv to
women
for the
only. This ar-
have become ultimately the
rangement seems
to
normal usage
Palestine synagogues.
in
Kfar Bir'am
up
to the
— has
62)
(fig.
its
us with
azin to furnish
general
a
idea
The facade was
to say,
its
roof
which sub-
aspect.
as the "Svrian gable." This
common Greek
of the
re-
Capernaum and Chor-
at
and was surmounted by what
is
that of
second storey; nevertheless, enough
mains have been found
storeys
of columns,
—
facades preserved
Graeco-Roman period, although
Greek type: that
by
till
frontal
closer to the
dates
both sexes
typical
was supported bv rows
a balu-
men and women
separation of
sembly and prayer. This hall was modelled on the basilica of the
bv
back to the Second Temple where the Court of
Only one of the Galilean synagogues
of length
they are almost square in plan.
part of the building
notice,
sence of any evidence of a screen on the ground floor,
ornament.
in this
The average proportion in the
high
unusually
the motifs
we
chosen to decorate the synagogues;
to
L64
is
is
of in
the
two
known
a peculiar variation
triangular pediment sur-
divided the interior. However, unlike the usual
mounting the front of the temples;
type of Christian basilica, there was, in addition
of the curving out of the basis of the pedimental
two lengthwise rows
to the
of columns, a third,
which ran crosswise, parallel to the facade of the building.
Indeed, this third colonnade and the
absence of an apse are the distinguishing marks of the early type of synagogue.
As a
result of this
triangle
into
for this
better
the shape of an arch.
may be
variation
lighting
the
for
Temples accessible
few
to a
consisted
The reason
the need to provide of
interior
synagogues.
priests familiar with
remain
their surroundings could
it
in semi-darkness;
third colonnade, the central space of the earlier
but places of prayer in which the Scriptures were
synagogues
read had to have more
The
is
surrounded bv
earlier tvpe has
aisles
on three
sides.
no narthex; the open
also
small
windows high up
court adjoining the synagogue, or the porch in
gogues were
front of the building fulfilled the functions of an
three doors of
ante-room.
The
court
is,
an almost invari-
in fact,
by
lit
which
light.
Apart from three
in the facade, the syna-
big central window, the
a
will
be discussed below. To
provide architectural space for this window, sur-
able feature of these synagogues. Such courts are
mounted by an
sometimes surrounded by a colonnaded porch on
made
the three sides not adjoining the prayer-hall; they
temples further influenced the synagogue archi-
must have served
tects in their choice of three doors in the facade,
ments and
as protection
to provide
against the ele-
accommodation
for stran-
gers or for the local poor.
Inside the hall,
we have
to
arch, the basis of the gable
to follow the arch.
The facade
was
of the Syrian
with the middle one higher than the two side
The facade was divided bv pilasters which supported a cornice; above it was the big semi-
doors.
assume the existence
of a gallery resting on the columns running around
circular
window surmounted by
a
richly-sculp-
The
tured arch. In the upper storey there seems to
evidence for the existence of such a gallery con-
have been a window over each of the doors. Each
three sides and leaving the front wall free.
sists in
part of steps actually found, as at Caper-
naum. Secondly, some synagogues contain among their
debris
columns smaller than those of the
main colonnade
in
the
hall;
these
presumably
window had
a triangular
pediment and was some-
times flanked by colonnettes; here again the central
window was
the
more
richly decorated
and
was surmounted by a conch-shaped ornament. Of
much
deviation from this gene-
must have formed part of a secondary colonnade
course, there
supporting the roof from the gallerv. In the ab-
ralized description in the case of each particular
is
SYNAGOGUE ARGHITEGTURE
165
Ruins of synagogue
62.
synagogue. The most interesting of these
is
at
the
THE GLASSIGAL PERIOD
IN
166
Kfar Bir'am, front view.
defined light and dark surfaces, as opposed to
The
construction of a porch with a separate gable in
the gently-moulded surfaces of classical
front of the Kfar Bir'am Synagogue.
earliest
evidence for such optic treatment of or-
nament
is
The
typical synagogue column stands on a high
which usually
square pedestal stylobate.
The columns
The bases
rests
on
a
low
are not fluted as a rule.
are of the Attic type.
A
peculiarity of
the synagogue construction are the double col-
umns
in the corners of the stylobate
which have a
to
be found
in the ossuaries
time of the Second Temple."
what
fore,
is
element used
The few
in all in
the decoration of the synagogues.
capitals of the Ionic order substitute cir-
simple bulge over the columns. At
absence of the chalices and the inner
spirals.
The
formation of the acanthus leaves on these Corinthian capitals
is
of
particular
interest
for
the
history of Jewish art, because in their sharply-
We
cular plaques for the classic spirials.
some
to the usual
there-
appearance a native Jewish
Corinthian type, but they deviate strongly from
owing
from the
We have here,
heart-shaped section. The capitals are mostly of
the classical type, especially
art.
also find
capitals of the plainest type, consisting of a
Umm
el-Qan-
another very interesting type of capital has
atir
been preserved,
viz., a
basket capital. This type,
very unusual for that period, has some connection
with Assyrian capitals,
and might even
the capitals used in the First and Second
The
windows
reflect
Tem-
cut edges and geometrical interstices, they ante-
ples.
date by at least two centuries the typical Byzan-
facade were mostly fluted; their capitals have an
tine capital; in fact,
if
we
did not
know the apwe would
entirely
proximate date of these synagogues,
In
assign them, on the basis of their architectural
native
decoration,
to
the
Bvzantine period. This par-
ticular transformation of the classic is
founded on
a preference for
on optic principles,
i.e.,
acanthus leaf
all
colonnettes flanking the
unorthodox garland of leaves and
these details
we
workman, with
transforming
the
*
his
classical
trained architect.
an ornament based
the alternation of sharply-
can see the
See above, chapter
III.
own
hand
traditions,
design
of
the
of the
fruits.
of the
more city-
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
167
The
of
interior
synagogue
the
was
halls
in
strong contrast to the richly-ornamented facade,
which was of
startling plainness. This again
to attract
and impress the
faithful
bv
richly-ornamented exterior, but once inside, tention
was
its
at-
be kept concentrated on prayer.
to
The only exception
to this internal plainness
was
Law
of the
was
apparently deliberate. The place of worship was
meant
opinion that
All the
later in the
Arbel (Irbid) Synagogue.
(Hebrew
two plain rows
is
no
direct evidence as to the nature
University, Jerusalem).
of stone ben-
above the other, went around the side
the paintings;
of
Dura Europos,
in
to
The only exception
to their plainness
comprised frescoes
corated stone seat.
The most
was a de-
view of the discoveries
be described below, the
bility
back ornamented bv
illustrating
similar
most interesting feature of the architecture of
that this is
There seems
was the
mentioned
to
so called "Seat of
Aha
th
•
seat
of
2,
Moses" which
and by a fourth
At the time of
velation. It hibition:
is
their
ornament
their discovery, this
a re-
proved that despite the Biblical pro-
"Thou
shalt
not
make unto
graven image," the Jews of Galilee of the
in re-
was
in
Mishna and the Talmud made
thee anv the time rich
use
(Pesiqta d'Rav Kahana,
p. 12). Opinions differ as to it
Hammath-bv-
at
be a general agreement
Matthew XXIII.
in
century scholar Rabbi
consider
63); fragments of a
were discovered
chair
history.*
a rosette, sculptured
lief.
Tiberias.
Biblical
Apart from the general structural outline, the
was found
(fig.
possi-
perfect specimen,
these earlier synagogues
Chorazin
at
not altogether to be excluded that they
is
hand-rests and an Aramaic inscription in front, at
walls
synagogues were plastered and painted,
walls (and occasionally also along the back wall).
its
The
in
down
"Seat of Moses" from synagogue at Ghorazin.
63.
with
The
flags.
mosaic; a mosaic pavement was also laid
but there
ches, one
far dis-
ed synagogue of Caesarea, apparently paved
apparently the back-wall of the upper gallery,
the lower hall,
scroll
during the service.
synagogues of the early type so
covered are paved with plain stone
which was surmounted by
In
served as the stand for the
it
only exception seems to be the partially uncover-
of the
a richlv-eaived frieze.
168
its
use:
honor;
some
others
scholars
hold the
*
See
preface.
chapter
VI:
also
the
general
discussion
in
the
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
169
Frieze from synagogue
64.
not only of vegetal and animal forms, but even
sometimes of human shapes. The scholars first
who
studied these synagogues were driven to as-
sume
that thev
either
"heretics," or that they
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
IN
were erected by Jewish were ordered
in all their
170
Capernaum.
at
various floral and symbolic ornaments such as the
hexagram and pentagram (the "Shield and the "Seal
of
Solomon"
the acanthus scroll
and above
it
is
David"
of
of latter ages).
Above
an egg-and-dart ornament
lonicera leaves. At Chorazin the
same
by Roman emperors favoring the Jews. However, the subsequent discoveries of the syna-
tvpe of frieze (with more naturalistic leaves) con-
gogues of the
figured
lands and geometric ornaments, there appear the
Dura-Europos
images of living beings derived either from Greek
details
mosaic pavements,
and
Synagogue with
rich,
its
with
period
later
their
the
of
storied
frescoes,
have
proved beyond doubt that the orthodoxy of the
tains a
still
mythology
more varied ornament: besides
(Hercules,
Two
early centuries of the Christian era did not wholly
fig.
represented on
the Jews themselves
away images
of
— witness the
living
things
carefully cut-
the
in
Galilean
The ornament gues liefs,
—
arches,
of the earlier group of synago-
as far as
and
it
is
sparingly
rather
manner: on
lintels of
consists of re-
the
in
classical
doors and windows, along
the balustrade and frieze of the
in
upper gallery
extant
applied
—
(fig.
64).
The
latter
is
usually the
most richly decorated part of the svnagogue. At
Capernaum
65).
and Rama. It
flying angels holding garlands are lintels in
it
is
ornamented by a
scroll of
acan-
thus leaves, within the circles of which appear
65.
Frieze from
Capernaum, Kfar Bir'am
4
should be noted, however, that even in that
relatively
period,
liberal
round were employed
synagogues.
Medusa, a centaur),
or from daily life (a soldier, vintage scenes, etc.,
exclude the use of such images. Later on, there
was indeed a reaction which came from among
the
gar-
in
no
sculptures
in
the
synagogue ornament
with the exception of figures of lions
(clearly
which seem — on the evidence
of the
representations in the Beth Alpha mosaic
to
symbolic)
have flanked the
(later) Torah-shrine.
of such stone lions
have been found
Fragments
in the synago-
gues of Chorazin and Kfar Neburaiva tein). *
The degree
—
(Nabra-
of naturalism of such represen-
For a more detailed account of the manner of ornament
used
svnagogue
in
at
the
Galilean
Chorazin.
synagogues, see chapter VI.
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
171
tations
sty-
is
and the
earlier representation of lions,
or strands of the hair are
curls
reduced to geometrical
Another piece of sculpture
patterns.
in
the round
Hammath-by-
the stone candlestick found at
is
to their frag-
case, the fleece
which has a surface decorated with the
Tiberias,
traditional "knops"
and "flowers"
cf
(
Exodus XXV,
.
The
inscriptions
synagogues
Galilean
the
in
are not properly part of the ornament or architec-
but thev should be mentioned in as far as
thev throw some light on the cultural environment those
of
responsible
We
buildings.
all
,
the
for
of
erection
these
should thus note that with the
exception of two
von )
temples towards the rising sun.
its
The problem synagogue
Greek (Capernaum and Qis-
in
of the dedicatory inscriptions are in
Aramic; there are none at
We
Hebrew.
in
all
of
been found
in
all
the
synagogues
earlier
The excavators
the sacred scrolls.
naum Synagogue door,
parallel
hold
to
of the
Caper-
noticed traces of a secondary
struction
main
synagogue building, but that the different (columns,
were donated by
etc.)
stairs,
separate donors; obviouslv, however, the plans of
drawn
were
synagogues
as
harmonious
a
the ornamental facade of the
have
few and
are
assigned
remains
certain
conches found on the indistinct,
of
this
con-
colonnettes
and
The
site.
to
signs,
and the place
however,
of this sup-
posed Torah-shrine would be most awkward;
for
it
stood athwart the main entrance, leaving onlv
a
narrow passage.
A more
likelv solution
seems
suggested by the remains of the Eshtemoa Syna-
(most
to
to
They
synagogue.
gogue
the
that of the
permanent construction intended
a
donate the whole
enough
single individual rich
of a
bound up with
position of the Torah-shrine. So far, no evidence
has
should also note that there was apparently no
parts
of the orientation of the earlier
further
is
construction, at a certain distance from the
31-6).
ture,
pagan usage which orientated
ate breach with the
an Oriental fashion recalling the Assyrian
lized in
and
owing
to establish,
is difficult
mentary condition. In any
172
see below )
(
likely
;
the existence there of a niche
intended for the Torah
some distance above the ground that
sibility
similar
scrolls)
at
raises the pos-
niches existed in the other
synagogues, none of which has been preserved to
a
sufficient
height to leave traces of such a
whole, not being influenced even in detail bv the
niche.
plethora of donors.
such a shrine in the facade wall of the synagogue
In concluding the part of this studv devoted to the earlier tvpe of
tion the
noted
problem of the
before,
synagogue,
its
salem.
used
tvpe
earlier
wherever situated, was with
we
their orientation.
with
built
should men-
As we have synagogue,
of its
facade,
Thus at
the entrances in the facade were
if
the
all,
worshippers must have faced
about before beginning to prav
(assuming,
of
course, that thev praved towards Jerusalem, as
directed in the
Talmud
)
.
It
is
would be reasonable
to
assume that thev used the side entrances found
in
almost
all
which was broken by doors and windows. assume
synagogues, as this implied only a
If
for
we
existence in one of the side walls not
its
directed towards Jerusalem,
its
evidence as
re-
gards the direction of prayer becomes worthless.
The most probable
i.e.,
principal entrances, facing towards Jeru-
However, there was obviously no place
in the early
of the tion,
room
solution seems to be that
synagogues the shrine for the
scrolls
Torah was a wooden movable construc-
which was normally, perhaps, kept of the synagogue
in a side
and was wheeled or
ried out for the service. Side
car-
rooms which might
have served such a purpose were found
at
Caper-
naum, Chorazin and other synagogues, near the north
wall.
Such a movable shrine could be
main door facing towards
partial turn in the direction of Jerusalem. If this
placed
was
Jerusalem after the congregation had entered bv
so,
ornamental
the
window
semi-circular
facade
with
huge
its
served onlv as a perma-
nent reminder of the direction of the Holy City. In
any case,
direction
building
of is
this
diametrical opposition of the
worship
or
bema
re-
dria.
a deliber-
Beth
mains inexplicable; unless
we assume
place.
The prayers
is
in the center of the
synagogue, such as
reported from the great Synagogue of Alexan-
an architectural paradox which
the
its
might well have been said from a wooden tribune
the
to
the
the side-doors and taken
of
orientation
against
The
position of the structural
She'arim
Synagogue
(see
bema
below)
in the
would
SYNAGOGUE AKGHITECTURE
173
seem
support
to
view.
this
A wooden
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
174
structure
no trace
of this kind would, of course, leave
IN
T --n-;
the
in
|
j
l
IL L
I
i
I
LX TTT
I
pavement.
S3 IV
J -
It
is
obvious from the above that the changeable
position of the Torah-shrine
especially
CD
the synagogue facade was
if
directed towards Jerusalem. that
therefore,
We
Q
to look for a solution
We
which would obviate these inconveniences.
now
CD
need not wonder,
from the third century onwards
synagogue architects began
are
U-
I
I
I
must have been the
cause of some inconvenience in the synagogical service,
M
dj
0;
CD
QG
sn
entering, therefore, on a period of experi-
mentation with various architectural forms. As a
no two synagogues of that period are en-
result,
tirely similar.
The period
of experimentation ends
CD
with the sixth century and the stabilization of the later
:
type of synagogue.
a
The new
which emerged
principles
1
1
1
o
f°
~j?^
and
finally,
henceforth guided the construction of synagogues Palestine
in
and occasionally
(a) the shrine
three:
direction
of
was
(b)
it
the
(c)
to
a
large
in
by
extent
relief
frescoes
was
ury,
and
synagogue.
of
the
most interesting of
transitory
type
is
that
discovered in 1938, in the excavations at Beth She'arim. In
its
original shape
it
dates from the
half of the third century. Already then the
first
architect
had adopted the purely
basilical
form
with two rows of columns dividing the hall into a
central
nave and two side
aisles,
the whole
measuring 31 x 15 m. The entrance was by three gates in the wall facing Jerusalem; there
occurred a complete change in this
A
is
no
sequently
of the seats of the Patriarch
ly
part of the ritual
was rendered
there.
The
walls
synagogue were plastered and painted;
pora visited the place.
We
all
strict-
consequences
of
interesting from
synagogue
Judea;
and
its
of
the
natural
its
so
Eshtemoa, excavated
two points far
width
rectangular
This arrangement was
see below, chapter VII.
of view:
excavated exceeds
Torah-shrine being apparently side
and
clearest
66).
(fig.
The Synagogue
over the Dias-
have here the
possible evidence of the transition
*)
fixed in the walls. In the fourth cent-
it
and San-
must have been
widely followed, as Jews from
here and there marble plaques bearing inscrip-
were
Beth
since
orthodox; and their example must have been
only
(i.e.,
from
evidence
more important because,
was one
the
hedrin, the local architect
screen with posts stood in the north-west
the corner opposite Jerusalem), so that at least
The
blocked.
synagogue was con-
is
is
tions
was apparently
stone Torah-shrine
She'arim
evidence for a fixed place for the Torah-shrine,
the
there
central door of the earlier
but a reading platform surrounded by a chancel
of
She'arim,
Mazar).
put up in the direction facing Jerusalem and the
largest as well as the
synagogues
the
Beth (after
the style of ornament
mosaics.
The
Synagogue at ground plan
66.
were transferred
was changed, and the sculpture replaced
congregation
the synagogue entrances
(or at least the principal ones) to the opposite wall
abroad were
fixed in the wall in the
and
Jerusalem,
prayed towards
also
plan.
common
in
its
in 1936, it
is
the
southern
length,
the
the long north
in
This in
svnagogue
Renaissance
Italy:
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
175
176
was entered by
Husifa,
where the
three doors in the short east side, so that here
beyond
its
measured 21.30 x 13.33 m.;
the worshippers
had
it
make
certainly to
a half-turn
east wall has
The
center without a trace of apse.
synagogue
newly-discovered
towards Jerusalem. The entrances were screened
consists of
by a small porch. Owing
also belongs to the
to a fortunate chance, the
been excavated
one room connected with a
same
which
Huldah,
at
ritual bath.
tvpe.
north wall of this synagogue (facing Jerusalem)
was preserved
prove the
to a sufficient height to
which
existence of a wall niche
indicated above)
(as
two niches flanking
it
might have been destined
for the
seven-branched candlesticks,
regard
the
as
Alpha
Beth
common
representing the
interesting
to
mosaic
note that
if
gogue had been destroyed
we
if
are to
below)
(see
V
The
almost certainly contained the Torah-scrolls.
A group ed with
of
synagogues abroad which are connect-
this
type are of the utmost importance, for
they are the earliest archaeological
from epigraphical) evidence for the existence of
the Eshtemoa Syna-
synagogues outside Palestine. The most famous
to
It
foundations, as
its
of these
the Synagogue of Dura-Europos on
is
were so many of the Galilean synagogues, we
the Euphrates. pal
A
evidence.
vered
of a
was
rock-cut wall niche
this apsis-like construction
much
also disco-
synagogue of Arbel. There,
in the Galilean
however,
most important piece of
this
later period
is
evidently
than the other parts of the
synagogue, which was built on the usual plan of the earlier type.
The
addition of the niche in the
south wall, facing Jerusalem,
change
of plan
at
a later date,
rias,
three
Husifa
synagogues (Isfiya)
and
assign to the fourth-fifth
of
to
The
fame
be discussed
which are
frescoes
in the annals of
its
princi-
Jewish art will
another chapter, but the architec-
in
ture of the synagogue (or rather, the
imposed synagogues,
two super-
for the remains of the later
building of 245-6 C.E. hid the remains of an
one)
earlier
is
also highly instructive.
note that in both
its
We
should
phases the Dura-Europos
Synagogue was hidden away among other houses,
which
being thus as inconspicuous as possible. Access
also in-
Hammath-by-Tibe-
Yafia,
title
evidence of a
is
volved a change in the arrangement for entrance.
The
distinct
is
arrangement.
would have
lost
(as
which we may
century, represent yet
to the earlier
synagogue was from the
street
on
the west through a long and narrow corridor with
descending steps. From
this corridor the
worship-
per entered a court through a portico on two
and
another stage in the transition from the earlier
of
to the later type. All three are basilical in form,
corner of the court was a pool, probably intended
with a central nave and two
for ritual ablutions.
separated by
aisles,
its
sides (north
rows of columns. The entrance doors are in the
was
wall
school-room.
opposite to the
direction
prayer.
of
This
group of synagogues has another new feature in
common
with the later tvpe:
three
all
them are paved with mosaics. There
is,
of
however,
one important distinction between the synagogues of this transitional type
ings
and those
in
which the
type appears fully developed. The build-
later
under discussion seem
to lack
an apse point-
ing towards Jerusalem. At Hammath-by-Tiberias four marble colonnettes
found
in
and a carved
lintel
were
the debris on the side facing Jerusalem;
this naturally
suggests that they once formed part
of a Torah-shrine fixed in the wall, therefore leav-
ing no trace in the ground plan.
The same
arran-
gement must necessarily have been adopted
at
a
On
east). In the northeastern
the east side of the court
room surrounded by benches, apparently
Two
a
other siderooms adjacent to the
court were probably the sacristan's dwelling. An-
other room, connected with the court by a wide
opening, and with the prayer hall by a side door,
was surrounded with benches and probably ed
as the
women's
section.
The prayer
small (10.85m. x 4.60m.) and bore lance to the Eshtemoa Synagogue, axis
extended
a niche
salem.
However,
that the doors
niche.
in
width and not
(assumed)
in the
it
were
serv-
hall
was
much resembi.e.,
its
in length;
main it
had
west wall facing Jeru-
differed
from Eshtemoa
in
in the long wall facing the
Benches, occasionally doubled, ran along
the whole of the walls except at the doors.
patch in the stone pavement
in
A
the center of the
The
ancient synagogue of
Capernaum on
the shores of the sea of Galilee
(3rd century C.E.)
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
177
room seems
Dura Europos
building at
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
178
presence of a wooden
to indicate the
bema there. The later
IN
dated
is
fairly exactly to the middle of the third century
67); this
(fig.
the construction decorated by
is
This second synagogue
the celebrated frescoes. is
somewhat
larger than the
The
13.65 m. x 7.68 m.).
sures
been much
hall
(its
first
mea-
court has also
enlarged, and the colonnade extend-
ed to three instead of two of
sides, including
its
the one along the wall of the synagogue.
from the west has been entirely
entrance
old
abandoned and direction.
posite
The
new one arranged
a
Entering from the
in the opstreet,
one
faced a long blind corridor; but a door on the led to another passage.
left
right led
a door to the
through two rooms into the fore-court
synagogue. The various rooms attached
of the to the
Here
synagogue, including the school, were
lodged
in
acquired
now
a separate building which was probably at
the time
when
the synagogue was
The general arrangement of the synawas not changed, except that there see us to have been no separate room for women. It is possible that this was a sign of the more
Synagogue
67.
Dura-Europos, isometric view, and Rostovtchev).
at
(after Pierson
enlarged.
gogue
hall
attitude,
liberal
also
which mav have served
paintings; the side door
women
the
was, however, preserved. In the se-
cond synagogue there dence
is
clear architectural evi-
surmounted by
for the niche
protruded from the wall. identical
by the mural
evidenced
It
had
a
conch which
a seat
with "The Seat of Moses")
it
which must have been
from the center of the prayer-hall to the backis
parallel to the
Palestine. This can
the
plans
of
the
sixth,
at
which have
development witnessed
in
be seen by a comparison of synagogues,
fifth-century
back walls of which are
straight,
the
with those of the
a conspicuous
bema and apse
one end.
Another Syrian synagogue, that of Apamea,
cannot therefore study
mosaic pavement with
its
plan.
its
all
details
The
and we
layout of the
inscriptions
uncertainty ap-
as vet only partly excavated, with
its
two super-
imposed mosaic pavements. The Apamea Syna-
gogue
is
dated to 391 C.E., that of Caesarea to
459 C.E.
Two more
synagogues
period of transition.
(to judge
the
Diaspora,
the
in
seems to
The
two
earlier of the
from the absence of an apse) seems
be the one found
was entered
Miletus. This
at
to
through a fore-court surrounded by a porch on three sides
(
as at
Dura Europos
around the walls of the itself
lica
court.
was entered from the
entrance on the north.
It
)
.
A bench
The prayer
ran hall
fore-court, with a side
was
a fairly large basi-
(18.51 x 11. .06m.) with two rows of columns
ending
in pilasters at
the end walls. There
evidence of an apse. The women's gallerv
have been above the of steps.
has not yet been published in
The same
aisles.
plan of the Synagogue of Caesarea,
this
services
wall
plies to the
plans of which have been published, belong to
bema from which the Law was read and the performed. The removal of this bema
the
surrounded by
(perhaps
on the north were four steps leading
to a small raised platform,
nave entered from a fore-room and
a
and was
flanked by two columns surmounted by an arch.
Adjoining
indicate
nected
aisles,
but there
The synagogue and with
separately
rounded by
a
its
large
walls, with a porch
is
is
no
mav
no trace
court are con-
courtyard
on
its
sur-
west side
(20.83 x 28.51m.).
The synagogue
at
Priene
mav be
ascribed to
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
179
180
The beginning at Dura
type of synagogue.
later
third century C.E., whereas, as
an apse) fourth
we
Macedonia
at Stobi in
century.
assume that
We
end
at the
of the
inclined
therefore,
are,
with
(i.e.,
development of the
in the
the
in
shall see, the
tvpe appears fully developed
basilical
of the
can already be noted
transition
to
later type,
was followed by The evidence for this as-
the Diaspora took the lead and architects in Palestine.
sumption
that the hall with the niche at one
is
and the entrance facing the niche appear
side
the Diaspora; the conditions of existence of
first in
away
the Jewish communities in the dispersion, far
from the Holy Land, would naturally make the
di-
rection of praver a matter of prime importance.
The
tvpe of synagogue
later
sense comparable to the earlier
group were
columns,
of the
solid constructions of dressed
when
facades. Their remains, even
friezes)
a well-
is
heavy architectural ornament
stone, with
in this
is
The synagogues
defined class of structure. earlier
— which type —
pedestals,
bases,
lintels,
in their
in ruins
(viz.,
fragments of
thus remained conspicuous on or above
On
the ground.
the other hand, the later syna-
gogues were comparatively flimsy structures,
built
on the outside only, while
their
of dressed stone
walls
were
with rubble and plastered on
filled
Thev
the inside.
reflect the
impoverished state of
the Jewish communities in the Bvzantine period.
The
part of their decoration, the mosaic-
finest
pavements, easily disappeared underground. The first
68.
Beth Alpha, ground (after Rice and Sukcnik).
Synagogue
at
remains of the later tvpe cf synagogue to
plan
be noted were
in fact isolated
inscriptions in the
the
same
period, but the construction of a pro-
jecting square
niche
in
the center of the back
fragments of mosaic
synagogues of Sepphoris and
Kefar Kenna. Their unusual
character
earlier excavators to believe that thev
the
led
must have
wall indicates a slightly later type of building.
been made by Judaeo-Christians, especially
There
view of their
corner.
is
the usual fore-court, \yith a well in the
The building
is
again of the basilica! type,
with two rows of columns, a door
and another is
the north side; a
in
built along the wall
on that
in
row
the center of benches
side.
the
of
late date.
in
However, the discovery
synagogue pavement and inscription
at
Na'aran (at present 'Ein Duk, north of Jericho)
and the discovery
Alpha Synagogue
of the Beth
1928, have established our knowledge on a
in
firmer basis. Earlier discoveries in the Diaspora (at
VI
The evidence Diaspora
now
both from Palestine and from the
points
to
the
fourth-fifth
century
as
the date of the transition from the earlier to the
If
Aegina and seen
in
Hammam
were
their true context.
the synagogue at Stobi
Yugoslavia)
see below)
Lif:
is
(near Monastir in
correctly ascribed to the
fourth century,
it
is
the earliest
end
known
of the
building
SYNAGOGUE AHGHITEGTURE
181
69.
of the later type.
It
Synagogue
Hammath
at
THE GLASSIGAL PERIOD
evidence, to the early eighth century. Thus the
construction measuring 19.20 x 14.20m., divided
synagogues of the
bv two rows
about 300 years.
and two
of pillars into a
An
aisles.
ern wall of the nave.
basilical tradition,
nave (7.40 wide)
A
vestibule, 3.75
hall.
it
m. wide,
In accordance with the
was connected with the
hall
by three doors, the central one wider than the
On
rest.
The
apse projected from the east-
preceded the main
182
Gader, ground plan (after Sukenik).
described as a basilica!
is
IN
the other side, the vestibule was connect-
later
architectural
synagogues are the
tvpe span a period of
characteristics basilical plan
the
of
and the mosaic
basilical
and
plan follows closely that of the churches
differs
from that of the
their traverse colonnade,
which
is
reflected in the
The
while there was a marble basin
the south-east
synagogues have two rows of columns or
may
thus divided into a central nave and two
The
The
The be
in
Palestinian examples of the later tvpe
dated
earliest
to
the
seems
to
fifth-to-eighth
centuries.
have been that
at
Gerasa
in
aisles
might
century.
the latest to the beginning
at
likely to the
end
The Beth Alpha Svnagogue
of the fifth (fig.
68)
is
dated by an inscription in the reign of the "King" (i.e.
emperor)
refers to Justin
The
Justinius. I,
who
This
in
all
probability
reigned from 518 to 527.
latest of the Palestinian
synagogues of
this
also
have served
The only exception synagogue of
at
for clerestory
of
galleries
windows.
was the
late
Hammath-Gader (el-Hammeh,
east
to
this
Lake Tiberias) which had
row
plan
at the
end of each
columns L-shaped corners with a traverse
colonnade connecting them; the plan of
this svna-
gogue, however, presents also other anomalies,
such as the entrance at the side, and the almost
type seems to be that found at Jericho, which has
complete absence of the figurative element
been dated, on both
pavements
stylistic
and archaeological
aisles.
galleries,
one on each side of the building; these
more
pillars
were apparently lower than the nave
and were surmounted bv the women's
erected already in 530-1; the svnagogue must in
of the sixth or
later
the longitudinal direction only; the hall was
Transjordan, which was overbuilt by a church
consequence date
with
earlier basilicas
plan of the earlier tvpe of svnagogue.
corner.
The
pavements with figurative representations.
ed with an atrium surrounded bv a colonnade, in
later
(fig.
69).
The entrance
in its
to the later
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
183
Screen from synagogue
70.
synagogue
was
halls
by three doors
as a rule
in
the wall opposite the apse, which was directed
towards
one
into
line the entrance of the building
The
direction of prayer,
synagogues east at In
arrangement
This
Jerusalem.
is
at
(except
was
—
was apparently square);
the niche
i.e.,
Gerasa, where as at Priene
at
this
attached
in
it.
The
The synagogues
of the later type did not, of
cease to serve as
course,
the
In
anomaly
Thus, besides the narthex, various side-rooms were
continu-
cantorum of the development,
parallel
a
added
to the principal building.
type
The normal
basi-
represented by the synagogues of
is
was by way
of
in
which the entrance
an open court with a well
in the
From
center, as required for ritual ablutions.
the
court one entered at Gerasa a prostyle porch. At
two cases
(at
Beth Alpha and Na'aran there was a closed nar-
Iammath-b\ -Tiberias and Hammath-Gader)
se-
thex,
the
raised
was
area
in
at
least
parated from the nave by a chancel screen with screen posts and balustrade slabs.
carved
with
the
The
seven-branched
latter
synagogues
at
were
candlesticks.
Screens of the same type must have existed
in
fig.
70
)
.
The
the
Ashdcd, Ascalon, and Gaza, of
which no other remains have been found so (
centers in
addition to their primary function as praver halls.
produce a platform with
to
to the schola
churches.
Christian
I
nave
community
Ionia,
in
Iical
comparable
two sculp-
eases
tured lions guarding the shrine.
Gerasa and Beth Alpha,
is
some
suggests that there were in
higher than that of the nave. This ing into
side
representation at Beth Alpha
Gerasa Synagogue. The pavement of the apse was
steps
each
Behind the curtain there was place
sticks flanking
the
again confirms the relatively early date of the
rise
on
colonnettes
and the
semi-circular apse
a
on
rested
not only for the shrine but for the two candle-
Gerasa, Jericho and Na'aran.
—
separated from the main room by a curtain which
of the apse.
orientation of the later
the wall towards Jerusalem,
direction of prayer
Ascalon.
at
brought
uniform: they face south in Galilee,
Hulda, west
184
raised platform
also
fulfilled
but again differing
in
shape.
Beth Alpha the narthex corresponds the
width of the
around the court at
Na'aran
enclosed
is
in a
basilica,
at least
irregular in
at
separate enclosure.
apse,
and there
is
still
some evidence
the that
The
court
From
the court
with arches resting on two pillars
presumably a semi-circular it
side.
the
attached to the synagogue. At
in
went
(and from the hall) one could enter a side-room,
as a free-standing construction.
was placed
to
it
far
We
chest,
width
in
shape, with the well
functions of a reading platform, which thus be-
wooden
at
Na'aran
on one
came superfluous
The Torah-shrine. which was
Whereas
was usually
in
the center.
have here most probably the school-room
the plan
is
Hammath-Gader
different again; probably
owing
to the
exigencies of space in this busv spa, the narthex
and other side-rooms were arranged sideways
to
.
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
185
the main axis of the hall, instead of lengthwise;
two entrances
the
of the hall being in the side
and the main wall lacing the apse having
walls,
architectural
synagogues
ornament of the
later type of
The
seem
the
of
parts
have been the
to
dinarily
the
of
decorated
building
capitals,
relief
in
which are
or-
Corinthian type, with a seven-
branched candlestick replacing the central rosette
— where the
on the abacus
cross
was put
A
same period.
Christian churches of the
in
the
good
more ornament was lavished on the chancel
deal
screens:
menorah with
there occurs the
accompanying
four
its
objects, enclosed within a
wreath
to
Hanking the principal
The
Other elements are grapes
churches.
amphora, stvlized pomegranates,
many Owing to
which had figured representations.
of
a fortunate discovery of a variant in the text of
Talmud* we
the Jerusalem
proximate
date
the
are able to
fix
non-figural to figural pavements, in the
ap-
from
change-over
the
for
half
first
of the fourth century, after a period of stricter
observance. fairly
liberal
We mav
perhaps assume that the
when
period in the third century,
the sculptures of the earlier tvpe of svnagogue
of
show
all
The mosaics
vigor in draughtsmanship.
much Beth
at
Alpha are contemporary with the pavements
Ladv Marv
the Christian monastery of the
Hammam, of
spite
in
at el
In
city.
geographical proximity, the syna-
this
gogue pavements are
much more
same
the vicinitv of the
in
in near-
by Beth Shean, or with the funerary chapel
entirely different in
in
Thev
conception.
their
same time somewhat
style,
more primitive and
Oriental in detail,
childish
are at
and very much
alive**.
The period
principal ornament of the synagogues of
varv,
a certain crudity of execution allied with
rosettes of various types.
the later tvpe were their mosaic pavements,
in-
Ham-
at
mosaic representations
various
the
The
pavement
course, in their artistic value, but thev
found
and
lions
math-Gader.
more popular
in
the Beth Alpha syna-
guarding the entrance
gogue or the two
with sinuous ribbons, also of the same type as
issuing from an
186
purpose. Other symbols were the lion and bull
very poor compared to the rich
is
and varied ornamentation of the earlier ones. only
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
IN
scription set into the mosaic
no opening.
The
.
of
comparative liberalism
brought forth the flourishing figurative
art of the
synagogues was cut short bv another era
later
which greater
strictness prevailed.
was due
to interference
Palestine
is
we may
Whether
bv the Moslem
a disputed point. In
of destruction
in
this
rulers of
anv case, the work
was done bv Jewish
iconoclasts, as
see clearly at Na'aran. There the figures
were removed, but the
themselves
along them were carefully is
which
inscriptions
left in their places.
It
Hammath-Gader pave-
noteworthy that the
ment has only the representation
of
two
lions,
were carved, was succeeded bv an iconoclastic
while the late one at Jericho has only the Torah-
movement, and most
shrine
and the symbolical seven-branched candle-
stick.
In
of the figures of living be-
on these buildings
ings
were defaced.
In
the
middle of the fourth century, there was again a reaction in favor of a
more
which
liberal view,
this
to
even
the
ments was evolved which contained three prin-
scruple)
candlesticks scene,
hope Lions'
— the
and
probably for
Torah-shrine with flanking
lions; the
selected
redemption:
Well
(Na'aran),
Zodiac; and a Biblical for
such the
(Beth Alpha), Noah's Ark
its
as
expression
Daniel
Sacrifice
in
of
of
the
The
roll
enriched
in
of
covered
at
(earlier generations
floor
Abraham, Isaac and
Divine
hand
any
without
synagogues has been
Palestinian
the last years bv a Samaritan svna-
gogue, so far the only one of She'albim
its
(Arab.
kind;
Salbit)
it
was in
same
Recently,
with
the
remains
of
a
mosaic
representations of the menorah, etc.
synagogue floor, were found near
Tirat Zvi in Galilee, as well as a very beautiful floor color plate) "
Sec above, preface
dis-
1948.
Isaac
(Gerasa); at Husifa
a symbolic vine seems to have served the
symbolic
liberal
allowed representation of
have walked on
seem
cipal elements
it
svmbol on the
the seventh century. At that
till
svnagogue was more
a sacred
time a cycle of decorations for svnagogue pave-
lasted probably
the
than the church; for
west Negev )
(see
with other important remains at Nirim (north-
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
187
This synagogue
in
15.40 x 8.55 m. north,
is
a building
is
obviously orientated to the
towards Mount Gerizim, the sacred
i.e.,
mount
earlier state
its
It
Samaritans.
of the
had a
It
and
hall
narthex and there were traces of side-rooms.
African style
188
is
most interesting and surprisingly
has a symbolical picture of two peacocks
rich. It
drinking from a kantharos and flanked by two
a
palm
trees (symbols
The
Land
of Israel), with fishes inscription
mosaic pavements are ornamented with geometric
main
patterns together with the inscription, in the Old
of the
Hebrew
an ethrog (?). The
script
"The Lord pavement
bv
used
still
rule
shall
Samaritans:
the
ever and
for
Greek
also contained a
ever."
inscription
The
beasts
and
strown
two seven-branched candlesticks. This interesting synagogue
be dated,
to
is
in its first stage, to
the
fourth century C.E.
the Diaspora two
In
type deserve special mention: that at Aegina identified
bv
is
Greek inscription mentioning an
a
archisvnagogus and concluding with the formula
be upon
"Blessing
Aramaic
we
from the evidence,
which has
donors"
The ornament with
apse
The synagogue
(it
in
similar
is
Aegina
at
is
Greek lands).
is
small
to
chapels.
a single room, with-
Another Diaspora synagogue to be assigned to the late period
it
that of
is
The plan
of this
(Hammam
Naro
synagogue
is
Lif)
peculiar:
had two entrances, a principal one from a court
with a porch over the door, followed by another
colonnaded court, a narthex and the main room.
The main the
was entered from the north, and
hall
worshipper had to turn
wards the apse
in
right
at
angles to-
the east wall; a narrow plat-
form stood before the apse. Another entrance to
was from
the building
a corridor in the west;
led to a side-room connected
main
hall;
into
the
placed
is
woman,
in
Julia,
The main such a way
pers could
so
of
inscription
that
it
can
hall,
and
arranged that the
.see
it.
the synagogue
we may assume
room was the women's ment was
The whole
trellis.
own
when
rather inclined
is
made
Julia
the pavement
expense" (de suo proprio tesselavit)
who
that the side
that the pave-
women
The pavement
at
,
deco-
rated the "Sancta Sinagoga Naronensis" as well
more obvious
as thev could, avoiding the
Christ-
ian svmbols.*
VII
we may give some Roman and Bvzantine
In concluding this survey,
thought to the place of the
synagogue
in
the general development of Jewish
art,
and
We
have here a group of buildings dating from
the development of art in general.
in
geneity
worship-
Naro,
in
the
homo-
assured owing to the uniform worship
is
thev served, and to a large extent also by their 00 geographical proximity. Also, thev form the connecting link between the art of the Period of the
Second Temple, with
its
tomb facades and ossuarv
decoration, and that of the fullv developed medieval synagogue
and illuminated manuscript; and
one particularly fortunate instance
in
Europos) thev enable us
to catch a
(at
Dura-
glimpse of a
cycle illustrating the Bible, which
pictorial
immense
it
a door with the
by
hall.
As the principle benefactress a
acanthus
synagogue decoration strongly shows
believe that
of
be read directly bv those coming from the west.
was
an
she called upon the local craftsmen
Christian
influence
was
development
of
synagogue as a place
of
in
the
art.
The function
another door at the end of the corridor
led directly of the hall
birds, as well as baskets with fruits
within
style of this
"at her
pavement shows
the third to the eighth centurv C.E.; their
proper.
Tunisia.
of the
rest
orientated
out the dividing rows of columns of a basilica
in
and
Apart
purelv geometrical and the struc-
is
its
a church
synagogues
to the east, like all
flanked bv two representations
menorah, one accompanied bv a shofar and
should certainly conclude
was
that the building
ture
the
all
parallels in Palestinian synagogues.
and birds above. The
non-Jewish influence, and one to
synagogues of the later
is
perhaps of Paradise and the
of
a
prayer and assembly, of teaching, and occasionalalso
ly
as
a place
where the stranger and the
needy could pass the night, led the tects to *
See
**
It
adopt the plan of a chapter
may
Roman
earlier archibasilica,
with
V.
mentioned that what was. formerly considered the most westerly synagogue of classical times which had left archaeological traces (at Elche in Spain) has now been shown pretty conclusively to be a non-Jewish building. be
SYNAGOGUE ARGHITEGTURE
189
its
traverse transept,
and combine
surrounded bv porches. In the used
lery,
Roman
in
THE CLASSIGAL PERIOD
IN
As time went on,
with a court
it
the gal-
interior,
basilicas as the
promenade
by making a niche City,
principal innovations in the in-
terior were closelv connected with the peculiar
character
of
svnagogue
the
service,
which
in
Law, and an occasional
prayer, the reading of the
discourse replaced the incense-burning, libations
and
sacrifices
tion of divine
of the Temple.
This spiritualiza-
worship was the great revolution-
by the
ary act of Judaism, which was followed
its
lack of a
the wall facing the Holy
in
serve also as a platform
plan
The
when the victorious own buildings in the
that of the Christian churches
church was able to plan
its
fourth century.
The ornament
synagogues has a double
of the
significance: a Jewish
and a general one. As has
furnishes palpable evidence
gogues, there was no need for an altar, and cer-
that the so-called hostility of the
no place for a statue of the god. In their
to
differ
from
pagan prototypes, the
their
synagogue architects
the
in
earlier
Roman
lished even the apse of the
was
mar
to
the simple
fixtures
ex-
spirit-
were the ben-
Roman
ches along the walls. In the
benches were provided onlv
basilicas the
in the apse, where
the judges sat; the rest of the hall
was given
the merchants and passers-bv, rushing in ections.
The more decorous
with
and approaches
of
richlv
dir-
sit
through-
benches could be used for instruc-
tion. In contrast
and
all
to
divine service requir-
ed a place where elderlv people could out; also such
this plain interior the
facade
the building were dignified
ornamented.
was not a permanent element of
From
Jewish orthodoxy.
the general point of view
the earliest links in the great transformation which
reminder of the center of Jewish worship; other-
permanent
to
the synagogues of the classical period are one of
ualitv of the hall. The light falling from the great window turned towards Jerusalem was a perpetual
wise, the onlv
art
synagogue
which
the god or emperor. No permanent
ternal construction
figurative
it
phase abo-
basilica,
served both as a tribunal and a place for the statue of
evolution of
the Diaspora must have influenced
in
been seen above,
tainly
Law
from which the
could be read and expounded. this
first
and then providing an apse which could
other monotheistic religions. Thus, in the syna-
zeal
perma-
nent focus of prayer. These were provided,
throng below, was adapted to the use of female
The
plan was found incon-
this
venient in orientation and in
from which the curious could contemplate the
worshippers.
190
turned
the
classical
medieval Byzantine. The
antiquity
of
art
the
into
victory of the conceptual
over the perspective and of the optical over the plastic
principle
is
foreshadowed
ment. Thus, earlier synagogues ral
phenomenon
of Jewish art,
bv that of Jewish history,
great
in
victory
ability to express
whether-
German
it
had
of
to
its
it
had
the Jewish
itself
is
paralleled
to its
unique its
own
in
to
adapt
spirit
itself.
was
its
anv foreign medium:
adopt the Greek and Arabic,
or English languages, or Hellenistic, Bv-
zantine and Gothic
ages
which
Owing
the Diaspora, was confronted with
an external world to which
The
orna-
gene-
in
Jewish people, whether in
the
country or
linguistics.
their
illustrate the
art;
keeping throughout the
inner integrity and thus ensuring at
times the potential return to
its
Hebrew
all
origins.
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD RACHEL WISCHNITZER -BERNSTEIN
by
There
ample evidence
is
presentational
among
were
arts
that the re-
unknown
wholly
not
We
XV.
(Antiquities
learn from Jose-
Alexandra,
that
6)
ii.
daughter of the High Priest Hvrcanus
be contemptuous
likely, therefore, to
had
conventions)
religious
hope
(Wars
I xxii.
3), the historian
Antonv with
the allegation was or
concern
us
here;
it
among
painting
as attested
Elsewhere
in
us
guilty intentions.
is
Jews
justified
the practice the
of
this story, that I
of
how Herod sending her own
tells
was not
pious King Herod Agrippa strike
painted
Mark Antony
of arousing his sympathy.
accused his wife Mariamne of likeness to
II
of accepted
portraits
her two children, which she sent to in the
(hardly
is
Manuscript illumination was known
on horseback on the reverse
classes
significant.
The
so far as to
one case
some evidence
There
side.
all
is
that in the verv last davs of the
Second Temple an ordinance was passed, bidding
manner
is
The Temple on
were
to
be found
in
built
Jerusa-
the one hand, the royal palace
A
feature of the
by Herod were the cherubim
lettering
tateuch sent bv the High Priest in
70 who are
used
in a
II
Philadelphus
divine
artistic
Temple
re-
traditional in
in
Alexandria in the third-century
The Talmudic
B.C.E.
names
in
objection
to
writing the
sacred scroll in gold letters
a
evidently refers to a current practice.
be
remembered
that
the
rabbinic
should
It
disapproval
applied specifically to scrolls intended for synagogical use; in the case of private codices there
That the scope
among Jews
of painting
time was not confined to calligraphy inscription
on a sarcophagus found
dating from the classical period.
or painter from
life,
employing the representation
human
figure painting on vessels
Talmud. Rabbinical
literature
is is
embodying the human
beings. Similar-
mentioned
in the
familiar, too, with
and does
not apparently find anything objectionable in
up bv the Romans
on the city gate of Antioch; fore, that
dian
would seem, there-
they were painted carvings.
palace
animal
it
in
friezes,
Tiberias
which
was
were
as a trophv
The Hero-
decorated
destroved
bv
with the
"The practice
of
a
The deceased,
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in the year set
in
Rome,
in
described here as a zographos,
of animals, etc., as well as ly,
attested
is
catacomb on the Via Appia
is
at this
frescoes
were
may
well have been a greater degree of latitude.
sacred Jewish art from time immemorial. After
70, these
Pen-
referred to
is
the letter of Aristeas, which relates in a legen-
one Eudoxios,
beings."
on the other, were the practical centers of activity at this time.
Gold
script illumination.
Jewish
human
passage of the
refers to a family
of scribes living in Jerusalem before
by an
"all likenesses
Talmud (Meg. 71d)
described as "artists," which seems to imply manu-
this,
rabbi
A
not wholly to be excluded.
Jerusalem
for-
of figurative representations
any living creature whatsoever; vet before
lem, except those of
of actual
illuminations in the accepted sense, the possibility
according to the statement of a second-century
of
an early
at
and though we have no evidence
Septuagint translation of the Bible for Ptolemy
portrait
in
date,
dary fashion the story of the preparation of the
of
—
year 66.
Whether
with that of his son, the future Herod Agrippa II,
the
in
does not
upper
went
coins bearing his likeness
Rome
revolutionaries after the revolt against
the Jews in classical antiquity, even be-
fore the fall of Jerusalem.
phus
show
to
man
is,
that
on a wall, although he cannot
likeness,
he draws instill it
this.
a figure
with
spirit
and breath and entrails and organs," a fourth-century moralist observes
bath 149a).
(T.B. Berakoth 10a: Sab-
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
193
among themselves
Scholars differ originated
first
the
illustration
with
decoration
the
or
scrolls
—
which
as to
scripture
of
representational
inscriptions
194
Greek and Aramaic, by Samuel
in
bar Iddi, the archon, and his associates. This building whose walls were
is
the
great part preserv-
in
motifs of minor objects of general use, such as
ed under the embankment, thus saving approxi-
plates, pottery
lamps
mately one-half of the original number of a series
Some such
trans-
of
and
coins, glass cups, vases
and
textiles
portable
(
see Chapter
for the diffusion of
the
IV
.
synagogues and
of
tombs. As mentioned elsewhere
Talmudic source century
channels
as
Jewish art and have inspired
and carvings
paintings
)
have served
may-
articles
in
work, a
this
refers to the relaxation in third-
Palestine
ban on wall-painting,
the
of
wall-paintings
clined
synagogue
To
interior.
story,
obtain the
in-
embankment, the Roman
the
of
profile
military engineers cut
Bible
the
illustrating
which decorated the
down
the side-walls of the
an angle to meet the eastern
hall at
(entrance) wall, which thev had virtually razed.
Thus on the entrance wall only one row
of pic-
while a fourth-century reference attests to the use
tures has remained, while on the west wall all
of mosaics.
three rows were
now
Archaeological finds have this literary
evidence. Jewish
monuments
side
panels
cover the whole period of the third to the
vived
(figs.
is
homogene-
content and a strong popular appeal. Ori-
and
ginally confined to the circles of the court
the High Priesthood, Jewish art
means
came
be a
to
broad
of expressing the aspirations of the
On
the side-walls the line
three rows except on the north
all
where the lower row
thirty
eighth centuries. Their main feature ity of
of clas-
cuts through
and the Diaspora prac-
sical antiquity in Palestine
tically
confirmed
fully
left.
When
of
the
is
decoration have sur-
wall
svnagogue was excavated,
found that the paint had flaked
and the
ings of the earlier
The
pictorial
art,
about the antecedents of Jewish
which emerges full-blown
the
in
third-centurv of the C.E. in the wall-decoration
svnagogue of Dura Europos on the Euph-
of the rates,
on the verv
would hardly
the Babvlonian Diaspora,
soil of
suffice to reconstruct the story of its
development. In the course of excavations on important
site,
the
ruins
of
a
this
svnagogue were
found buried under a sloping brick embankment to
the
north
the
of
main
proximitv to the city wall.
means
the fortifications by this
menace
gate,
in
immediate
The strengthening
in the face of the
of invasion in the third-century
had pre-
served the buildings in this corner of the
almost in the same
way
of
as those of
city,
Pompeii had
been overwhelmed and preserved bv the volcanic
eruption.
gogue on the shortly
before
There had been an site,
built
this,
its
earlier
syna-
about the vear 200, or walls
decorated
with
painted ornamentation. This was rebuilt in the year 245,
as
we
are
informed by a
series
of
paint-
fiftv years.
older decoration occupied onlv the upper
II
What we know
We
later periods, separat-
toward Jeru-
central part of the wall orientated
salem
spots
to view.
compare the wall
are thus in a position to
was
it
many
off in
under-painting had come
ed bv an interval of more than
masses.
all,
71, 72).
the
and the
In
fairlv intact.
west )
(
.
On
a vine, the branches of
which
extended over the whole panel, perch two birds.
upper middle of the panel
In a grove in the
Outside the grove, below to the
lioness.
lion
whelps are chained one
left,
a table
is
a
two
to the other; to the
with fruit or loaves.
set
right,
is
has been
It
suggested that the two fettered voung lions are the
kings
last
reigns
Judah
of
were deported
to
who
their
after
short
Egvpt and Babvlon
res-
pectivelv. In that case, the lioness in the grove
may
represent
the birds
Judah deprived of her children,
would svmbolize Babvlon and Egypt,
while the vine
is
Judah, Zedekiah
an allegorv of the (cf.
last
King
XIX). The table may be that "prepared presence of
XXIII,
5.
mv
to
in
in the
Psalm
The symbolism, however, does not con-
cern us here. values,
enemies" referred
of
XVII and
Ezekiel chapters
We
are
interested
in
the artistic
and these emerge sometimes with
ling brilliance
on the frescoes of the
start-
later svna-
gogue.
With the extension and
partial
rebuilding of
195
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
196
3
Q
197
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
198
o D.
O
W
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
199
The
73.
Dura Synagogue
the
in
Valley of
Dead Hones;
detail of frescoes at
200
Dura-Europe
The hypothesis
245 C.E., two generations
that the
Dura paintings were
now
after the original construction, the old decoration
derived from illustrated Bible scrolls
appeared to be no longer adequate. Instead of
strengthened bv the fact that, with one exception,
one panel on the wall orientated toward Jerusa-
the Elijah scenes (which will be spoken of below)
now
lem, the prayer-hall
running
in
Moreover,
received a decoration
three rows around
the
allegorical
and scenes with human
the four walls.
all
was abandoned
style
figures
were introduced,
minutely and graphically illustrating a good part of the Biblical history.
Some
Biblical heroes, such
Moses, David, Joseph and Jacob, are repre-
as
sented by several
scattered
which may
scenes,
have been taken out of complete pictorial cycles. This
would
imply
the
scrolls of at least the
existence
of
illustrated
books of Genesis, Exodus,
Samuel, Kings, Esther and Ezekiel, as early the
first
part of the third-century.
Some
moreover, see here indirect evidence of the
ence of illustrated Hebrew Bibles which
as
scholars, exist-
may have
form a chronological sequence,
lost, is
faithfully follow-
ing the text. Stylistic arguments have also been
advanced
favor of this
in
several of the
thesis.
A
feature
Dura Synagogue panels
is
peated appearance of the hero within one scene.
Such
a practice
was
familiar in illustrated scrolls,
being derived from the fact that the reader could not see
more than one portion
of the scroll at a
time, the rest being rolled up. Since wall-painting
could also be examined only gradually, as the
moved along from one
spectator
wall to the other, the figures
had
here, too, for the sake of clarity.
surrection panel to is first
portion of the to
be repeated
Thus
in
the Re-
be described below, Ezekiel
seen leading the ten tribes back from exile
influenced early Christian art
in
which Old Tes-
and then again announcing the Resurrection
tament subjects predominate.
On
the other hand,
73 )
it
may be observed
tistry in
that
in
the Christian bap-
Dura, which was decorated
in
212 C.E.,
two scenes portraying Old Tes-
there arc only
tament subjects,
all
the others being based on the
Gospels.
When
Dura Synagogue paintings were
discovered, and the order
which thev were
in
first
to
be
read was not known, some scholars maintained that
in
contrast
to
and
is
fewish
was lacking
clear
Christian
early
everything
art,
intelligently
In the
.
times
—
(fig.
Exodus panel Moses appears three
raising his staff to strike the water, turn-
ing back to close the sea, and leading his people safety.
to
Another interesting point: while the
sea with the
drowning Egyptians was represented
the Exodus panel, the actual crossing of the
in
the
of
the re-
Israelites
was
not.
This
may be
additional evi-
dence that the wall panel was condensed from a
more detailed
scroll illustration.
where
planned, Ill
art
in
ideological
content.
Only gradually did the conviction grow that the paintings of the synagogue in as a
Dura were conceived
whole, and systematically arranged.
On
entering the Dura Synagogue through the
doorwav opposite the Torah-niche, the
visitor
saw
—
one
the painted panels running in two series
IEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
201
to the left of the door, the other to
74). In the lower row, on the
we have
left,
We
portraying the story of Elijah.
bv the ravens, met bv the widow
—
the right
both converging upon the niche on the west
202
(fig.
scenes
him fed
see
of Zarephat,
reviving her son, and bringing his sacrifice. Con-
we
cluding this series and adjoining the niche,
Triumph
the
Mordecai (see
of
see
72). Ahasuerus
fig.
and Esther are seated on separate thrones; that of
former being decorated with lions and
the
uppermost
eagles. Directly over the scene, in the
row, appears the throne of Solomon, identical in its
decoration, for according to Jewish legend, the
Persian
had come
ruler
possession
into
the
of
Solomonic throne. The familiarity with Rabbinic
and Midrashic
legend
Dura
frescoes
We
move now
to the
Here we are met
in the
scenes portraying David.
nerous hero
who
who
the
in
very remarkable.
in fact
is
displayed
stories
spares
of the doorway.
right
lower row bv a set of
He
appears as the ge-
Saul's
contrast
in
life,
is
shown
receiving the deserved punishment. Later,
David
to
i.
Joab
has murdered his rivals and
seen raised from the dead along with the tribes
and Judah
of Israel
scene depicting
in the great
Ezekiel's Vision of the Resurrection
Bones (see
fig.
of the
Dry
73).
This cycle concludes with the anointing of David,
an act which suggests the anointing of the
What
Messiah.
striking in this
is
sequence
is
that
the scenes do not illustrate one Biblical book or part of
it.
What we have
of episodes ly
here rather,
is
a selection
intended to convev some idea. Hence, instead
of telling the storv of tive,
the
artist
David
connected narra-
in a
introduced
episode
an
chapter of Ezekiel associated
David
from
even interrupted the flow of the narrative by before the climax
anointing of David
—
a
in content with the
from a different book.
storv but taken
serting,
74.
from different Biblical books, obvious-
—
He in-
the scene of the
the entirely unconnected
row.
We
Tabernacle, seen subjected to
trials
first
and
in
its
the Ark of the
glory
and
as
it
was
dow's son true
—
The upper row, poorly preserved,
a confirmation,
prophetic
mission.
is
a kind of
running commentary to the topics of the lower
bv
contrast, of his
Solomon's
throne, set
directly over that of Ahasuerus, has already
discussed. of
The Exodus depicted over
Moses confirms the
minence given
in
the
been
the Finding
child's future leadership.
Dura
frescoes
is
the pro-
was
to the story of Joseph. This
so also in early Christian art, but the conjecture
has
been advanced that
interest us here, there
tribulations.
directly over
the panel which shows Elijah reviving the wi-
Noteworthy
can only briefly refer to the scenes of the is
Thus we see Saul among the Prophets,
where he does not properly belong,
episode of the Finding of Moses.
middle row where the theme
Torah-niche on west wall of Dura-Europe >s.
to
in
was
the
paintings
that
a deliberate attempt
emphasize the significance of the northern
raelitish
Kingdom, the
so-called
Kingdom
of
Is-
Eph-
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
203
"5.
raim.
To begin with
Joshua: detail of west wall frescoes at Dura-Europos.
the repainted panel in the
upper central part of the west wall, the space on the
left,
fresco,
is
table stood in the earlier
now occupied by Jacob on
bed blessing
we
where the
his
204
his death-
twelve sons, while on the right,
see Jacob blessing Joseph's sons,
Ephraim and
Manasseh. Above the blessing of the twelve
tribes
appears David playing his
lyre.
A
comparison
with the former purely allegorical scene
is
very
In
a
panel on top of the blessing
scenes, Joseph
is
seated in the center and sur-
instructive.
rounded bv children's
his
brothers,
his
children
and
his
children.
The two
central
superimposed panels which
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
205
by standing figures
On
tance.
the
left
emphasize
to
impor-
their
we have Abraham
75)
(fig.
open
right a figure holding an
and on the
scroll,
variously interpreted as Moses, Joshua, Samuel,
Moses with
shown twice
is
burning
the
the
Above these two
Ezra.
or
Josiah
as
left,
he
the
in
bush
on
the
figures,
same
episode,
right
and
miraculous
the
receives
side
on
signs
The symmetrical arrangement
of these panels
upper middle of the west wall was meant
assuredlv to emphasize the niche below, in which the scripture scrolls vices.
The niche
were placed during the
itself
had an
ser-
architectural frame-
evidence of a Jewish pictorial and representa-
emergence of what
tional art, the
zantine art at so early a date.
Jewish art of this period.
much
sented in
the
a menorah,
familiar decorative details in
same
a tetradrachm of the
The Temple was
repre-
form on the reverse of
Second Revolt (132-135).
frontality of
rical
groups (Moses
symmet-
in
Well), the disregard of
at the
perspective and depth, are most striking
when comPompeian
illusionistic style of the
paintings or reliefs such as those of the Arch of
Rome. Some
Titus in
existed
stvle
as those
Roman
late
in
historical
on the shaft of Trajan's column
In painting, however,
Dura
it
had no
reliefs
Rome.
in
parallels in the
Rome
marked the
it
a heavv, coarse variety of folk-art, in
this stvle
new
introduced a
ideal of slender
proportions, of a spiritualized facial tvpe in
new
of the features of this
way toward
Temple accompanied by
The
the figures, their arrangement in rows (as in the
lumns. The front was decorated with the represen-
lulab,
termed By-
is
scene of the anointing of David) or
West. Moreover, while in
ethrog, and
was, besides the
significant
work, consisting of an arched front on two co-
tation of the
Dura Syna-
the discovery of the
gogue paintings so
pared with the
for his mission.
in the
What made
described, were enframed on both sides
we have
206
(e.g.,
the standing figure of the prophet with the
open
values,
new
This anticipates the
scroll).
which gave direction
way
sense of
European
to
art,
Close to the Temple to the right was portrayed
pointing the
the Sacrifice of Isaac for, according to ancient
ments of medieval painting and sculpture. The
Jewish built
the
the Temple Mount Moriah, on
tradition,
on
sacrifice
episode
of
Solomon was
resemblance of the Dura figure of the prophet
where
to the conventional delineation of Jesus in early
the
spot
associated with
had
Isaac
found
other
synagogue
to possess decorations ambitious
may be assumed of the
that they
as those
hitherto.
But
it
were not unique. The
Dura Synagogue were presum-
ably following the normal, vention of the age. exceptional
been
has
antiquity
of
which we have been considering
builders
We
owe
circumstances.
if
not universal, con-
art
is
to
verv
much
wrong, however,
to
striking
would be
It
imagine that the Dura Syna-
gogue painters were incapable of vation.
and has
indeed,
speculation.
The dogs and
realistic obser-
horses in the panel which
shows David sparing Saul are admirably drawn. Mordecai's steed design.
is
another example of excellent
Most remarkable
individualized
the
is
Aaron,
High
treatment
Normally,
wears a long cloak, trousers checkered
onlv
not
partly standing but exposed to the elements
(as in the
rise
their preservation to
where walls collapsed, but even where they were left
Christian
given
taken place.
No
the characteristic develop-
to
monumental synagogues
scribed above), such preservation
of Galilee de-
was out
of the
of
clothes.
the
and black, a long belted tunic and a sons, the priests,
Priest,
in
green
miter. His
wear trousers and short belted
tunics. In the well scene,
Moses,
who
always wears a plain white garment,
elsewhere
now
has a
question, though indeed traces of colored stucco
long draped garment of the same cut, but of a
decoration have been found in the excavation of
yellow (perhaps for gold) fabric checkered with
the synagogue ruins at Beth Shear im.
pink and purple and edged with fringes.
It
is
not
impossible that a cycle of illustrations similar to that of
Dura was used
in
other synagogues as
must be remembered modern times the content and form well;
for
it
determined bv
tradition.
that
before
of art
were
change the
of
mood
is
which
scene
widow's son.
On
the
spectacularly emphasized in
shows left,
Elijah
the
dead child wears dark brown from the
waist
up
The
in
sign
reviving
the
widow holding clothes,
of
and
is
mourning.
her
nude
On
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
207
76.
the
right,
Mosaic floor of Beth-Alpha Synagogue
holding her revived child, she
is
decked
tolds.
We
in
pink
garments falling
cannot dwell
in
detail
in
(after Rice
and Sukemk).
IV
in
white and yellow, while the child, formerly naked, is
208
elegant
on the various
buildings, the furnishings, the conches, the round
A
special tvpe of
art
was mosaic
to
compose
a design. This old techique,
for wall as well as for ceiling
and
tion,
was
floor
mosaics have been found so
the
chairs,
the
thrones,
also
emploved
floor decora-
practiced bv Jews. However, only
foot-benches, the lamps and ceremonial utensils.
banqueting-t
which
used stone or glass fragments of different colors
the
hies,
painting,
far.
The passage
<
W
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
209
Talmud informs
of the Palestinian
cording to the
owing
to a
the passage was omitted
full text:
homoeoteleuton
in the
The scene
(ac-
ns also
standard printed
210
of the Sacrifice of Isaac
this
mosaic was discovered
1928, for
in
77)
(fig.
when
created a great commotion in learned circles
was
it
the prac-
the earliest substantial evidence of the existence
tice began of depicting designs on mosaics, and
of Jewish representational art in ancient Palestine.
Abun
version) that in the days of Rabbi
scholar did not prevent
this
whether the reference
clear
who
lived in the
first
to
is
is
not quite
Rabbi Abun L
half of the fourth-century, or
namesake, Rabbi Abun
his later
(It
it.
According to
prohibition
strict interpretation, a specific
plied in the Pentateuch
II).
(Leviticus
was im-
XXVI,
to
I)
The importance and
in
Jewish theology of this period
—
episode, the "Akedah,"
later of this
the
dedication of the people of Israel through the willing
intended by
sacrifice
ancestor,
first
its
thereby deserving the Divine mercv for
— was very
great, this explaining
its
time
all
prominence
"figured stones" on the floor of the place of wor-
both in the wall paintings at Dura and here, as
Yet a more liberal attitude firmly established
well as in innumerable prayers and hymns, and
ship.
itself in
due course,
as
we
see from the rendering
of this passage in the so-called Jerusalem
Targum
which modifies the outright prohibition, provided
was
that the intention to worship
human
including
pagan mythology, and
common
merely
Riblical scenes,
but, as
ventional in Palestine
such
centers
—
were not
Byzantine period,
the
not merely in great
what
is
now
Beth
Alpha
a place so inconspicuous in antiquity that
now have no knowledge even The (fig.
of
but even in small rural
cities,
as
figures
seems, usual and con-
it
in
before the Arab conquest;
and sophisticated
forms,
of
its
original
we
name.
synagogue of Beth Alpha
sixth-century
has a large semicircular apse project-
76)
ing from the wall orientated towards Jerusalem.
The figured mosaic occupies the whole area
saw three consecutive panels: the
Sacrifice of Isaac (fig. 77), the signs of the Zodiac (fig.
78) and a ceremonial grouping, this being
closest
to
the apse in which stood the Torah-
The
shrine of the synagogue.
surrounded
bv
Greek inscription of the
two mosaic
Marianos and
broad
a
Jewish craftsmen at the afraid to undertake re-
human figure. name of
that of the son
introduction.
and
may be
it
it
must be borne
that the general conception
was based on a more ambitious piece which the
artists
work
of
had seen elsewhere. To the
whom
Abraham's two attendants,
are
in
Alpha was a poor provincial cen-
left
he
left
behind with the ass when he went up to Mount
Then comes Abraham stands
ram,
entangled in a
Moriah.
the
bush.
offering Isaac
up towards
God
the altar on the right, the manifestation of
from Heaven being symbolized by a hand which appears from the clouds: a feature in
the
known
Exodus and Resurrection panels
already of
the
Dura Svnagogue, and conceivably
to
be brought
hand
so
common
into relation with the sacred later
Jewish popular religious
and
in
folk art.
The Beth Alpha Synagogue mosaic, while poorIv
executed,
been found
is
by
far the best preserved that has
as vet in Palestine. It thus offers in
the most complete form the tvpical and conventional arrangement. Elsewhere, too, there
seems to
have been some scriptural scene, generally ideological
importance, accompanying the deco-
rative or symbolic features.
Svnagogue
of
In the fifth-centurv
of Jerash in Trans-Jordan, for example,
animals of Noah's ark, this time executed with
is
in
It
should be
the father
is
Aramaic, indicative
perhaps of a period of heightened nationalism. Sec
primitive; but
the mosaic floor covering the vestibule depicts the
noted that whereas the
Roman,
is
that Beth
in the pre-
responsible for the work,
and not
of the
mind
The execution
ritual art.
Hanina: valuable evidence
artists
for the existence of able
presentation
A name
border.
at the entrance gives the
his son
time, capable of
three panels are
decorative
sent case
of
the nave. As the worshipper progressed toward
the apse, he
medieval
ter,
absent.
In fact, figured mosaic floors bearing artistic representations,
in
great competence, though the preservation
is
frag-
mentary. At Naaran (Ain Duk), there was a presentation of Daniel, it
now
re-
unrecognizable were
not clearly labelled Daniel, Shalom.
A
conspicu-
ous incidental feature of the mosaics of the Palestinian
synagogues
is
the
menorah which some-
times figures as a central motif.
In
the
Jerash
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
211
f
212
;&
a&t i
s»
.J
-4
BtVOiN
The
Sacrifice of Isaac: detail of
mosaic
floor
of
Beth-Alpha Synagogue.
ill
8.
The
constellations
and the seasons
:
central design of mosaic floor of
W! HlUMUnlyini iWM 'I
Beth-Alpha Synagogue.
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
213
214
Synagogue the menorah occupies the center of the inscription panel together with shofar, lulab
and so-called "snuff shovel." These features are to
be found also
the beautifully-executed sy-
in
nagogue mosaic recently found
Nirim
at
in the
Negev. The Synagogue of Jericho (7th-8th century) displays in
its
mosaic pavement a beautiful-
ly-designed menorah in a medallion flanked by a
and a
lulab
surmounting a formal Hebrew
shofar,
inscription invoking
we
hand,
central position
its
and Beth Alpha
(6th century).
circular motifs with
favor were large
in
the other
synagogues at Naaran
floors of the
(5th century)
On
Israel.
find the ark asserting
on the mosaic
Much
peace on
arrangement of the decoration. In Naaran,
radial
Beth Alpha and
which
is
Isfiya,
it
is
the zodiacal wheel
thus represented, in Yafa the
emblems
of
the twelve tribes.
The ceremonial grouping ever, the
Beth Alpha
most complete version of
with huge
ark
in
The
type.
its
perched on
birds
how-
is,
its
gable
is
flanked by seven-branched candelabra, lions, and cult-accessories. tains.
This
The whole
is
enframed with cur-
may be compared with
images on the gold glasses found
been questioned whether
Rome.
in
has
It
the lions flanking the
ark are actually meant to refer to the lion of Judah or
whether they represent
fact a feature
in
79.
Mosaic floor of Synagogue (after Rice
the ceremonial
of
However,
its
layout
is
at
el-Hammeh, Transjordan
and Sukenik). sufficiently
Moving
clear.
towards the ark, the worshipper saw
first
a panel
depicting beasts and birds, then the wheel of the zodiac, Daniel in the Lion's Den,
and
finally a
contemporary synagogue decoration. In the mosaic
ceremonial grouping. The practice of placing the
el-Hammeh (5th century),
animals rather in the border or entrance area inte-
of the
Synagogue
and two
of
decoration
the figured
which
trees
an inscription
is
reduced to two
lions
flank a medallion containing
In the Zodiac panel at Beth Alpha (paralleled closely at Naaran, where,
preservation ners
of
the
however, the state of
very bad),
is
we
square which
have, in the corthe
encloses
zodiac
wheel, personifications of the four seasons 78).
One
of
these,
winter,
in
blooming
life,
(fig.
the upper right
corner, has in contrast to the others of
no flowers, no
no attributes
fruit,
no
birds.
Nevertheless, the figure which personifies the in-
clement season
is
beautiful.
earrings, her necklace just
as
perfect as
Her
hair-style,
her
and embroidered dress are
those of the other symbolic
in the Jerash mosaic, too,
with the 'animals
gogue
is
is
portrayed in the mosaic floor
The Zodiac in The
poorlv preserved.
the Naaran Synapersonifications of
the seasons in the four coiners are
The
Noah's ark
much damaged.
central circle, however, displays, as at Beth
Alpha, the sun-god driving his quadriga.
We may
wonder how such a frankly pagan image could be used without any attempt
at adjustment.
One
explanation would be that the chariot of the sun
had become
a conventional calendar figure,
that in the 5th
and 6th centuries the outworn
pagan symbols were used mechanically. ever, conceivable that the idea fied in
and
Jewish minds
to the
It is,
how-
was transmogri-
prophet Elijah mount-
ing to heaven in his fiery chariot. In Christian
female figures.
The mosaic
Thus
of the vestibule.
79).
(fig.
resting.
floor of the
Naaran Synagogue
unfortunately preserved onlv in part
(fig.
is
80).
art of the period, the conventional
signs of the
zodiac were rarely used. Thev were replaced bv
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
215
216
® m m tmss*m*/ismM&!r7$ feto***
between two candelabras:
80. Torah-shrine
(after
detail
of mosaic
Rice and
Sukenik).
the figures personifying the labors of the twelve
months, or by figures of tian symbols.
tinian tional
synagogue mosaics
Roman
which became the
saints, angels
The Jewish zodiac
18th
constellation
century
now
and
signs
Jewish
in
adjusted
to
figures,
art
the
up
to
Jewish
The
best designed, though not best preserved,
zodiac was the one found in
in
the synagogue of Isfiva.
the mosaic pavement
Here the spokes
of the
One
of the earliest,
classical period
Naro
5th
early
two
latter zodiacs
may
synagogue mosaic of the that discovered
is
among
three
the
panels niche.
Lif) near Tunis, of the late 4th
The well-preserved and
century.
pavement here
finely-executed
central
mosaic zodiacs of Naaran and Beth Alpha.) Some
extant
(Hammam
tions, the
of the discrepancies of the
form
the ruins of the house of prayer in the ancient
wheel are regularly spaced and coincide with the not the case in the
to avoid the
most beautiful and most
interesting examples of a
axes of the square (which
is
Naaran Synagogue.
of the cross.
or
festivals.
the
be accounted for bv the desire
designs in Pales-
retained the tradi-
still
traditional
and Chris-
floor of
(fig.
An
panel,
The
81).
divided
is
one fronts
central
runs
inscription
subdividing
across
this
two
sec-
into
it
into
one closer to the niche being arranged
symmetrically
with
double-handled
a
vase
in
the center, from which a fountain gushes. Pea-
cocks
flank
and
face
the
vase, while other birds face
outward.
Two palm
trees
and small shoots border the scene
(fig.
tendrils
The
fill
82). Blossoming the background.
inscription
is
flanked by
decorative lozenges, each of
which encloses a menorah.
Above the
inscription
we
and ducks wad-
see fish
ing in the water.
The
part of the scene
is
strip
left
unfor-
tunately obliterated. All that is
recognizable
ing 81.
Mosaic floor of Synagogue
at
Nam.
Hammam
Lif,
Tunis.
tendrils
is
blossom-
which suggest
dry land. Between the shore
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
217
and the sea appears it
a
wheel and above
large
a
218
form plausibly interpreted as the hand of
God. The two
were ingeniously
fishes
identified
Leviathan and his mate, with reference to
as the
the Rabbinic mythology according to which, at the
advent of the Messiah, these animals will provide food for the pious.
which may refer "grating against
The sun
is
enclosed in a wheel
about the sun
to a Jewish legend
wheel."
its
the upper section
If
is
interpreted as the Messianic vision, the lower one
presumably represents the Garden of Eden. The
scene expand nature.
by
a
Local color
is
it
African
and the
lion,
Messianic
the
of the fertility of
vision
added by wading birds
Nilotic landscape
the
of
which adjoin
panels
decorative
with baskets of
ibises,
the
groves,
tendril
in
fruit
and of bread.
The more modest
decorations
ground cemeteries found
under-
the
of
catacombs, in Pales-
in
and the Diaspora, mav be regarded
tine
Jewish
There
tion.
link
variety
folk-art
The
of
art
and the decorations Shearim.
svnagogue an
example,
for
is,
between the
of
unmistakable
catacombs
and
grafitti
reliefs,
a
Dura Svnagogue
the
of the
as
decora-
at
Beth
dipinti
of
the walls as well as those on the stone coffins
found
numbers
great
in
in
the
excavations
of
1955, are particularly important for the icono-
graphy
mind the
of
Jewish
catacomb
that
and owing mily
tombs,
hensive
a
to
lack
scheme.
decoration
art
is
have
allowing
decoration,
of a
Funeral
are
for
keep
in
inferior
to
to
usually
synagogue, both
the
of
art
We
art.
execution
in
general
conceptual
chambers with a
rare.
fa-
to
one chamber
in
siderable interest.
ward on
Beth Shearim which
either side of an arcosolium
sheltering a
shut, the
A
of confor-
(a niche
tomb) are decorated with miniature
structures carved in relief (see
one on the
is
Here the walls projecting
left
is
figs.
87-89). The
a synagogue ark with the door
one on the right encloses a menorah.
lion stands
The menorah
on top of each of the aediculae. is
flanked bv a lulab and a
human
Palm tree, detail of mosaic Synagogue at Naro, Tunis.
floor
of
figure in long
draped garments.
It is
possible that
the priest and the lulab flanking the
were meant
to suggest
an actual
open with the a
mav
which appear nations. filled left,
in
top.
Some
and
specific
be assigned to the painted disks Beth Shearim
One menorah
in various
combi-
seen flanked with disks
is
with rosette designs. The larger one, on the
perhaps represents the sun, the smaller one,
on the
right,
the moon.
In another design the
two luminaries are apparentlv axis
shown
is
scrolls visible in the interior,
lamp suspended from the
significance
menorah
liturgical service.
In the dipinti of the catacomb the ark
compre-
unified
The attempt
achieve such a unified effect was made, however, in
82. >
and connected bv
Shearim are a
rider,
a bar.
a
man
set
on a
Other motifs
vertical in
Beth
leading a horse, a
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
219
83.
Decorated hall of Jewish catacomb of Via Appia, Rome; after a drawing.
soldier in armor, boats,
suggested that the as in
and
human
so on. It has
figures
medieval Jewish pictorial
mounted on
his steed
may
art,
been
symbolize,
the Messiah
(as described in Zechariah
IX, 9) or the Parthian rider of Jewish legend her-
alding the liberation from to the
220
Rome. Boats
referring
departure of the deceased, originally an
Egyptian and Greek conception, evidently reflect
here the belief of the pious in the return to the
Holv Land.
The Jewish catacombs
in Italy, particularly in
Rome, have important decorations
as
in
fresco,
of
them em-
yet inadequately examined
— some
bodying human
two connected cham-
figures. In
bers of the catacomb on the Via Appia, there
appear pagan mythological
crow-
figures, Victory
ning a young man, Fortune
with the horn of plenty, Mercury with the caduceum, ram,
and a bag
a
83).
(fig.
Here the walls and the
ceil-
ings are integrated in a har-
monious design. The
figures
on the vault are enclosed
in
a central medallion which
is
surrounded
by
ornamental
frame-work, scalloped arches the
filling
corners.
The
sides
and
walls, in
the
which
doorwavs and arcosolia are pierced,
are
divided off by
panels in which peacocks are
seen perching on branches or
walking on the ground. Gar84.
Part of ceiling decoration of catacomb at Villa Torlonia,
Rome
lands
hanging
down
from
JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
221
the panel frames
add a gay note
to the whole. It
is
possible that
two chambers were only
these
incorporated into the Jew-
later
catacomb. However
ish
designs
decorative
be,
222
may
this
such as
these appear to have stimulated
the imagination of the decorators
undoubtedly Jewish
of the other
catacombs
in
Rome.
In those of the Vigna Randanini, also
on the Via Appia, com-
prehensive decorative scenes are to
be found which are of consi-
derable interest. In one funerary
chamber, palm trees are painted the four corners
in
whole a unified of flowers
effect.
Baskets
85.
A
candelabra on
decorated
ceiling
at
catacomb
at
Villa
Torlonia,
Rome.
and birds decorate the
Near
walls.
giving the
chamber was
this
found the sarcophagus of Eudoxios,
the
zographos mentioned
in this chapter.
Tn the catacomb of the Villa
com-
Torlonia, large decorative positions figure
on the chamber
vaults, the side walls of the ar-
and
cosolia
their sofitti (fig. 84).
The
central
vault
is
norah
medallion
on the
usually filled with a
me-
85), while the side
(fig.
and corner compartments display the ethrog, the shofar, a scroll
and a pomegranate. There
also
appears a dolphin on a trident.
On
the rear wall of the arcoso-
lium the center
is
occupied by
the Torah-shrine with
its
open,
exhibiting
Scripture
scrolls,
with other accessories of
the
doors
the synagogue service arranged
on either side
(fig.
86). Here the
Jewish motifs have almost entirely displaced the
pagan elements
of the decoration.
We may
conclude
that
the
Jewish figurative art in the classical
period
faithfully
reflected
Open Torah-shrine and
scroll
on decorated wal
at Villa Torlonia,
Rome.
of the
catacomb
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
223
in
its
selection,
its
ideology, and
its
symbolism
art
had, for the
first
time
in
history,
created in pictorial language a series of figures inspired
whole.
bv the Bible and forming
a conceptual
The whole was based on Jewish is what distinguishes Jewish
living
experience. This
of the classical period
from the Christian
pretation of the "Old Testament" used for pole-
mical purposes. Jewish art had necessarily adopted
the atmosphere and the craving of the age.
Jewish
224
art
inter-
some place,
of the pictorial vocabulary of
but
Tolerated at
infused first
it
and
with
its
its
time and
own meaning.
later obviously
guided by
the leaders of the synagogue, this art performed a vital function inspirational.
— not onlv educational, but
also
•***»
:«
M--
\
:$W: f~*,
% w
Vv
LT
'>•
.Hafr.'*-.
Candelabra
in the
mosaic floor of an ancient synagogue
in Israel
THE MINOR ARTS OF THE TALMUDIC PERIOD SIMON
by
The minor Jewish
Talmudic period
of the
arts
Al>
can be judged as expressions of late Hellenistic or
Roman
provincial art
noted that by
—
"provincial"
should be
it
very location the art of the
its
catacombs
Jewish
— although
of
Rome
or thev can
termed
cannot be
be judged on purely
subjective criteria. Obviously,
all
PELliAUM
appear
ossuaries
richly-carved
frequently.
less
The development and planning
of Palestinian
synagogues are the subject of another chapter;
we
here
onlv discuss their stone carvings
shall
and ornamentations,
the
or
pavements
mosaic
which thev contained.
work must be
appreciated against the background of
its
period, II
but onlv the personal feelings of the observer can discover in such objects evidence of the direct subjective to
and observational experience leading
aesthetic
accepted
achievement. Yet by the definition book, a Jewish art-object
in this
is
one
which either bears a Jewish svmbol or has been discovered in a Jewish association;
bound
fore,
does
to
be of Jewish authorship; but
Jewish use and Jewish
reflect
it is
not, thereit
taste.
Great as were the losses of Jewish manpower both
in Palestine in the First
and Second
revolts
(of 66-73 and 132-35 C.E. respectively) and
in
the Diaspora during the furious revolt of 115-117
which affected Egypt, Cyrenaica, Cyprus
C.E.,
and in
Mesopotamia,
numbers,
dence.
Life
as the in
Jewish
craftsmen
Talmud and
Palestine
survived
other sources evi-
ultimately
returned to
normal, the arts and crafts again flourished.
doubt the destruction of the Temple
No
to a certain
extent diverted artistic effort to the beautification
svnagogue and a certain change took place
of the in
the
selection
of
Jewish
decorative
the seven-branched candelabrum
previously relatively rare,
(the menorah)
now appears with
quency and occupies a central position art,
both
in
symbols:
fre-
for the con-
hence
statues
and
furnished fewer opportunities
it
for rich inner ornamentation. In effect, the archi-
of
tects
2nd and 3rd century synagogues
the
much
concentrated
of their
adornments on the
and windows
of the facade
doors,
sills,
flanks
on ground or second-storev
lintels
and on
level, also
the architrave of the gable roof; thus there re-
mained broad wall-surfaces nity
and
The
to lend massive dig-
to set off the decorative features.
fine
windows were apparently
arculated
derived from the Svrian school of architecture of the
Severan age as expressed, for instance,
at
Baalbek; this also was the origin of the richly lintels
such as are seen in the prayer-houses
of Chorazin,
Kfar Bir'am and Capernaum. The
carved
symbols
embodied
the
in
carvings
were very
numerous, but there recur from svnagogue to
synagogue the eagle, the
lion, birds,
the palm-tree
and the palm-branch, the amphora (from which vine
frequently
springs),
the
the
ovolo,
a
ivy-
Jewish
wreath, the menorah, the vine-scroll with leaves, the acanthus, rosettes, the astralagus, medallions,
in
accompanied bv several other adjuncts connected the
was
and was not occupied by
gregation, offerings;
from the
differed fundamentally
in that its interior
the homeland and the Diaspora, in sy-
nagogues, on tombs, glass vessels and clay lamps,
with
The synagogue pagan temple
cult.
Free-standing
tomb monuments
and rock-cut tombs with impressive facades, on the other hand,
become
rarer, as
if
to avoid the
greed and envv of the foes of Judaism, while
garlands and conches.
A
special
figures tories,
problem
which appear
winged
female forms. these
figures
is
presented bv the
in
some synagogues
deities, vintners, centaurs,
We
human
—
and even
would remark, however,
rarely
dominate
the
vic-
that
decorative
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
227
scheme
or appear in isolation; generally they only
serve to
fill
the gaps between the other motifs.
The execution
of these forms
is
(though by no means
petent
and invariably
not usually com-
lacking in spirit),
inferior to that of the formal or-
namentation. This difference suggests that the tra-
who
dition of the craftsmen
motifs
and the
(plants,
ancient;
executed the formal
was much more
liege)
phenomenon cannot be explained
this
by mere provincialism, and
is
a fair
argument
who
the Jewish origin of the masons
executed
these designs. True sculpture in the round
reached by these craftsmen only
for
was
in the lion-figures
that perhaps stood on each side of the Torah-
some prayer-houses. A
arks in
from Chorazin ler lion
better;
of energy; but a
is full
it
up and
rearing
is
much
same place
recently found at the
fore-paw, and
striking
smalis
far
with
its
face has a fierce snarl, the whole
its
being executed with
spirit
enclosed the Torah-arks in the later synagogues.
Such have been found
at
Hammath
near Tiberias,
Hammath-Gader, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza.
The forms
menorah and their accompanying cult
of
adjuncts (the shofar, ethrog, etc.), sometimes enclosed bv wreaths, which one sees on these re-
competent assured work of a certain
are
liefs,
sophistication, but lacking the bold verve of the earlier Galilean
carvings. Interesting here
between the
similarity
on some clay lamps of
—
3rd century date
the
is
menorot and
style of these
that of the ones appearing later
one
for example,
dis-
covered at Beth Nattif among the remains of a
pagan
would suggest
potter's shop; this
that the
question were the work of gentile crafts-
reliefs in
men, a view that
finds
some support
in the
geog-
raphical distribution of the finds in cities of pro-
nounced Greek
and imagination.
fragments of seve-
to the
carved chancel screens which seem to have
culture.
Whatever the
case, this
style certainly represents the urbanization of the
and impressive ensemble. The construc-
Jewish population of Judaea that took place after
tion of the doors
differing
is
varied to give scope
skillfully
forms
of
the
expression;
so-called
Torah screen which has been reconstructed
Capernaum has
strength and interest. In
tifully
filled,
craftsman
at
some of
same building one
the vine-scroll friezes of the
feels not only the artist's delight in a
space beau-
but the emotion of the dedicated
who was
close to nature
and
The opinion
of scholars
is
that while the syna-
the decorative details were Jewish work; several features of treatment
and appear
latter,
which are peculiar on
earlier
are to be noted the beautiful Corinthian
tury);
few
from the tic,
The most
point of view.
artistic
that
is,
aesthe-
Aegina synagogue
of the
a "carpet" pavement adorned with formal pat-
and
technique ex-
this view.
Not
cellent;
the general design has balance and re-
on the other
straint.
The
in this respect
are the decorative details of the Nabataean-clasSi
in
southern
which merge Nabataean feeling with Hel-
terns;
colors are lively
its
of
"transitional"
floor of the
with
Tunisia
in
of
is
birds
its
low
al-Lif Syna-
and winding
good technique, but has a
On
it
no doubt
is
Alpha pavement was made
as inscriptions testify.
artists
standard
certain
may have been
the other hand, there
that the famous Beth
its
its
Hammam
coldness which suggests that
pagan work. by Jewish
lenistic technique.
synagogues
epoch do not evoke great respect
(Greece), which belongs to the 4th century. This is
gogue
Palestinian
this
perhaps
wreaths
The
and
men
Most of the mosaic pavements of the syna-
Trans-Jordan (particularly notable
Syria)
originality,
Greek) of the
the
of the repertoire of motifs,
temple of Baal Shamin at
(in
contributed them to the building.
hand, are derived from the shrines of Svria and
sical
much
has
foliage
their
some bear the monograms
who
column
from the Caesarea synagogue (4th cen-
capitals
of
ossuaries
Second Temple period, strengthen
to the
the
Jewish architectural carvings of the same period
gogues of
gogues were designed by Greco-Roman architects,
Among
the destruction of the Second Temple.
to faith
alike.
a
must be drawn
tention ral
In most of these structures the builders achieved a satisfying
to
figure of this sort
228
judged
by
Despite
"classical"
cri-
form between the 3rd centurv Galilean and the
teria,
Byzantine
a popular oriental genre which, originally submer-
buildings
chapter. Stone carved
are
described
work
is
in
another
here rare, but
at-
it
is
full
of
primitive
ged by the spread of
vitality,
classical art,
reflecting
had vanished
THE MINOR ARTS OF THE TALMUDIC PERIOD
229
completely but had not died, and awakened to
new
life in the late period. (As a parallel
non
at the
phenome-
may be cited
western end of the Empire
2nd
the revival of Celtic art at the end of the
century in Britain and Gaul )
synagogue
the
of
The
.
Nirim
at
the
in
with
including
the district;
in
and whether the painter was
or
faced
and
not,
this
problem and with certain decorative
positional
opportunities.
The sarcophagi
Rome
interest
is
much
as
Ill
clear that
is
Neveh
stone dwellings of this epoch
thus,
veilings
beauty at
in
still
survive, with
grape clusters flank-
like.
These decorations
freedom lacking
by the and
in Gali-
considerable
art
which
is,
Rome
at
externally at least, almost
Here, in the catacombs of the
and
ceilings
of
the
first
are
with plant-motifs,
normal pagan
style.
three chambers of the Vigna Randa-
Jewish symbols are actually absent, except a palm-tree in
general style in
tomb-chambers
filled
birds, deities, fruit, etc., in
for
on them. sarco-
phagus from the Vigna Randanini, on which are seen carvings of erotes in pure pagan
style,
while
the composition contains a medallion later
filled
by
a finely-executed
menorah whose
feeling
and
energy bespeak a Jewish craftsman. As two identical
pagan
known,
parallels are
differing only in
absence of the menorah, there can be no
the
A
this period.
divided into painted panels
nini,
their techni-
was a
chased from stock and re-adapted for Jewish use.
of
"Vigna Randanini" and the "Villa Torlonia," the
In the
between
that of the inscriptions
doubt that
entirely gentile.
walls
proved, for
is
not only synagogues but also secular
an
find
difference
this
possessed decorations
Turning now to the Jewish catacombs
we
re-
Hauran Jewish
adorned with wreaths
set in conches, vine-scrolls,
d
most of these sculptures were pur-
The same may be assumed concerning the
In Palestine Jewish stone carving was not
lee;
beings in a man-
tion of the prohibitions of normative Judaism. It
a
cal level
stylistic
human
senting pagan deities or
instance,
enjoy a certain
catacombs of
the Jewish
of
are frequently adorned with reliefs repre-
chased from gentile masons;
beautifully carved lintels
Jew com-
specific
and there are Christian its
stricted to synagogues; at
a
ner quite at variance with the prevalent concep-
flamingo
zoological as theological.
ed by menorot, and the
him with
a
a
elephants,
parrot, a Christian model, parallels
its
enclosing symbols and animal
forty-four panels
the moon. These pictures are Jewish by virtue of their content,
southern
frontier district of the country repeats,
figures
mosaic
late
230
is
the third
rather
the fourth chamber,
more
whose decoration
decid-
is
gentile sarcophagus pur-
second sarcophagus from the same catacomb,
however, possesses the decorative symbols normal in
Jewish Palestinian art (palms, lulahs, medal-
and
lions, rosettes, etc.) its
it
may be guessed
that
author was from the home-countrv. Verv beauthe coffin from the Villa Torlonia bearing
tiful is
on
its
side a
execution
is
menorah and ethrog
sensibility
low
relief; its
and the handling
of spaces
one acknowledges an
artist of
so delicate
so balanced, that
room (where the
impressionist); onlv
this
and
in
feeling.
In one of the catacombs, a Jewish "zographos" is
commemorated,
The verb form
that
of the
is,
a painter of figures.
same Greek word
used
is
edly primitive, consisting of denticulated circles
in
painted on the ceiling, does the menorah appear.
Cyrenaica, North Africa, in the late 1st century
The
B.C.E.,
frescos at the Villa Torlonia are also pronoun-
cedly pagan, although in the center of the ceiling of the
first
chamber the menorah and
its
asso-
a Jewish inscription at Berenice-Benghazi in
Jewish This
to
describe
here
building, building,
work
the
which
called
of
an
probably
decorating
a
amphitheatre. survived
till
ciated adjuncts are to be seen; the arcosolia, on
the
the other hand, have frescos of Jewish content
117), may, therefore, have been decorated with
— here we chalice,
see the shofar, pomegranate, menorah,
and similar symbols. Prominent
fourth arcosolium
is
a landscape of the
flanked bv menorot over which
sail
in
the
Temple
the sun and
great
frescos,
Jewish
revolt
perhaps even with
under
human
Trajan,
(115-
figures such as
are seen on the walls of the synagogue of Dura-
Europos. Thus this branch of Jewish
appears at Dura-Europos
in the
art,
which
3rd centurv C.E..
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
231
may have
originated in the
century B.C.E.
1st
or even earlier.
232
From another mausoleum
tion.
came
a
high
relief
representing wolves in combat;
verve and furious energy of this group
IV
The great
during
art in Israel
Shearim
(
period
this
is,
of course, Beth
western entrance to the Plain of
at the
Esdraelon
tional that
treasure house of Jewish sepulchral
87 )
fig.
The
.
began
great necropolis
period of this
brilliant
in the
2nd century C.E., when
a focus for
the burial of Jews not only from Palestine, but also
from the whole Middle East, including Pal-
myra, Babylonia, Syria and Southern Arabia. The
Rome
tombs normallv resemble the catacombs of in so far as
they consist of a series of burial cham-
bers cut in the soft chalk rock at various levels;
sometimes they are
entered from
sometimes through a deep
the hillside,
the
cleft in
The
hill.
corpses were laid in arcosolia, in galleries, in sar-
cophagi or
in
cists
cut in the rock floors of the
the arcosolia.
classical
ornamented with
and
bulls'
similar figures in relief;
sometimes these are
and the animals belong
lustv,
which began
art
also
room
of hall
xii
i
painted in panels defined bv red paint and
divided by a double stripe and dog-tooth pattern
The end
wall
is
in the
covered with a chaotic
same
and
wall-graffiti.
human The
decorated with mouldings or an "egg and tongue"
figure has
14 found
1953 and thought
in
to
have been
the sepulcher of Rabbi judah the Prince himself
the court of
Tomb
striking dignity rectly
by
which supported
was
and beauty,
restored from
strengthened
or meeting-hall behind
Series 11
its
if
monument
of
has been cor-
it
remains.
pilasters
a
Its
sculpture
were
walls
with moulded heads,
a fasciated architrave. This
owes much
To
bore a rich winding the coils,
scroll
The
his head.
with a certain
to the soft white-
the same type of art belong
the conches over the arcosolia, the springing lion,
was
Temple. The numerous menorot
of the
relief are a school to
it,
and
and
a
frieze also
containing flowers in
and the cornice was enriched with
a
double dentillation and a bead-and-reel decora-
in
their
high
themselves, with their mas-
sive stems, their oblique spreading branches
and
pronounced expressionism.
If all
these are the creations of Jewish folk-art,
how much more
the frieze and moulding were carried over
spread-eagle flanked by animals.
at a corner
effectiveness that
dental
rosettes
the relief of
menorah on
ness of the chalk.
burial chambers.
between were inserted a band of
is
appears a
crude in the extreme, but the
is
been placed
interrupted bv the arch of the entrance, but here
in
or there
the horseman and the representation of the front
were enriched only with simple mouldings.
The square mausoleum
other
Torah-ark
pillar, a
or animal figure. Notable
a "military saint" bearing a
frame, arch and jambs of the doorway, were also
Tomb
The
Here and there the chalk has
and divided
but the arches of the great facade of
color.
decorations of these tombs consist of rough reliefs
and shrine are represented,
border;
the tombs are
of series 4, the ceiling
being generallv carved to resemble wooden ones,
and other decorations. Sometimes the door-
in the late
itself
in
on the whole rough, and frescos appear only
rarely. In is
to re-express
The wall-decorations
empire.
crude but
is
to the style of folk-
served as special objects of adornment, their faces
lions
dis-
heads, lions, gazelles
picked out in red paint. The work
retiuclate pattern
panels bearing bosses, medal-
been
intact sarcophagi
been carved into the shape of a
into
and
art,
covered at Beth Shearim; their sides are frequently
ossuaries laid in
tomb-doors
rather similar
recalls
it
to essentially local Jewish in-
Only recently have
wooden
par-
so excep-
spiration.*
in red.
The tomb decorations were not
school;
must be attributed
dead were some-
ticularly rich or developed; the stone
is
in
the
cannot be ascribed to the influence
of the
tomb chambers; the bones times later collected in
it
animal figures of Celtic and Scythian
second half of the
became
it
any
of
Shearim
Betli
at
remarkable fragment of animal frieze
graffiti
so are the spontaneous
to
and
be seen on the walls
of
inci-
the
Characteristic of these are the
club-bearer, a rider leading his steed
(fig.
88),
the charging horsemen, a pair of fighting gladiators,
the winged god and the sketches of ships.
A
photograph of
and Survival,
II.
this
work is to be found in Antiquity The Holy Land, p. 250, fig. 5.
2/3, 1957:
233
THE MliNOR ARTS OF THE TALMUDIC PERIOD
87.
Burial
chamber
at
Beth-Shearim.
234
;
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
235
88.
Striking talent sailing-craft
man
(fig.
Rider leading his steed. Graffiti on a burial chamber of Beth-Shearim.
89);
it
clear that the drafts-
is
has seen ships and understood them.
The
twin steering-oars, the curve of the mast stepped into the
bottom (a
detail
which shows that the
draftsman had been on board), the features of the
—
sail, all
yard and rigging, the lines of the hull
are accurately caught. This craft
weigh and we
feel in
swells her
we
sail;
Prominent
exhibited by the drawing of a
is
236
under
is
our faces the breeze that
can even note that she
is
sail-
among Jewish metal
was the menorah;
in
objets
d'art
synagogues, two menorot
frequently stood on each side of the Torah-ark,
sometimes they were made of stone
found other
at
Hammath
at
Beth Shearim )
many were of metal and have No symbol figures more frequently
after the destruction of the
93
.
Its
that
near Tiberias; the base of an-
came from the synagogue
but
)
(like
representations
not survived. in
Jewish
Second Temple
show
(fig.
that sometimes the
ing close to the wind.
From the
arts of building
and
the arts of the objects of everyday
work, pottery,
A
glass,
wood and
life
is
pass to
— metal-
textiles.
fine expression of the ability of
workers
we
burial,
Jewish metal-
furnished bv the coins minted by the
revolutionary
Government
of Bar
Kokhba (132-
135 C.E. ). The subjects of the issues are the
Temple and
its
vessels
(fig.
90)
(the facade of
the Temple, the amphora, lulab, ethrog, and the rest)
—
and the symbols of the nation
the palm-tree, the
vine-leaf (figs. 91, 92).
bunch
as a
of grapes
whole
and the
These svmbols have been
Roman issues in order to Roman imperial prestige; most
overstruck on
deliver a
blow to
strikingly
beautiful are the pieces representing the lute
the vine-leaf.
and 89.
Drawing
of a sailing-craft at
art
on
Beth-Shearim.
a burial
chamber
THE MINOR ARTS OF THE TALMUDIC PERIOD
237
90.
238
Coin dating from the second revolt under Bar-Kokhba.
branches were linked above by a cross-piece, the
branches themselves being built up in knops or bosses, while the stand possessed four feet.
The
stand of the menorah portrayed in the apse of the Dura-Europos of
synagogues was also formed
superimposed mouldings into which the central
Engraved Menorah on
93.
91.
Coin dating from the second revolt under Bar-Kokhba.
by a chain attached the
filling
stone from synagogue at Gaza..
a
column emerging from
to a
Worthy
aperture.
of notice here are the
stem was inserted. Sometimes the arms took the
representations of the menorah, lulab, ethrog
form of foliage or of leafy branches.
shofar rising from the lamp's rear rim. Another
Among
the Jewish bronze objects of this period,
and
beautiful example of Jewish metal-work of the ,
there has been preserved a bronze
vered
in Syria
similar in its
(fig.
lamps of
lamp
disco-
94); this resembles in shape
clay,
being
filled
through a hole
epoch
is
the
fragmentary
Naaneh near Ramlah. an incised winding
Its
bronze
rim
is
paten
from
decorated with
containing flowers in the
scroll
upper face and possessing a projecting noz-
swags and also a menorah and Torah-shrine; the
have been suspended
center shows four plants with tendrils and palm-
zle for the wick. It
seems
to
branches springing from a vase. The vessel's period
is
the 4th century. Interesting, also,
gold disc of
the 3rd or 4th century;
its
face
its
adjuncts also bearing in Greek the
who was
These metal objects are some
Coin dating from the second revolt under Bar-Kokhba.
Talmudic days have vanished.
to in
associated
name
of
its
a "pearl-setter."
of the level of Jewish 92.
a small
decorated
is
repoussee with the menorah and
owner,
is
unknown provenance, belonging
—
artistic
a craft
We
faint
reminder
metal-working
in
most of whose products
find additional hints of this
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
239
—
represented on coins
art
chalice volt
which appears on
(66-70
C.E.),
for example, in the
issues of the First Re-
ossuaries
in
240
and
syna-
in
gogue carvings. The craftsmen of Syria and Egypt exercised a considerable influence on the silver-
work
of the later
Roman Empire, and
their pro-
ducts were distributed over the entire Mediter-
ranean area. Hence
on
late
Roman
is
it
hardly surprising to find (4th centurv C.E.)
silver vessels
discovered in North-western Europe, decorative motifs (the Star of David, the whorl-rosette and
the like)
drawn from the
repertoire of Palestin-
ian Jewish ornamentation.
When we come a sphere in their
to discuss clav lamps,
which the
enter
crafts,
but
ornamentation was certainly influenced by
and
the art of the period in
meet the
arts
we
that sphere.
reflects
Among Jews
popular taste
a clav oil-lamp
was
Clay lamp from Palestine; collection
95.
placed on the top of each branch of the menorah; similar
lamps
are
frequently
tombs and sometimes
in
and abroad. This type
found
synagogues of
in
of
A.
Reifenberg,
Jerusalem.
Jewish
in Palestine
lamp consisted of a
round body which held the
oil, and a nozzle in which the wick was placed. Main- examples can
be identified as Jewish because thev bear Jewish
symbols such as the menorah and
adjuncts;
its
on the other hand, there are some identical tvpes on which both Jewish and Christian symbols ap-
and some Jewish lamps have been encoun-
pear,
tered in pagan workshops, showing that at cer-
age
tain periods in the
and
^i^xdim
we
are discussing, Jews
gentiles did not comprise separate worlds in
the artistic sphere;
seems
there
between the two communities
have been a free exchange of
to
products, and one
made
objects for the other.
After the destruction of the Second Temple,
*
new
motifs appear on Jewish lamps, such as the Torahark,
on.
the amphora, the cluster of grapes and so
The
variety of motifs
identification of
lamps
as
is
very great, and the
Jewish
is
often not easy.
Research has divided Jewish lamps of the period
adorned with the seven-branched candelabrum (fig.
95) into
centers
are
six principal tvpes,
located
whose respective
Alexandria,
in
Carthage, Asia Minor and Cyprus. is
2nd century, but one
example found For
a
at
whose
Syria;
Jerusalem.
private
collection,
of
the
halal(hic
earlier
later
than
background
of
results fully bear out the findings cf.
F.
Idolatry in the Light of Historical in
of these
A. Urbach, The Laws of and Archaeological Facts the' 3rd Centurv, Eretz Yisrael, V. 1958, 189-205.
of the archaeological data,
imp from
typologically
Cvrene can hardly be
consideration
this state of affairs,
Bronze
None
regarded by archaeologists as earlier than the
late
94.
Palestine,
THE MINOR ARTS OF THE TALMUDIC PERIOD
241
242
ancient town of Beth Shearim. Outstanding
among
Jewish work are the Jewish "gold-glass" dishes the
Roman Empire from
They
are thought to have
known up and down the 3rd century on.
where Jewish craftsmen
originated in Alexandria,
derived the technique of manufacture from the in
the 1st century C.E., and carried
On
these bowls, designs were
Egyptians it
to Italy.
drawn
in
gold leaf and outlined in black paint, then dusted
with a colorless powdered glass which fused at
•*jfcmmm».-(
a lower temperature 96.
Clay lamp from Alexandria showing David and Goliath; Yale University Art Gallery.
when
the time of Trajan,
the Jewish
and Cyrene may
of the city ceased to exist,
have been the
and
well
center of the manufacture
first
There
diffusion of the type.
to believe that the
community
is
some reason
purpose of such lamps was to
spread religious propaganda prior to the revolt of 115, lels
and
a considerable school of gentile paral-
can be cited which served as vehicles of
Roman
religious
propaganda, some actually being
manufactured by the
and bearing
state
inscriptions with those inscribed
identical
on certain coin-
were the clay lamps with four or
Different
96),
nozzles,
some
of
Hanukka lamps
including
which were
circular
(fig.
with spout
broadening to a wide truncated tongue, and some of
omphaloid form. Their surfaces offered a wide
field for
vine,
and
Over
glass.
Most
was gummed
this
in the
second upper
a
dishes
to the inscriptions
gifts to friends
are
of their designs,
identifiable
and
relatives.
by the
upon
The
subjects
which are usually divided
into
an upper and lower register enclosed by a square or circular frame.
and
The themes include
menorah
The
inscription
is
(fig.
and
similar
either arranged
around
97), the palm-tree, the amphora, objects.
the
adjuncts, the Temple, lions, doves
its
fish
the rim or along the diametrical division between
ornamentation (arcades, the Temple, the
episodes.
A
second center of the production of
these dishes seems to have been Cologne,
and Asia Minor. The technique of glass-blowing
Africa
have been discovered
at
is
thought to
the beginning of the
amphora, birds and similar objects),
the their
importance
in their
lies
forming a de-
bath and Hanukka lamps which developed du-
Middle Ages and continues today.
ring the
VI Tradition
participation
to
Jews
a
the famous Phoenician
glass
industry,
ascribes
the transmission of certain of cesses to Europe; there
is
its
and
Talmudic period there existed centers manufacture a
glass
at Tiberias
in
also
industrial pro-
no doubt that
and other places
in the
of
glass
in Pales-
workshop has been found
in
the 97.
Israel
Exploration
journal
,
VII.
3,
1957,
154
sqq.
and
other examples have been recorded from North
parture-point for the rich Jewish ritual art of Sab-
tine;
have
Jewish and Christian catacombs
Rome, and according
them they were Jewish
formed a protective
of the examples of these dishes
been found of
so
the registers. Not a few bear pictures of Biblical
issues.
more
layer.
and
Jewish "gold-glass" dish from Rome: Vatican Museum
JEWISH ART IN ANTIQUITY
243
244
sources not only in Palestine but also in Egypt
and Asia Minor
in the
century Egypt,
curtains
stuffs
were
fan-
There
as Iudaica vela.
no doubt that such woven
4th
in
embroidered with
were known
tastic figures is
Talmudic period;
also
used
synagogues for the curtains that were hung
in
before the niches in which the Torah-arks were placed; holes noticed in the walls of the Dura-
Europos Synagogue on each side of the niche, and Beth Alpha
grooves flanking the niche in the
prayer-house prove the truth of this supposition.
summing up our theme, we have
In
to
answer
the question, does a genuine "minor" Jewish art reveal itself in our period?
We may
distinguish
two spheres; that
and that
of popular
art.
The
burial,
found
its
Glass bottle from Toledo Art Museum, U.S.A.
it
was
this,
production of vessels whose walls were decorated
Thus
and
Palestine
in
various forms on
Syria,
whose
we
exteriors
and
expression it
first
and foremost
adapted to
its
own
in
This
glass.
in classical
spirit.
Archaeo-
among them.
between Jewish and
gentile
art,
and
in the
3rd century the synagogue builders of Pa-
lestine
drew from the
bolism
common
together
with the technique of moulding, that enabled the
with various symbols, Jewish symbols
manifested in building and
logy proves that there was considerable mutual influence
present era in Phoenicia and
is
vessels of metal, clay
in
media, which
Palestine;
98.
first
of public
repertoire of religious sym-
to the Syrian
and Nabataean
cul-
This was a period of rapprochement with
tures.
the gentiles,
when Jewish
art
entered an era of
find bottles of
appear the me-
norah, the palm-tree, the arcade, the grape-cluster
and
allied objects (fig. 98).
Of considerable qua-
the Hat dish found at Beth Shearim;
it
pos-
sessed a high foot-ring and "kicked" base;
it
was
lit\
is
made
of green glass
on which motifs were incised
around the outer rim. These took the form of a continuous arcade ish
symbols
in
whose arches were the Jew-
— the Torah-ark, chandeliers, lamps,
amphorae, the
nicnorali, etc.
Fragments of carved bone work of a ship, a dolphin
in the
and an amphora, found
at
form Beth
Shearim, hint at a branch of Jewish craftsmanship which royal period.
is
better evidenced in the
Israelite
Although inevitably nothing remains
Jewish woodwork and wood-carving, the
to us of
tomb-doors ahead}' described evidence the ence of
th.it
drawings
ol
clay lamps
branch the
(fig.
1
exist-
'i -).
99), as do the numerous
Torah-arks seen in
and elsewhere. Nearly
Jewish textile manufacture
has
disappeared, but the industry
all
also is
graffiti,
on
traces of
necessarily
referred to by
Tomb Yassif,
adventurous
human
door, Israel
basalt, :
exploration
representations
from
Louvre,
into
(fig.
Kfar
Pans.
new animal and
100). But Jewish for-
mal decorative motifs show assurance and tion,
and here,
if
anvwhere,
we
tradi-
feel the personal
THE MINOR ARTS OF THE TALMUDIC PERIOD
245
paten from Naaneh and the coinage
glasses", the
of Bar
Kokhba prove.
In this respect, the peculiar
character of the object
the result
The
less
is
important than the
technique and aesthetic quality of
of the
skill
246
(fig.
101).
folk art typified at
Beth Alpha and Beth
Shearim, on the other hand, seldom reaches dis-
importance
tinction. Its
omenon,
is
as a re-emergence
as a sociological
extraneous
medium. The value
pavements
is
in
phen-
from domination by an
their vitality
of
—
Beth Alpha
the craftsmen
clearly enjoyed their job.
We artistic
perhaps
raav
achievement
naum and
symbolize
Jewish
in the plant-scrolls of
observation and the spiritual experience leading artistic
or
two
achievement. Although the ability to
human and animal
represent
striking exceptions)
is
figures
Nearly
'essness.
the
all
movement, which
reflects
with and love of environment
rity
was
and carvings
at
this quality
— on the one
moments
ment to the country fused with
rest-
native familia-
Galilean landscapes, on the other, of the sea and its
graffiti
craft.
tion
and
It
at
these
religious faith
its
produced creative expe-
rience.
thing specifically Jewish. Perhaps here
we may
express the opinion that the
tendency of the Jewish to estimate the
was
artist
means
less
of expression
than the idea he was seeking to express.
Our sketch has shown
throughout the
Jews
that
Roman Empire
the
various periods and places
in
accepted the representation of the hu-
man form
in their art; in
Rome Jews
frequently ordered art objects from
Here the point
gentiles.
was the
artist,
is,
not
who
but that in various
in-
stances Jewish symbolism placed the artist
before a distinct problem and
rendered inevitable a distinctive sult.
In this sense the art
quite irrespective of thorship.
the
In
craftsmanship, that
Jews
in
its
is
re-
Jewish,
technical au-
realm
there
is
of little
artistic
doubt
our epoch attained a high
degree of competence, as the "gold
101.
Amulet;
Jewish
that attach-
loving observa-
surely some-
is
al-
may be no
hand, of the vines and the pomegranates of the
and nervous
Beth Shearim and Beth Alpha possess of
(with one
from the other,
rudimentary, such
representations possess energy
It
coincidence that each of these achievements, so
Lion's head, basalt, synagogue at Kfar Bir'am.
different
to
Caper-
in the splendid little ship sketch,
ready discussed, from Beth Shearim. 100.
"minor"
Museum, London.
M [
^Sf*:V:iS.^/5^\152_!!CI2.^
.
Page from a Ms. of the Haggadah. Germany,
_W_. 16th
...
century.
PART TWO: JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS AHARON KASHTAN
by
We,
The Jewish Diaspora's Singular
I.
Architectural Achievement
therefore, find medieval
so far as language of
tradition,
cerned, and devoid of
The architectural
any normal ethnic
history of
phical
position,
the
and
its
was searching
A
—
and selected
—
to shrines
its
character and
way
of
dwellings but also public buildings for their
own
On
quarters.
their relatively small
own
—
but
it
did not find
discover an adequate instrument
the existence of
among
their neighbors
Only the synagogue, the exclusive heritage of
the
Jewish
was onlv
Poland of the 16th
in
centuries, after a prolonged process of
Jewish community succeeded in creating an inde-
pendent architectural
same period, an
known
species. In Italy, too, in the
idiom developed,
interior space
which constituted an
original departure
from any
sacral or ecclesiastical architectural idea.
This struggle to create a space principle for the
synagogue
people, ter
assumed
sifted
adaptation to the cultural environment, that the
precluded the development of a specific Jewish
architectural
It
existing building types for a suitable
or
satisfaction
and 17th
the other hand,
number and
a rich building tradition
art of building.
architec-
life.
The Jewish people, indeed, did live an organized communal life and frequently erected not only use in their
giving
of
particular needs.
concept of a synagogue
from dwellings
fully expresses
its
people's normal
of expression. It
and
means
a
for
embraces every phase
creativeness
existence
its
This, however, does not apply
most continents and countries.
of
of
other
Jewish people, whose history extends over
architectural
sphere
creative
neighbors. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jewry
tural expression to to the
form was con-
sources of inspiration
all
geogra-
its
climate
specific
its
conditions.
local
determined by
is
beyond
study
or
group
cultural
or
Jewry almost without
—
a struggle arising from the charac-
and from the
religious thinking of
Judaism
—
original significance.
and the consequence There
sharp
a
is
history of ancient Israel living
own environment and
between
divergency its
own
the
life in its
ing architecture of Europe provide the principal
theme
for
the
the history of the Jewish
building
people in the Diaspora. This led to a lack of
of contact with the flourish-
of
European
synagogue
medieval and post-medieval times.
of
The theme
story
gains an
added
interest
from the
fact
continuity in the conception of visual experience that
and form idiom. The encounter
in
characteristic
most primary element of architec-
to space, the
tween
the
Jewish
liturgical
achievements were restricted
Europe be-
tradition
and the ture.
medieval world of forms, more particularly the contact
with
Romanesque and Gothic
art
and II.
may be
techniques
architectural
the term,
in
said
response so far as
in
to
the
basic
meaning
of
concepts of space were
It
is
a
basic
art
could
furnish
the
instruments,
but the needs to which they were put grew out of another soil
and
a different spiritual climate.
fact
of a in
Program the
history
of
medieval
Jewry that the Jewish communities of the period
were generally
involved.
European
The Evolution
have produced an
small.
This at once determined
the size of the synagogue building and the degree of
its
architectural importance in relation to
surroundings.
The synagogues
in small
its
communi-
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
255
were sometimes nothing more than simple
ties
rooms set aside for public prayer. Ancient regu-
made by
lations
bv secular
or
Christian ecclesiastical authorities
prohibited the building of
officials
new synagogues and sometimes even ment
Furthermore, while
buildings.
existing
of
Jewish law requires synagogues
surrounding
the
the enlarge-
buildings,
be higher than
to
edict
ecclesiastical
prescribed that thev should be lower than the
were
local churches. Frequently, such laws
The
interpreted.
fully
ground outside does from the
depths have
below that
not, as
is
the
without
interior
restricting the
synagogue's
the
pronounced
Lord") but
is
external height.
law
the
transgressing
Hence,
until the
synagogue
of external unpretentiousness in their
however splendid the
This
interior.
exclusive
direction,
still
is
Had
prayer been requiring
activity,
a
would have been natural
it
for the ark, being attached to the wall to
which
become the
archi-
congregation
the
similar
O
is
sense of the
literal
a secular building.
axialitv
("Out of the
The synagogue the
in
praver
as
a place of meeting of the congre-
is,
—
gation
generally held, stem
18th century Jews endeavored to retain a degree
buildings,
term, that
focus
also the result of a desire to increase the height
of
house of assembly
does not yet
it
completely,
not yet the sole activity. a
for the Scrolls of the
Jerusalem,
to
interior
tectural
cried unto Thee,
I
dominate the
of the
floor
verse of Psalm 130
first
the
placing
of
tradition
synagogue
level of the
spite-
permanent place
forth as a
Law, orientated
256
turned, to
imposing
naturally that
to
as
pravers.
Law was
platform gravity,
dominating the
as important
—
Indeed, the bimah
—
churches.
Christian
of
However, reading of the
longitudinal
reading
the
became the synagogue's center space
entire
from
of its
obvious position in the middle of the audience,
imposing a pronounced centralitv on the
thus
The
building.
between
rivalry
two
the
foci,
and the bimah
(iron situated in the east wall
at
phenomenon could be observed throughout the Jewish Diaspora; the few exceptions known
the center, and the search for a balance between
are generally the product of temporary circum-
space problem. This pattern, and the reciprocal
such
stances
as
existed,
instance,
for
13th
in
century Germany, a period of relative security that
At
was
one of extended building
also
activities.
events, the intimacy of the Jewish service,
all
based as
these
two perennially constituted
relationship
the
to
space,
interior
a
is
disturbing
the basic
idea of the synagogue interior. Only in Italy, as will
be explained
was
later,
a harmonious
and
balanced solution of the above problem found;
from the accepted European
is
on the constant participation of
this solution deviates
the individual,
invariably necessitated a prayer-
space concepts based on absolute singularity and
hall of
it
no great
the
size,
number
of the congre-
gation determining the scale of the building i.e.,
—
a functional, not an emotional or architectural
In describing the architectural essence of the
synagogue
interior,
it is
necessary to examine, too,
a liturgical development unique to Jewish wor-
ship
resulting
problem:
the
in
permanent
a
space
relationship
reading platform and the ark.
connected
with
form
inherited from antiquity
which
architectural
between
in
space or at least a niche
in
Chapter IV). Although the
Law
time
This
when Europe was dominated by
the late Renaissance and Baroque. At this period the proto-types of the aron,
European communities
which survived
until recently,
came
in
into
Many synagogues were now rebuilt and provided with arks in the new idiom. It is being.
European Jewry
the
epoch
medieval
concerned that they were conservative in matters
was the form
Law,
at a
increasing size and
its
artistic level of its execution.
characteristic
Jewry
of liturgy,
In
ancient
synagogues already had a fixed "shrine"
for the Scrolls of the
of the
importance expressed by
aron attained an
The only legacy
which determined building design. times,
the
later period the
by the highly
was
consideration.
At a
axialitv.
of
form
cultural
of
and
frequently
conditions.
Renaissance,
it
in
subservient
Thus,
at
preserves for
its
to
earlier
the height of the
purposes building
the form of a small
forms and space types characteristic of medieval
the east wall
architecture.
awn
(see
kodesh or Ark
acquires greater importance hence-
The women's
section
is
an attached but separate
portion of the synagogue.
The
separation of the
257
SYNAGOGUE ARGH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANGIPATION PERIODS
258
when Jewry was
forced
sexes during prayer, introduced in ancient times,
continued in the synagogues of the Middle Ages. the ancient synagogues a
In
gallery sometimes
served this function (see Chapter IV)
screened off and vet enable the services to hear
.
had
It
women
to
be
attending
(not necessarily to see) without
being seen. These conditions determined the form
between the main
of link
section with
all
on the same level
example,
in the
many
architectural detail. In
its
cases the place allotted to hall
and the women's
hall
women was
as the
synagogue
a separate
main space,
at
as, for
Worms. Sometimes
women's accommodation was below the
the
level
main synagogue or even actually under-
of the
neath
as, for
gogue
Avignon and elsewhere
at
similar
example, in the 17th century syna-
arrangement existed
in
and Cavallion [1750]).
When
synagogue was built
Toledo
tury, a gallery
in
hall.
It
Provence (a
the "El Transito"
was constructed
above the level of the
in
Carpentras [1396]
in the
14th cen-
purpose
for this
was not
until the
end of the 16th century, when the presence the
woman
tance.
with
In this period synagogues were designed
accommodation
well-planned
The women's galleries
borrow a type of building suitable
borrowed not from secular
existing
naturally
this
The
tvpes.
to
its
for
women.
section in the form of a gallerv or
choice,
therefore,
on a type of building which was,
fell
on the one hand, a reasonable accommodation
bimah and which, on the
for a centrally-located
was
other,
as
arrangements
liturgical
and monastic at
possible
as
little
in
a
reminiscent
church. Town-halls
hand. They were usually vaulted structures
consisting either of one
undivided chamber
synagogue
in
columns along the middle to carry
of pillars or
The method
the load of the vaults.
and
tion
structural
of construc-
forms were those prevalent
within the geographical domain of the medieval
groined or ribbed crossvaults, circular and
arts:
pointed,
Heme and
four
plain
shapes
—
all
or
five-ribbed,
and many
varying according to time
place.
IV.
The Medieval Double-Nave Synagogue
The oldest before ber
it
building in
its
early original form
was destroyed by the Nazis
1938,
was
the
renowned
in
Novem-
Svnagogue
is
a late develop-
Amsterdam.
The Impact
of
Romanesque and Gothic
Architecture
In discussing the synagogues of the
and Gothic architectural period distinguish
double-nave
chamber
Romanesque
in Central
two principal types:
synagogue,
and
2)
the
Europe, 1)
the
vaulted
or single-nave synagogue.
As already mentioned, the synagogue was not regarded by the Jews solely as a sacred building.
Had
this
been
so,
they might well have chosen
the space form current in contemporary churches, i.e.,
or,
sometimes, of a double-naved space with a row
ment, perhaps inspired by the famous Spanish
we must
of
were the nearest models
refectories
pitched over a row of columns, a form
usual at the end of the period,
III.
needs,
example but from the
of
synagogue became an accepted
in the
to it
the women's section acquired impor-
that
fict,
the building. However,
the vaulted medieval basilica. This generally
had a nave and two nouncedly
aisles.
longitudinal,
with
The plan a
is
central
proSynagogue at Worms, ground-plan, Men's synagogue; II. Women's synagogue;
102.
axis I.
leading to the High Altar at the eastern end of
III.
Vestibule;
IV.
Rashi Chapel.
of
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
259
103;i.
Worms in
in
the Rhineland.
Its
Synagogue
at
construction began
1034. but the structure underwent a funda-
mental change at the end of the 12th century, a
period which saw
and from
its
much
building in the citv
surroundings, and marking the transition
early
to
late
Romanesque.
The famous
Worms,
interior, east.
Cathedral at
the
affinity
tural
260
Worms was under
of
same
time,
and
there
construction is
between the two buildings
detail.
Column
capitals
a in
marked architec-
and characteristic
Romanesque door and window arch carvings almost
identical.
The
interior
are
space-arrange-
)
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
261
Worms
103b.
ment
and
proper, species:
earliest
Europe
section.
is Romanesque known example of a
synagogue
double-naved medieval
the
of Central
Women's
which
structure,
the
is
Synagogue.
262
(fig.
The building
102).
is
erected on a simple, almost rectangular ground plan.
A
pair of
Romanesque columns with deco-
rated capitals supports along with the walls the six
The columns and
groined cross-vaulted bays.
their capitals,
and apparentlv
also the
which shared with the columns
doorway,
details of carving
and decoration, were made by a Jewish artist, whose work was commemorated in a Hebrew 800 years on one
inscription preserved for nearly
of
the
The
columns.
double-nave
resulting
emphasizes the centrality of the bimah placed
midway between
the
two columns.
(It
on
is
record that the original bimah and subsequent
replacements
were much
familiar to the last generation of
The adjacent women's wall of the
than
larger
Jews
in
the
hall attached to the north
main building on the same
of nearly equal size
one
Worms.
and was
level
is
built in 1213, not
long after the completion of the second construction phase. This
with one
chamber has four vaulting bays
central
column,
and
altogether
is
a
unique arrangement.
The Worms Synagogue
104.
(fig.
103
a,
b) seems to
Synagogue .in
at Regensburg (Ratisbon), etching by A. Altdorfer, 1519.
interior;
,
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
263
Altneu synagogue, Prague, exterior.
105.
been
have Gothic
In
remain.
gogue
prototype
synagogues
erected even land.
the
in
over
all
the
of
and
double-nave
Central
Europe,
places remote from the Rhine-
Germany itself few traces The interior and structure porch
at
Ratisbon
of this tvpe of the syna-
(Regensburg)
destroyed by order of the town-council after the expulsion of 1519, are ings
known from two engrav-
by the 16th century
artist
264
Albrecht Altdorfer
(fig.
104).
at the
late
end
The main
hall,
a double-nave, built
of the 13th century in a transitional
Romanesque-early Gothic, had three
in a central range, so that the vaulting
pillars
had four
bays in each nave. The entrance porch, built the
14th century, was Gothic. In
its
in
elongated
form the Ratisbon Synagogue strongly resembled a monastic refectory. of two,
Having three
pillars instead
the building deviates from the normal
,
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
265
Altneu synagogue, Prague,
106.
formula, since the
it
lacks centrality in the sense of
bimah arrangements.
The most famous gogues the
interior, east;
is
Central European syna-
of
the old building in Prague
"Altneuschul"
Synagogue"),
(fig.
"the
(literally:
The gloom
105).
from the narrow windows gives the
atmosphere stories
congenial
woven about
the
to
that results interior
traditional
building.
this
known as Old-New
Most
an folk
of the
"Altneuschul" was built at the end of the 14th century, its
and
is
unique
impressive exterior
pattern
of the
in
—
period
the Middle Ages for
different
(fig.
explained by the fact that
it
from the usual
from an
266
early 19th century engraving.
no fear of offending the feelings of a
hostile
environment. The architectural design
simple
and
a
clear:
rectangular double-nave and two-
pillared plan of three bavs in each identical
in
is
principle
Worms, except
with
nave
the
(fig.
107)
Svnagogue
that here the building
is
cedly Gothic in structure and feeling, though restrained in decorative details because of content.
The
ribs, five to it
its
Jewish
vaults are pointed with pointed-arch
each vault. The
would seem,
fifth rib
to efface the cross
was intended, formed by the
four diagonal ribs of the usual Gothic vault. Six
106). This can be
heavy external buttresses help the thick walls
was
transfer the lateral thrust
heart of a large Jewish quarter,
situated in the
where there was
of
pronoun-
and
ribs
push outward.
to
where the main arches (See plan and section
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
267
107,
figs.
doorway
focal
Access
through
is
arched
an
in the south wall in the south-western
The
bay.
108.)
268
relationship
points
importance
in
between main entrance and
space
obviouslv
is
in all architectural design
primary
of
— and
this
seemingly unrelated arrangement demands con-
Romanesque and Gothic
sideration. Also in other
synagogues the entrance
awn) nor
(opposite the or south wall
is
not in the west wall
(opposite the bimah), but in the
sector furthest
from
at
(e.g.,
it
Spires,
was
tury
theoretical
a
decision
made on
the
question of the location of the entrance, following
Arukh
Rabbi Joseph Caro's Shulhan
many
although for
built with
still
The
1567;
doorways not directlv related
ceptible to place the axon.
of
generations synagogues were
the interior shrines, a trend
interior
was henceforth
to
per-
main entrance opposite the these
of
synagogues
later
cross-section
time
Worms,
Fuerth and elsewhere). Not until the 16th cen-
Altneu synagogue, Prague, (after Krautheimer).
108.
in the center of the north
afterwards
low
a
as
auxiliary
structure.
Other extensions, including the porch, were
appended,
also
surrounding
visually impairing
its
and
building
the
The carving
exterior.
details
of the corbelled capitals over the pillars, the wall-
and the keystones
corbels strained,
of the vaults are re-
and equal
sober,
awn
over the
the
to
The tympanon
best contemporary local work.
the pediment
standard
in
in
decorated with
is
vine foliage carvings; the details of the entrance
were executed
at a later period, evidently
on the
acquired, accordingly, a longitudinal feeling and
occasion of one of the reconstructions.
the ark acquired greater architectural importance.
ternal
measurements of the main building are
14X8
meters,
The
floor of the
"Altneu" Synagogue
is
well below
the surface of the street, this difference apparently increasing in the course of years, being probably at
first
purely
initially
expressing
a its
interior
clear
is
The building was
symbolical.
single,
Worms; on
architectural
mass
volume.
The women's accommodation was added some
in
its
Romanesque the
of
largest
predecessor.
Romanesque is
or
end
at the
Gothic
the "Old" Syna-
built in the Jewish quarter of
Cracow
of
the other hand, this Gothic building
synagogues of Central Europe
gogue
ex-
somewhat smaller than those
higher than
The
The
Kazimierz
of the 14th century (accor-
ding to local tradition, in 1364). This synagogue is
the last of the series of buildings of the medie-
val double-nave variety with a pair of pillars.
plan
is
identical with that of the
Worms and a
Prague; the structure
The
synagogues is
at
Gothic with
normal four-ribbed vault to the bay. The recon-
struction
and
the interior but
the
that direct
There can be no doubt
was
building
inferior
alterations
16th century have impaired
little.
inspiration
though
Renaissance
external
carried out in the
of
to
it
constructed
the
"Altneu"
architecturally.
under the Synagogue, Notable
is
the beautiful bimah, of octagonal plan and enclosed by a 16th century- wrought-iron cage some-
times called keter
and
made 10/.
Altneu
synagogue. (after
Prague,
Masak).
ground-plan,
inspiration in other
(crown). This was a model
many crown-shaped bimot
for
synagogues, but few attained the
same slenderness of expressed in metal
late
(fig.
Gothic motifs lightly
109).
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
269
109.
V.
'Old'
synagogue
in
Jewish quarter of Kazimierz (Cracow), interior, Rimah and Ark.
The Gothic Vaulted Single-Nave
structures such as in Spires
Synagogue
construction
The second type Europe
in the
of
synagogue building
Middle Ages
is
270
in Central
the vaulted cham-
was alwavs
problem
of
and Erfurt. The main these
moderate span.
uninterrupted bv supports. There were also, of
intermediate
supports,
course, unvaulted svnagogues
dom
one nave
with timber roof-
in
of
A
buildings
medium-sized
square or rectangular chamber, mostly of a vault of
ber, a single-cell structure consisting of
stone
to devise a cover over a
in the
form
solution without
course,
assured free-
respect of functional arrangements, such
.
FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
JEWISH ART
271
Synagogue
110.
as the placing of the
Miltenberg-on-Main, cross-section
at
bimah and the
The
axon.
Krautheimer)
(after
emphasis
equal
272
to
all
four
and by the
walls
single-nave synagogues were built simultaneously
concentration of the directions of the ribs towards
with the double-nave ones and present no original
the middle
architectural contribution. Buildings of this type
a
were
character
of
repeating
bays.
built
throughout the Jewish Diaspora of
Central Europe, some of them well elegant detail and ture.
Among
down
the few that
World War
to
Miltenberg,
Schul"
Romanesque II)
Leipnick,
built
well in
for
(or existed
exist
were those
as
Prague
in
still
known
or Gothic struc-
as
the
Bamberg,
at
The synagogue
at
small
relatively
As
vaulting.
instead
of
in
the
of the rectangular
photograph of the
interior
former Bamberg Synagogue, built
110)
is
the
fifth
a
of five
being
interior
by giving
13th
the
in
centurv, clearly shows the structure of the Gothic
ribbed
and conveys a notion
vaulting
teristic of structures of this class
(fig.
successively
its
emphasis of the central longitudinal
perpendicular to the gable wall; this stresses the centrality
An
with
"Pinkas-
Gothic hall with two bays
four ribs,
vaulting
centurv.
"Altneu" Synagogue, there are usual
the
the
Miltenberg-on-Main erected
the end of the 14th century
other buildings possess
13th
Others are known from records and drawings.
at
The
111).
(fig.
rather longitudinal feeling dependent on the
the
of
axis charac-
112).
(fig.
The
longitudinal axis
was
addition
women's accommodation along
the
of
northern
the
whose
of
entire
southern
or
the
of
rhythm
the
wall,
windows
small
length
strengthened by the
later
accompanied
the
Most
the
interior.
of
vaulted single-nave synagogues were built at the
end of the Middle Ages. The axon, the long interior axis,
became
at the
visuallv
end
of
more im-
portant, sometimes leading to the addition of an
apse or niche to accommodate the Torah-shrine, thus
stressing
the
bimah remained
longitudinal
character.
in its central position
The
and con-
tinued to dominate the space.
The Renaissance and Baroque Chamber
VI.
in
Bohemia and Galicia
Before dealing with of Polish Jewrv, 11.
Synagogue
at Miltenberg,
(after
Krautheimer).
vault-plan
contribution
original at
the close of
16th centurv, a reference should be
the to
the
which evolved
a
number
of
buildings,
some
of
made
which are
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
273
gems even
architectural
they do not provide
if
These were born
a specific synagogue concept.
European architecture
of the
thus belong to
general
phenomenon. However, apart
historical
from
perhaps
which were
Poland and
Bohemia
later in
claim that they constitute a
to
synagogues,
square-formed
the
built in
middle of the 18th century,
in the
and
of the period
every way, exemplifying a
in
it
274
difficult
is
it
uniform
specific
morphological group.
The Meysel Synagogue
Prague was
in
built in
Empe-
1592, by a special license granted by the
Rudolph
ror
Jew"
the philanthropist and "court-
II to
whom
after
down completely
building was burnt
two vears
rebuilt
A
later.
wide
1689 and
in
nave
central
flanked on each side by a double-storeyed It
The
the building was named.
is
aisle.
covered by a barrel vault intersected by
is
The
lunettes forming a clerestory. rations are in the
The
ribs.
plaster deco-
form of a reticulation of Gothic
which
building, in
characteristic early
Synagogue
112.
Bamberg,
at
interior, west.
Renaissance elements struggle with the desire to maintain Gothic forms,
decided deviation
a
is
we have
from the medieval synagogue type as
known in
till
it
now. The "Klaus" Synagogue (also
Prague) which was built at the end of the 16th
the elegant solution of the division between the
women's
and
ly to
ornamentation in the local Renaissance fashion.
The with ly
hesitancy
stylistic
from
arises
the
these
of
persistent Gothic tradition
its
two examples
character
peculiar
Prague,
of
— subsequent-
The make
building it
The built
Isaac
in
1582,
vaulting, here,
architectural
tradition,
is
a
"monastic
intersecting
too,
lines
of
(fig.
113). at
oldest of
Kazimierz
them was
vault."
It
is
covered by a
As with the
the vault
is
two half-cvlinders
at
1640 the synagogue named wicz was
built.
Renaissance
It
idiom
as
churches and chapels. Olivieri, city,
was
(who
after Isaac Jakobo-
prominent example of
a
is
was
it
The
used
architect
in
small
Francesco
the designer of
many
a disciple of the
famous Carlo Maderna
also
worked
in
Cracow
structure
is
a
buildings in the
in
a western gallery used for the
The
while in
Isserles,
women's
barrel-vault
arcade and high lunettes on
all
1594-6).
with sides.
It
has
section. 113.
a
lateral
Notable
is
Synagogue
at
R. Isaac Jakobowicz;
section
Kazimierz, named after ground-plan and cross-
(after
Grotte).
cross-
formed by the
suburb of
built in the
1553 by Moses
in
Lwow,
Polish representative of the
vaulted halls were erected in the said fashion.
The
cross-
than the adjacent buildings
square vaulted-chamber type. so-called
Renaissance
taller
Nachmanowicz Synagogue
In Cracow, also a city of a magnificent me-
and
gallery
15 meters high, apparent-
is
of the Jewish quarter
shared by an equally strong Baroque influence.
dieval
Under the
was the entrance lobby, vaulted by small vaults.
and flower
and the nave by an arcade sup-
on Tuscan columns.
ported
century and altered in the 17th was barrel-vaulted finished in stucco with plant-scroll
gallery
right
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
275
was long popular with Baroque chamber, which
276
architects.
The
almost square and specifically
is
designed with an emphasis on centrality,
is
co-
vered by a "monastic vault" of eight parts as described above in pairs
each side and lend to the interior of the
appearance
the
vault
The axon and The
of
a
normal
cross-vault.
the remaining detail, the corbels
windows,
of the vault, the style.
114). High lunettes pierce
(fig.
etc.,
are in Renaissance
idea of a square plan for an undivided
inner space found
its
synagogues of Zamosc
continuation in the Polish (fig.
115), Husiatyn
(fig.
116), and Szczebrzeszyn. In
direct use altars
Synagogue of R. Isaac Nachmanowicz at Lwow; ground-plan and cross-section (after 11-1.
Grotte)
neighboring
the
was sometimes made
new
and
II.
Moravia
at this time of high
acquired from churches closed
Emperor Joseph
.
Bohemia
down by
They were adapted
to their
use with very slight changes. Here, too, the
type of square synagogue with monastic vaulting
but
angles,
the
enclosure
is
downward
and
shaped not unlike an inverted boat, resulting a square
dome. This
is
bv arch-ribs which accompany the
—
cylindrical
a primarily Gothic construction
115.
is
which
Synagogue
at
many.
acceptance, later spreading to Ger-
These
Bohemia, are
sometimes strengthened
section, so that a six- or eight-partite vaulting
formed
in
now gained
more
buildings, built
nounced Baroque
particularly
and decorated
taste of
in
the
in
pro-
South Germany and the
Austrian countries. In 1757, a fine synagogue of the above description
Zamosc,
interior,
Bimah.
(fig.
117) was built
in
the
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
277
116.
town
Synagogue
at
Husiatyn, interior, east-wall.
of Kuttenplan, situated in the heart of the
Jewish "pale" of Western Bohemia. The floor here, too,
is
below the
dictates.
1764 the
at
A
level of the street, as tradition
similar
synagogue
was erected
built
in
ferred to,
leading
to
lie
at the junctions of the
Bavaria;
hence
that similar synagogues
is
it
were
not
main roads surprising
also built there.
in
Koenigswart and additional buildings of
same kind were
278
manv towns and
hamlets of that region. The Bohemian towns re-
VII.
The Four-Pillared Stone Synagogue
Shortly thereafter, Central
and
Eastern
in
the
wake
Europe,
and
of the West,
particularly
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
279
Synagogue
117.
at
Kuttenplan;
Poland, experienced historical changes.
ginning of the 16th century sees the of medieval civilization give
The
ments.
isolation
Jewry proceeds in
is
to create
to
new
be-
traces
develop-
to
cross-section
emphasize the
(after
Grotte).
interior's
dome and
a
bimah beneath
their
some well-known
later
mentioned square
single-cell
the
Jews
from
focus
a conventional space-relationship,
now more strongly felt. its own spiritual world
of
European environment
wav
The
last
ground-plan and
280
it,
by means i.e.,
as in the case of
examples or the already synagogue.
the midst of the Polish cultural milieu. Within
this
Jewish region an independent art emerges,
first
of a folk character, comprising various arts
and
crafts.
In the course of time a highly indi-
genous level for expressing one's own world of thought and feeling
is
achieved.
There was a basic urge of
way
of
builder's stract
It
He
—
task
in
its
yet
had
it
the
master-
Jewish
faced an intellectual, abto
be executed and
The
material, physical terms.
cipal difficulty stress
was
worship.
dilemma.
expressed
to fulfill the provision
cogent expression for the specific
suitable
a
was the bimah and the
central position
prin-
desire to
and overriding impor-
problem found an unequivocal
tance. This tion
which
the
building's
rigidly
solu-
determined the connection of
shell
with
this
which
four-pillared
synagogue
independent
architectural
focal
point.
resulted
invention
is
The an
and native 11K.
Jewish achievement. to build
w
It
was, of course, possible
ithout supports in the center
and vet
Synagogue
at
—
groundRzeszow. Above ground-plan and
plan of old synagogue; below cross-section
of
of
between a
—
new synagogue.
SYNAGOGUE ARGH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANGIPATION PERIODS
281
282
Beyond doubt we are here confronted with
phenomenon
fascinating
tecture: a space invention following
Had
need.
an emotional
the historical conditions of
Jewry been
might have continued
different, this type
a
the history of archi-
in
to exist
and develop new forms following fresh methods There were
construction.
of
synagogues with four at
(cf.
Wolpa, or
many, where
it
pillars
also
surrounding a bimah
as far as in
Rothenburg, Ger-
was erected by an immigrant
—
Jewish community around 1720)
was used, since the spans.
apparently
where timber construction
a superfluous support
large
some timber
can bridge relatively
latter
These examples prove the impor-
tance of the four-pillared type and illustrate
deeply rooted tradition
as
a
it
had already become expression
specific
of
how
in Jewish
monumen-
tality.
The Synagogue
119.
at
Nowogrodek,
A much however,
if
stronger
spatial
the structure
is
possible,
period.
upon
side
called
to
a material part in the sought-for space-rela-
ta'ze
tionship.
The very essence
of the physical life of
a medieval vaulted stone building
is
its
structural
system of carefully balanced forces and counterforces taking the shape
this
system, to
Many,
the
clearly
buildings
from
local conditions
of the architecture of the
especially those
city-walls,
were
built
which stood outas
expressed in the facades.
surrounded by a
possessed
fortified
arcaded
fortresses,
The
roof
attic
If
parapet
with crenellated cornices and small towers
in the
the
visibly integrated as a center into
become
its
emotional and physical
climax, the desire for a truly specific expression
would be
fulfilled.
Such an architectural invention
was actually produced.
It
finally
took the shape
masonry,
of a central vault-carrying pile of into four pillars to include
split
between them a square
bimah, a defined space within space. Such was the final
extreme
conclusion type,
e.g.,
which produced the more buildings
the
at
Rzeszow,
Maciejow, Pinsk, Wilno, Nowogrodek, Luck, and other places less
absolute
(fig.
type
118, of
119). Simultaneously, a building
which the four supporting
in
pillars define a central
bay (containing the bimah) bays,
developed,
among
nine equal
which together constitute a square. The
synagogues in the suburb of
Lwow
and
kiew are most characteristic examples of of hall with nine equal
bavs
(fig.
120).
at Z61-
this
tvpe
as
was
equipped with shooting loopholes and sometimes
of arches, pillars, buttresses
and other load- and thrust-bearing members.
bimah could be
these
and from the influence
impact
itself is
of
characteristics arising both
interior,
and Bimah.
central pillars
exterior
120.
plan
Synagogue at suburb of Lwow, groundannd cross-section of north wall (after Grotte).
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
283
Synagogue
121.
at
Zolkiew, exterior, after
were
Polish Renaissance manner. These features
adopted,
would seem, bv
it
roval order for needs
of defense against Cossack or Tartar attacks (fig.
121).
contrast to these
In
synagogues
of
very
were
the unfortified
appearance
simple
whose
only outstanding characteristic was the roof generally built in two
The
tiers,
—
one above the other.
structure of the synagogue in the suburb of
Lwow
cross-vaulted
is
in
vaulting bays and interdivided
4 pillars
in
the
all
synagogue building
as the accepted built in
at
equal
bv 12 arches, with
the corners of the center bay.
plan shows no external buttresses arch-piers)
nine
The
(opposite the
usage required. The
1632 and an almost identical
Zoikiew
built
in
characteristic examples of this
nine equal bays and four
1690 are form of
pillars.
The
highlv
hall
with
the
wood engraving.
a
four
pillars
instance,
(1705; rally,
the
in
grouped together appears,
"New Synagogue"
vaults
of
such a
synagogue
four middle pillars join above the
bimah
existed at Lublin, Brody,
elsewhere
—
Mikulow, Ostrog, and
showing that although the home
country of these buildings
is
Galicia, they spread
throughout Poland and even reached eastward Russia,
to
southwest to Moravia and Slovakia,
northward to Lithuania to
(fig.
122), and westward
Germany. In Palestine, synagogues of the four-pillar hall
interiors of
of
order to
fill
for reasons of security,
height.
The
began
at
in
emptv wall
window, which. a considerable
other previously described type with
The form
dome or vault. Beside the synagogues menmanv other examples are known to have
rative arcade (recalling the triforium of a Gothic in
to
tioned,
type were introduced at an early
church), apparently
on
rest
buttresses.
these synagogues usually included a blank deco-
surface between the floor and the
for
Rzeszow
springing from the pillars to the walls,
which are reinforced outside by
a
at
118) with "monastic vaulting." Gene-
fig.
the
arches
284
them by Ashkenazi and
settlers.
was
stage,
This type was
quickly
accepted
to other
communities which modified
further
understood best, sometimes adding a the
central
bay.
The
four-pillar
most
on
passed it
as they
dome
over
synagogues
in
SYNAGOGUE ARGH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
285
synagogue of
War
II,
the "Ari" and the Sephardi synagogue of Isaac
were
relatively high,
Aboab gogue
and
Hebron, and the Synagogue of Elijah
at
Synagogue
Istanbul
the
town
of Jerusalem. In the a
"Avraham Avinu" Syna-
the
Safad,
at
Ashkenazi
the
include
Palestine
the
in
Tomar,
of
old
city
in Portugal,
medieval structure of the same type, apparentformer synagogue,
ly a
still
surrounding
the of
scarcely
a
distinct
an
more
Even
phenomenon.
architectural
a
unique
the
timber
tions full of
be regarded
tics.
common
although the structural
ancient Slavic pattern
The timber synagogue
plain.
is
the best-known
is
twist
which
Polish
mood
the
gave the
(fig.
123).
quieter and
17th
the
in
century,
imaginative
movement and
stone In
but the Jewish
theme,
become
the
combina-
the vividness of their
to these additive characteris-
Wall paintings, which
topic.
Poles frequently
and piled roof on roof
generally
owes much
rise
some measure
in
roof,
special
characteristics
have given
The
"festive"
but
restrained,
exterior
influence of a
upward
obviously
churches of North Russia and Scandinavia cannot as parallels,
aware of
his
synagogues are
are
well
In a later period the forms
Timber Synagogues
The polish timber synagogues
may
used the steep double-eaved
in
The Architectural Vernacular:
The
landscape.
group
They
remains.
them dominating
of
recall Far-Eastern features.
eaves an VIII.
some
to those particular lines
builder,
exists.
one
single
a
286
synagogues,
also
existed
constitute
a
in
the
separate
timber svnagogues, these form a
expression of a Jewish folk-art which developed
from the mid- 17th century under the influence of the Polish vernacular art
and spread over the
entire Jewish settlement area of Eastern Europe.
Conjectures exist on their origin, relating them
temples (the
tc ancient Slavic
some remains
memory and even
which were preserved among
of
the local population)
or to the
Khazar tradition
by Polish Jewry. The truth is that although there were structural links with the
inherited
ancient sulted
this
development
re-
the local wood-
among
village craftsmen
working
and
prototype,
Slavic
quite naturally through
preserved
skill
Timber was widely used not only
artisans.
for cottages
and
inns,
but also for village churches
and even the manor houses of the landed gentry. In spite of these influences, the timber synagogues of Poland constitute a distinct, specific
mistakably
separate
group,
Jewish tradition only.
It
is
and un-
associated
with
on record that the
timber buildings were designed and executed bv Jewish craftsmen-artists. 122.
17th century half of European Jewry
In the
was concentrated prising
that
though
now,
in
the after
Poland; hence buildings
the
it
were
devastation
is
not sur-
numerous* of
World
Synagogue
characteristic
design.
In
*
Some 1800
buildings are said to have been destroyed in the Ukraine during the Cossack
in the 17th century. until
1939.
About 100 buildings survived
cases
rich
of the interior
wood-carvings and
painting integratedly alternate
in
bright colors.
generally simple. Interior measure-
ments were normally about 15 metres square or
pogroms in Poland
Druja, central pillars and Bima/i.
and inseparable part
many
The plan was East Poland and
at
a
little
more. The women's section was sometimes
an annex and sometimes built
in as
an internal
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
287
'
*"
288
cAyT
^v^_.
*Sil3gfe.
r*
^impart &
ff.
£%. Synagogue
12.3.
gallery.
and
Unique
"winter room," cold weather.
Pogrzebyszcze,
at
was
characteristic
the
provided as a shelter for very
was generally plastered
It
to faci-
exterior
Berson).
(after
tradition swiftly spread
timber
westward and
was
synagogue
built
at
Kurnik near
Poznah. This synagogue has a quiet and restrained
and boasts a pair
of timber
columns
litate heating.
exterior
The oldest known timber building was at Chodoiow near Lwow, erected in 1651 (fig. 124).
the classical Tuscan order, such as were
The in
a
roof timbers are internally lined with planks
three
molded
barrel-vault
Israel
tiers,
The
the central
paintings
are
one forming the
work
of
ben Mordecai and Isaac ben Judah Leib.
The same artists are credited with the drawings in the Gwozdiec Synagogue (fig. 125), which carries an octagonal wooden dome over the square
octagon
square
to
provided by triangular squinches
at
center. is
The
transition
the four corners, but the
from
suggests the original intention to build a barrelvault, like that at
Chodoiow. Most
wooden svnagogues were
of the Polish
built at the
in
end
the neighboring
verv
manor houses.
dome
interesting
slightly
in
common
Inside
was
reminiscent
a of
and adorned with paintings and
stone-vaulting
wood carvings. The advent of timber synagogues to Germany has been referred to above; the bestknown among them being at Rechhofen, Horb, Kirchheim and Rothenburg.
IX.
shape of the rafters
1767 a
in
The Synagogues
Jewish life gendered fested
in
in
Eastern and Central Europe en-
specific
the
of Spain
art
conditions subsequently maniof
building.
The degree
of
of the
originality of this art was directly contingent on
The
these conditions and especially on the intellectu-
17th or the beginning of the 18th century.
SYNAGOGUE ARGH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANGIPATION PERIODS
289
al
and
religious
background. In Southern Europe
independent manifestations of
among
type occurred
this
the Jewry of Spain, which had by then
developed a tradition of
As a
result
its
own.
and usages, a
of local conditions
came
type of synagogue nish
290
among Spa-
into being
Jewry which made an ultimate contribution
to the
points
problem of balance between the two focal of the synagogue
the bimah, or to give
nish-Hebrew names
their
awn and
the
interior,
them
customary Spa-
— the hekhal and the
This solution subsequently found
its
tevah.
most extreme
expression in Italy generations later.
As
far as cultural patterns
and
visual language
are concerned, the Jews here belong to the
world.
The synagogue buildings prove
even those built
in
Christian
Spain
Arab
this,
(the
for
only
ones that survived) are constructed in an Islamic or
rather
Moorish idiom and reveal traces of
Western influence mudejar
in
ornamental
a
few
details
manner
only, in the
which
combines
Synagogue
125.
interior of
Gwozdziec,
at
wooden dome.
Islamic with Gothic elements. Thus, for example,
order to adorn the walls of a synagogue, the
in
Spanish
Jews employed verses from the Bible
written in elegant scribal lettering very their
Moslem
walls
of
their
who
neighbors
much
embellished
like
the
mosques with verses from the
Koran.
The two best-known synagogue buildings in Spain are at Toledo. One built in the second half of the I2th century
by Joseph Ibn Shushan was
confiscated at the beginning of the 15th century
and subsequently converted "Santa Maria la-Blanca"
medieval synagogues, unostentatious
into
(fig.
the church of
Like most
126).
this building
is
modest and
but splendid within.
outside,
Its
plan and structure are characteristically Moorish
and indeed resemble the famous mosque of Cordova. Four long horseshoe arcades which carry a
trabeated ceiling divide the interior into five
aisles.
capitals
The
columns
octagonal
are
are richly carved.
and
their
The column-bases
in
the two central colonnades are also adorned with "azulejos."* Small circular
windows
wall apparently belonged to the
which no longer 124.
Synagogue at Chodorow, ground-plan and cross-section (after Grotte).
*
Glazed procelain
exists. tiles.
in the
women's
Despite
the
western section
building's
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
291
126.
relatively small size
seems
and
Toledo
is
(22X28
thanks
spacious,
arches
Synagogue of Joseph Ibn Shushan
to
it.
The plan
is
Jesuits,
of the hall,
clerestory, are screened with
ha-Levi
Several other medieval Spanish synagogues have
later
been only partly preserved, including those
took
Cordova,
of a longish
that
The windows
generosity of the donor.
which form an upper
interior.
alabaster grilles admitting a diffused soft light.
who by
rectangular hall (9/2X23 meters ), covered
Toledo (Santa Maria la-Blanca),
in
1356 and
about the year
built
the
of
Don Samuel
renamed "El Transito" bv the possession of
rhythm
the
The second building
columns.
the Svnagogue of
Abulafia,
meters), the interior
in
292
a flat
which resembled the one
just
described in
and other
decorations, inscriptions,
timber ceiling with carvings. The walls are de-
at
Segovia and another at Toledo,
Seville,
its
details.
This description of the synagogues at Toledo
corated with carved foliage in the mudejar idiom.
has not touched on functional needs.
Lines of verses from the Psalms alternating with
nating east wall and the proportions of the hall
decorative
patterns
lettering belongs
specimens
The by
off
of
important
record
The Hebrew
walls.
women's
aesthetically
and
is
initially
inscriptions
the ejection
the
made on
each
bimah,
little
the
of the building
phardi screened
letter-
At
of the nave hint
The form is
first,
at
a longi-
of the tevah,
the Se-
known it
from
compromise was obtained between
of
and the
its
place near the western end of the hall opposite
wall.
side
century
importance. Ultimately, the tevah found
the
Torah-
13th
seems to have possessed
Most
eastern for
trend.
alabaster
gallery,
perforated
and the direction tudinal
miniatures.
decorated with ornamental
The niche was
it
the
all
from the Song of Miriam).
(verses
scrolls,
the
delicately-carved
slabs, are also
ing
adorn
the most beautiful
127).
(fig.
walls
to
The domi-
hekhal
(Sephardi term for awn).
Thus
a
a longitudinal
design and the two foci of the synagogue placed opposite each other along the axis. of
1492 put an end
to
The
expulsion
any further evolution
in
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
293 Spain
itself
—
but
tinued to exist
in
this
concept of balance con-
the diaspora of the Spanish
countries as the south of France,
Holland, and
England. In those countries there
was no evolu-
of the Spanish
tion
exiles.
Two
model described above.
synagogues survive as monuments of the
vanished Jewry of Provence X.
The Synagogues
in
the
Spanish
Diaspora of medieval origin
and Oriental Countries
An account Italian
of
and
— one
at Carpentras,
18th cen-
rebuilt in the
tury, the other at Cavaillon. In the latter
the characteristic plan
of
the
synagogue which undoubtedly constitutes
a specific Jewish artistic achievement, concludes
294
small
synagogue erected over the gate of the
"Carriere"
18th
the
town, a
(the local ghetto)
century in Rococo
was remodeled style.
It
in
was the
survey of the synagogue architecture of the
Provencal practice to build two niches in the
Middle Ages and the pre-emancipation period.
eastern wall on each side of the ark, one for the
this
de-
palm-branch on the Feast of Tabernacles, and
in the
the other for the "chair of the Prophet Elijah."
European Diaspora, more particularly
Marrano refugees from Spain, founding new
we must
But, for the sake of completeness, scribe briefly the history of the rest of the
synagogue
that of post-expulsion of Spanish
Jewry
vxnxT? TftTnaa
in
such
communities
in
Holland and England
r rnianqy' Train rmrrin "vmm
ty II W,WH4»iWJ^^
^m£hdi^W^-b P^MiM\Lum€h^,i^^'. '
127.
in the 17th
Synagogue of Don Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia
in
Toledo (El Transito), wall decoration.
295
JEWISH ART
128.
FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
The
Bevis
Marks Synagogue, London, interior, east-wal Mendes Belistrio).
(painting by Isaac
129.
The Great Synagogue
of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam: Torah-shrine (engraving by B. Picart).
interior,
296
297
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
130.
introduced
century,
Having severed nish
past,
munity,
in
religious
at
practices.
their connection with their Spa-
they had
and
novel
Touro Synagogue
their
to
reconstruct
synagogue
their
building
comthe
of the new environment was strongly The Great Synagogue of the Portuguese
influence felt.
community 1671-75
at
(fig.
tecture of the
Amsterdam,
built
in
the
years
Newport, U.S.A..
in
London
sembles
of the time. set
English
The
into general use.
built
Protestant
On
1700-1,
in
re-
meeting-houses
pattern of a women's gallery
end with the
aisle
leaving
ark, later
Many New World
that of the Sephardi
e.g.,
West
Spanish and Portuguese Bevis Marks Synagogue
128),
(fig.
clear only the east
Dutch churches,
famous
interior.
on columns on three sides of the
129), was influenced by the archijust as the
the
298
community
came
synagogues, in
Curacao,
Indies, built in 1732, followed these models.
the other hand, the synagogue at Newport,
Rhode
Island,
(fig.
130)
erected in
1763
after
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
299
gogue
at Fostat
(Old Cairo)
300
a former Coptic
is
Damascus
the 9th century. At
basilica
built
there
a vaulted synagogue, the only one in the
is
in
with
Orient
model
and
nave
a
svnagogues
for
two
was provided by the ancient mosques where the court
world
of Cairo,
surrounded by a columned
is
on the side of the mihrab the roofed
portico;
portion
Another
aisles.
in this part of the
is
wider, thus forming a shaded open hall,
and a fountain marks the middle
of the court-
yard. In the conditions of a hot climate, such an
arrangement meets 131.
Aleppo synagogue (Syria); inner courtvard with Bimah.
of a synagogue,
the design of Peter Harrison, owes
thing
to
any
prototype
American colonial
countries
is
origin.
adapting
The Grand Synagogue
the Orient and in
solutions of
mihrab,
of
of
Baghdad
alien is
de-
131
)
.
principle
Cochin,
the twelfth century as a building which apparenthall
opening onto a
Moslem mosque and magnificently adorned with Hebrew texts like the Spanish synagogues. The famous synacourtyard not unlike that of a
surrounding
the
are
that
on
this
mention
east,
"White Jews" Synagogue
of the
South India, built
in
(fig.
and
built
Farther
recorded.
the
for
portico
at Irbid
no others
Galilee,
in
mav be made in
comprised a columned
by
provided
is
Apart from the synagogue
Meron,
at
shade
while
worshippers
scribed by the traveler Benjamin of Tudela in
ly
in
where the reading-
the center of the courtyard and the ark supplants
was shaped by the need
architectural
—
pronouncedly
conducting public worship in a traditional form, while
one was erected
at least
Aleppo
at
platform occupies the place of the fountain in
if
the in
and
the functional requirements
any-
little
in style.
Synagogue architecture
Moslem
and
—
form
this
all
in
at
1564 and extended
1664, which impressed a visitor shortly after
the latter date as being very similar to European
On
svnagogues.
the other hand, the synagogue
Kai Feng Fu,
at
mandarin
in
in
China, built by a Jewish
1652, and
known
to us only from
who
the drawing of a Jesuit missionary it
hundred years
a
pagoda
later,
was
a
visited
characteristic
structure, with a succession of courtyards
surrounded bv communal
gogue proper
offices,
with the syna-
the end of the axial line
at
(fig.
132).
XI.
The Synagogues
of Italy
In the account of the Spanish synagogues a new
arrangement was mentioned, based on a careful
between the reading-platform and the
balance ark.
In
Italv
had lived
in
Italy
Christian era and
Synagogue
at Kai-Feng-Fu, China; perspective view facing west (after Domenge).
from the beginning of the
had preserved an ancient had
Italy
Jews, and
after the expulsion of 1492, a
tions
also
from Spain bringing
arrived.
It
was, therefore,
their
local
Ashkenazi
absorbed
tradition.
of refugees 132.
development continued. Jews
this
number
own
clear
tradi-
that
the
evolution of synagogue architecture in Italy de-
301
SYNAGOGUE ARCH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANCIPATION PERIODS
133.
134.
Synagogue (after
at Ferrara,
Synagogue
ground-plan
Pinkerfeld).
at Pesaro, interior,
135.
302
Bimah.
Canton family synagogue
at
Venice, ground-plan
(after Pinkerfeld).
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
303
136.
pended on
a
variety
of
Italian
synagogue
The "bipolar" whereby the ark and
factors.
interior plan devised here,
the platform were placed opposite one another in
a position of harmonious reciprocity,
important
achievement
synagogue
interiors,
that
it
was
in large
but
in it
the
was an
development
of
must be emphasized
measure a concept of
interior
space rather than of building and structure. In Italy,
as in the other
medieval Diaspora centers,
the synagogues generally lack external distinction
at
Padua,
interior,
304
Bimah.
nor was anything novel introduced in the structure.
The popular methods
way
of
of construction
and covering were the "monastic vaults"
as
in
the "Scuola Tedesca" (Ashkenazi Synagogue) at
Padua, resembling those
later
mian square-hall synagogues
used in the Bohe-
of the 18th century;
barrel-vaulting of various types with or without lunettes;
coffer ceilings
struction currently of the Renaissance
and other forms
employed and
of con-
in the architecture
later of the
Italian
Ba-
SYNAGOGUE ARGH. OF THE MEDIEVAL AND PRE-EMANGIPATION PERIODS
305
Sephardi synagogue
137.
from
adopted
periods,
The
hall
final
of the
but
fill
the
of
wall and
synagogues
Italian
shape until the 16th and 17th
seem
centuries; established types
previously,
and
(without figural representation).
"bipolar"
did not take
forms
function
the
ornamentation being to cover and to ceiling surfaces
on
Baroque,
Renaissance,
the
Rococo building
drew
treatment
Decorative
roque.
we know
little
was the unique contribution synagogue design. There are
have existed
to
at
Venice, interior. Ark.
main
intersection of the
bule
134).
(fig.
The
reciprocal spatial relations
are admirablv coordinated in
most of the
a
solution
generally
drastically
as
is
(fig.
many
local
built
over a crypt).
gave
full
Italy.
Italian
One
placing of the platform against the wall was not
referred
and
satisfactory,
above.
to
it
was introduced
In places
solution
synagogue
such as
built
is
The
altars,
on columns (in this
re-
which are
"bipolar" arrangement
generally
ascended
in
into a niche
of
two arms
to
the
variety of designs in
In the "Italian" stance,
Baroque idiom.
Synagogue
at
Padua, for
ing-platform and the ark
(fig.
136). This build-
and west walls are the long ones;
in other
(or Sephardi)
at Ferrara, built in the
17th century; here the platform
is
middle of the placed
in the
in-
a barrel-vault ceiling connects the read-
most beautiful examples of the the Levantine
lofty
Reading-platform provided an opportunity for a
which the
all
at
which
stairs
ing belongs to a special type in
and was accepted
the
"Canton" Synagogue
The need
135).
(fig.
Frequently,
over
satisfaction
of the
church
Pesaro
to
slight variations in
almost one storey above floor level
sembling
the
Jewry
of Italian
is
in
though
interior,
133) and Ancona, the bimah (which
against the western wall)
as
it,
It
like the ark, e.g., in the
Pesaro
placed the platform
about them.
Venice
building practice.
But
disciplined.
and elevated
against the western wall
not
and
Italian cities, chiefly in the north,
evolved which
aron and bimah, stemming from regional custom local
(opposite the ark)
axis
with the axis of entrance leading from the vesti-
the space arrangements and relationship between
and
306
the interior
is
designed on a lateral
The most important of worship
is
of the
North
east
words,
axis.
Italian houses
the Sephardi synagogue at Venice
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
307
(fig.
137).
Its
erection began in the early years
the finest contemporary Italian work. Arks from
now
it
was redesigned and
Italy
rebuilt not long afterwards
by the famous Bal-
Italian
of the 16th century, but
The
dassare Longhena.
building, designed in the
typical fashion of the period, has a
and a splendid terior the
interior.
women's
modest
section
is
built as
an
elliptical
work
gallery surrounding the hall. This brilliant of Venetian
Baroque outshines
all
in-
the other syna-
grace various museums, while some
communities on the verge of dissolution
have transferred synagogue furnishings
The
exterior
Within the rectangular
308
singular
of
tradition
interiors persisted
to Israel.
synagogue
Italian
even after the advent of the
had pro-
external concomitants of Emancipation
duced a wave
of
mosques.
however,
This,
imitations
churches
of
marks the end
and of
a
gogues of the Venetian ghetto: the "Levantine"
chapter in Jewish architectural history extending
Synagogue, the "Italian" Synagogue, the "Great
over
Ashkenazi" Synagogue, the "Canton" Synagogue
interest
and the
with
rest.
Most
of these synagogues
in the first half of the
were
built
17th century, though the
last-mentioned dates back a hundred years earlier, to the period of the establishment of the
Venetian
Ghetto.
Apart Italian fine
the
bipolar
space
concept,
synagogues bequeathed to Jewish of
skilled
the
art
a
craftsmanship and fur-
The adornments and decorations in the Baroque manner were of a standard equalling
of
the
countries
the
and continents. The
period
experiments
described in
is
special
concerned
architectural
original
expression crowned by the genesis
of indepen-
dent and original architectural inventions. These
achievements validity
from
tradition
nishing.
many
in
the
down
own
retained
to this day.
Emancipation
buildings,
our
have
and remain
sweeping
their
They were unparalleled
period,
with
its
eclectic
so in the architecture of
day, both in Israel and the Diaspora,
which has not yet found the way expression to the synagogue and
to give specific
its
values.
RITUAL ART CECIL
by
A
ROTH
characteristic recommendation of the Talmud
and proves the antiquity of the
justifies
of the Jewish
synagogue and home. Rabbis make
comment about
this
God, and
XV, 2 mance
)
I
the Biblical verse "This
will glorify
[lit.
'adorn']
my
is
him" (Exodus,
Him
"Adorn thyself before
:
ritual art
in the perfor-
commandments. Make before Him
of the
and goodly
a goodly succah,
lulab,
and a goodly
or nothing
Little
been preserved
to the present time, our evidence
being indirect. The primary reason for
presumably the vicissitudes of Jewish
communities were driven into
ex-
laged; pressly
made
forbidden to
take
ners or succor refugees.
we
adornments hung
learn of the
and
in the succah,
of the gold
used to bind up the lulab, and more than
fillets
once of the wrappings for the sacred books. But there
no evidence that
is
at this time
any of these
appurtenances had any uniformity or were ex-
made
pressly
a
for
specific
With the
purpose.
exception of a few eight-burnered clay lamps pre-
sumably intended kah, there
is
made Jewish of
ritual
Temple,
the
for use
on the
feast of
Hanuk-
barely any evidence of specifically-
adornments, other than those
until
the
close
the
of
first
millennium. It
must have been about
this
period that their
such
objects
as
we
commonplace. Thus
read
in
anything
similar
ransom
in order to
As a
priso-
recurrent crises, as well as normal
quary's point of view disastrous)
by the new, Jewish
old
medieval
ritual art of the
period has disappeared almost entirely. Hardly
more than sixteenth
a handful of specimens anterior to the
now traceable. This gebe sure, may perhaps need quali-
century
neralization, to
are
due course.
fication in
spection could be
and expert
careful
If
made
and even modern synagogues, especially East,
the-
study of ancient manuscripts,
improbable that some memorable
However
that
might even
may
it
objects
ritual
now be
discovered.
be, the fact remains that
gogue
in Fostat
extant are virtually
scheduled
silver,
and three
of silver, silk,
1186-7,
pairs of finials
out of
(rimmonim) made
and twenty-two Torah-covers made of
some
of
them brocaded with
Presumably, domestic
made
in
at
much
Rabbi Meir of Jewish ritual art
gold,"
ritual objects
and so
began
to
Jewish ritual
assume
its
be
The name of Rothenburg, the great German as we know it now had begun to the
same
time.
frequently in connection with our literary dences, and
on.
evi-
may be assumed that by his day art as we know it now had begun to
it
form.
all
not
is
we find
drown up
the
in
with the same care as has been devoted
of great antiquity
an
in-
of the property of ancient
the objects of Jewish ritual art which are
(Cairo),
anti-
to replace the
inventory of the property of the Palestinian Syna-
"Two Torah-crowns made
sell
result of all these
wear and the natural tendency (from the
to
manufacture began, for not long after of
and
exile,
with them
of precious material: synagogues could
then sacred treasures
goodly wrappings." Elsewhere,
Syna-
life.
pil-
and a goodly Sepher Torah... and bind
up with
was
this
gogues everywhere were sacked, burned, and
shophar, and goodly fringes for your garments, it
however, has
date,
of this
now
of the post-medieval per-
iod. After a trickle of the sixteenth century, there is
a
great mass of material of the seventeenth
and eighteenth, some
of
unduly large proportion
it
is
very
flecting the religious enthusiasm,
being and good taste of the
Perhaps an
fine.
German
in origin, re-
economic well-
new groupings
in
those countries, especially the newly-arisen class of
Court Jews.
domestic
religious
abundance
side
the synagogue. the
It
objects
may be remarked adornments
that here
figure
in
great
by side with those intended
The
taste
and charm
then manufactured
in
of
some
for
of
Poland and
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
311
placed at his disposal
312
house of one of the
in the
and that no work should be done on
local Jews,
Sabbaths or Jewish holv days.
On
anonymous work tainable
Jewish
know,
Abraham
which
of this type
craftsmen
d'Oliveira
(d.
mentioned elsewhere
some
reputation. silversmith
who
has been
1750),
work
in this
with his work as an artist-engraver, Germany,
Detail of a binder for Torah-scroll,
138.
1756, (Formerly in Hessenlandes
Museum,
Kassel).
Eastern Europe belies the general impression of the economic misery and unaesthetic outlook of the Jewish communities in this area.
On
and fashions
To be
thev were manufactured.
was one
the
of
which
in
some
sure,
Jewish
It is
modern
until the
believed that
Jews
era,
in
Eastern countries were responsible for the
the
But
manufacture of most of these objects.
Western to
silver-
characteristic
occupations in most countries.
from early times
in
were Jews. Gold and
cases the craftsmen
smitherv
and periods
of the countries
with
Europe,
tendency
growing
the
in
exclude the Jews from handicrafts after the
period
Moreover,
Crusades,
the
of
in
this
was
in connection
who
designed
and executed a good deal
of
London
eighteenth century;
and
in the first half of the
younger
his
( 1723-94 )
}
first
New
Guild of
the whole, these objects reflect the tastes
ascer-
London
of
for example, of the
Myer
contemporary
President
York,
who
of
silver
ritual
the
it
Myers
carried out
some
distin-
guished work for synagogues (as well as churches) in
America. Certain decorative features became very com-
mon
in,
ritual
and almost
art
Peter's in
of the
Rome
characteristic of, the Jewish
post-medieval there
is
period.
a spirally fluted
column, the colonna santa, late Classical it is
Jewish facture; it
that
ritual in
may
in origin;
in Jerusalem,
where Jesus leaned against
while disputing with the rabbis.
From
the Re-
naissance period, two twisted columns, apparently
different.
was neces-
mark
much
that
manu-
of non-Jewish
is
and
Holland
of the Gentile
manufac-
sometimes well-known masters of
—
e.g. the prolific
burg,
c.
Main,
c.
dler,
Hester
1700),
and
Bateman
ornaments
for
the other from
that the
am
We
for
William
Grundy
know
at
of
least
the manufacture of
the Torah,
made between
craftsmen and the leaders of the local
Jewish communities
instance,
(Frankfurt
1700), and John Ruslen, Frederick Kan-
two medieval contracts
Gentile
their
Matthews Wolff (Augus-
Jeremiah Zobel
(London, 18th century).
silver
certain
is
it
Germany
England,
often bears the
turers,
craft
be,
metal-work
—
one from Aries (1439),
Avignon (1477). In the former
silversmith
Robin
commission was
to
Tissard
be executed
undertook in a
room
St.
bronze
legendary said to have been brought from the
Temple it
In
sarv to have recourse to the local silversmiths.
However
in
Silversmith's
remote communities where a Jewish
craftsman might not be available,
of
falls into this
was carried out by
category, a good deal
We
amount
the other hand, besides the vast
139.
Breastplate for
Breslau,
Torah
scroll.
1720 (Jewish Museum,
Silver repousse,
New
York).
.
RITUAL ART
313
and inevitably
copied from the colonna santa,
with
identified
Hebrew books
the engraved title-pages of
175).
fig.
was from there
It
Kings
of
to figure as a typical feature
began
VII, 21,
Boaz
and
Jakhin
was copied on various objects
on
(see
feature
that this
of
314
European Jewish
the end of the eighteenth century.
ritual art until
Other symbols which are commonly found
in-
clude the lion, representing the Lion of the Tribe of
Judah (Genesis XLIX, 9) which, ae we have seen, was one of the most common symbols found in Jewish
from
art
a
V,
as
a deer to
The
23)
fulfill
a
as
an
be bold
should
and
eagle
fleet
as
the will of his Father in Heaven.
and
eagle
man
that
light
lion,
illus-
(Ethics of the
trated also the Rabbinic dictum
Fathers,
This
antiquity.
classical
deer
though
figure,
also
less
The two Tablets of Stone bearing the Ten Commandments, in the shape which had become conventional in the Middle Ages (among the Christians perhaps earlier is found very frethan among the Jews) commonly
138).
(fig.
(fig.
ancient
Temple
and
of
table
such
furniture,
shew-bread,
already
tradition
we
139). Sometimes, too,
quently
found
in
as
see other
the
altar
perpetuating
medieval
the
manuCase for Torah scroll, with finials. Silver, 140. embossed and hammered. Nablus (Palestine),
scripts.
A
presented
gift
bear
a
by
a
representation
in the priestlv
of
hands
by members
in laving the priest's hands.
the
the
often
ex-Marrano
of that tribe
In Italv
communities)
(and
other
later
family
badges and armorial bearings were not unusual.
The whole would be commonlv surmounted by a crown, symbolizing the traditional Crown of the
Law: sometimes by
a triple crown, in refe-
rence to the Rabbinic dictum (Ethics of the Fathers,
IV,
17)
that there are three
that of the Torah, of
hood "and that
18th century
(Museum
joined
of
Hebrew Union
College,
Cincinnati)
benediction, of a Levite that of
the ewer and basin used
in
Cohen would
of a
crowns
Monarchy, and of
Good Name
—
Priest-
surpasses
them
upon two
when
staves.
is
impossible to determine
ornament of precious metal. Probably, however, it
was
relatively late.
The Talmud (Baba Bathra
14a) speaks of the Pentateuch deposited by Moses in the this
Tabernacle as being on
imitated, interiors
and
representations
in
and on Holv
(gold glasses, etc.) is
silver rollers,
but
legendary model does not seem to have been
of
Scrolls
in
in
synagogue
various media
the classical period there
in
no trace of anything
The account
all."
It
the practice arose of covering this by an
in
the
way
the sack of the
of ornament.
Synagogue
of
Minorca in 438 speaks of the synagogical ornaments
and
silver,
without
giving
any further
II
details.
The ritual
art of the
svnagogue naturally cen-
tered on the Scroll of the Pentateuch or Sepher
Torah, used in the Biblical readings, and
wound
The same
is
true
of the
sacred appur-
tenances which Pope Gregory the Great ordered to
be restored to the Svnagogue of Palermo
599.
in
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
315
316
pair of such cases in silver, with polygonal
site
opening on hinges and
sections
handles and
fluted
spirally
was executed
finials,
1766-7 b)
in
Gentile master craftsman for "Dr." Samuel de
a
Shem
Falk, the so-called Baal
The
practice
crowns of precious
placing
of
of London.
—
metal on the Sepher Torah
on such
at least
special occasions as the feast of the Rejoicing of
—
Law
the
seems also to have been established
Iraq as earlv as the tenth century (Shaare Se-
in
mahot,p. 117). TheFostat contract of 1186-7
among
"Two
other objects
lists
made
Sepfoer-Crowns
out of silver." This form of ornament was natural-
suggested by the Rabbinic dictum cited above
ly
which
dignity of learning as "the
refers to the
Crown
—
Law"
of the
a phrase inscribed innu-
merable times on such objects and others connected with the synagogue
These
ritual.
which became known generally
objects,
were
as atarah,
at
the outset especially associated with Southern Europe.
Aaron of Lunel
how
hig
make
Sepher haMan-
1203 he persuaded some community
in
which he
tells in his
visited, in
a silver
Southern France or Spain, to
crown (atarah)
rah instead of decorating
it
Sepher To-
for the
with miscellaneous
female adornments. The contract already referred
March
of
to
1439 between the Avignonese
12,
silversmith Robin Tissard 141.
and
Crown cast,
Torah
tor
scroll.
Silver
parcel-guilt,
with semi-precious stones. Poland. (Jewish Museum, New York).
18th
century.
Law
entirely in a case (tik)
which was
,
placed upright on the reading desk and opened
sum
of fifty florins, of an atarah for the
"scroll of the Jews,"
was
to
each corner — the top
the general practice in Iraq and the neighboring
a fortress,
countries as early as the 10th century, and has
tion of masonry.
our
own daw These
cases
were
with
worked
and
engraved,
of gold. In the former metal, a
and few
sometimes
fine
examples
are extant; none, however, which are anterior to
the seventeenth century tik
(fig.
was commonly used only
munities, cases
times
also
well-to-do
in
were made
140). in
Though
Eastern
for the scrolls
comsome-
Western countries, especially
householders,,
who wished
portable Torali-scrolls on their travels.
to
An
the
for
have exqui-
super-
at
and the surface
lions'
to
to
be
six
towers
crenellated like
be engraved
in imita-
Chains and columns decorated
heads were also to be part of the
design.
The 1477
plied in metal, but were occasionally of silver, finely
in shape,
be provided. There were
out for reading the prescribed portion. This was
usually of wood, frequently with inscriptions ap-
hexagonal
imposed on a copper drum with which Tissard
— one
remained to
and the baylons of the
Jewish community of Aries was for manufacture, for a total
communities, the Scroll of the
In Oriental
was enclosed
repousse
contract
at
manufacture of a crown
Avignon was
for
the
for the scroll of the law,
called "Hatarah," in accordance with a
model with
which the Gentile silversmith was
to
nished;
Hebrew
it
was
to
be adorned with
lettering. Unfortunately,
of so early a date
small,
be
fur-
and with
no such objects
have been preserved. Later on,
the Torah-crowns
be
reliefs
shaped
of
the Sephardim tended to
like
roval
coronets,
superimposed on top of the Torah-scroll.
closelv
RITUAL ART
317
Among
the Ashkenazim, in Eastern Europe par-
was
ticularly, there
and more from
to
fit
sometimes
rising
wooden
over the
and the keter torah
tops
lions,
griffins,
141).
It is
or
finials
the
or
Europe
rimmonim
(for
in
lying loosely around,
neighboring
and kept
other ornaments. Occasionally
provided,
(ob-
churches)
in place
by the
surmounting each
stave
of
the
further
placed above these two, symbolizing the
is
proverbial
Crowns
of Kingship,
Priesthood and
More
usual in Europe than the Torah-crown of finials.
The
wooden
form
original
many seems to have been later made removable so that over the
Some Oriental
a it
silver
in
Ger-
plating,
could be placed
staves: an account of the Rhine-
preserve this type almost
finials still
unchanged, while
in others
and those who followed
it
may be
discerned
rimmonim (now
however
historians of
the Sephardim
form
drastically their
was subsequently modified.
We
how
have seen above
the
architectural
form was adopted for the Torah-crown
in Pro-
vence as early as the 15th century. Already period
it
was
Torah-finials. It
the
of
of
at this
also applied very effectively to the
used, in fact, in the oldest ex-
is
these
objects
fourteenth
or
the Treasury of the
known
to
be extant,
century,
fifteenth
now
Cathedral of Palma
in
(Ma-
According to an inscription, they be-
jorca)."
longed originally to the Jewish
Camarata
in
Sicilv,
sion of 1492.
They
community
where we know
synagogue was pillaged
Rabbi Meir of Ro-
among
Jewish art) became usual
land massacres of 1096 speaks of the pillaging of
was around the winding-staves."
by
generally used
for these objects,
term
his phraseology, the
"the silver which
Similarly, in the 13th century,
Maimonides,
under an incrustation of ornament. Moreover, per-
amples
Learning.
was the use
have been
to
(cf.
cal reminiscence (cf. Ex: 28:34, Jer. 52:22, etc.).
two crowns were
while in one superb example a
scroll,
crown
one
an early date
at
haps owing to the great authority of Maimonides finials
viously modelled sometimes on the crowns of the
common
modelled on the pomegranate seems
Hilkhot Sepher Torah, X. iv), possibly as a Bibli-
were used together, the cylindrical keter
Madonna
more elaborate form
and
synagogues, crown and
Italian
considered to him as a special glory." In the
Orient, however, a slightly
deer, etc.,
which see below) on ordinary Sabbaths. In
this
should have
atarah...
introduced
said that in Eastern
simpler
the
festivals,
Sepher Torah or remove the
of the
tier,
former practice was to use the crown on
the
tappuhim
that "whosoever shall steal the
above
by an eagle
the whole sometimes surmounted (fig.
stave-
great weight
of very
fantastically in tier
each supported bv
dove
more
it
regal prototype, interior hol-
its
made
ders being
a tendency to divorce
318
just
that
of
the
before the expul-
are fashioned architecturally
the form of square towers, with pointed tur-
in
thenburg (Responsa, ed. Prague, 879) referred to
rets
and twin mauresque embrasures on each
"plating of gold" on the Torah-staves. This pre-
side.
At each corner, both above and below the
sumably explains why
to the present
Etz Hayyim or "Tree of Life"
(cf.
day the term
Prov.
III.
18)
is
turrets,
hang small
bells.
These were
feature of the Torah finials
to
become
a
(as well as crowns)
applied by the Ashkenazi Jews both to the staves
everywhere, inspiring the
and
rally given to these objects in the English-speak-
to their
metal ornaments. Ultimately, these
became somewhat more elaborate and course removable.
We
— —
bulbous Torah-finials quite clearly both extremities of the staves
at
e.g., in
generally (cf.
some me-
in
the
form
of
apples,
joy of the
in his satire
("bells")
gene-
Their music symbolizes both the
Torah and the
to the Bible
bells
which according
(Exodus XXVIII, 35-5) were
to
be
attached to the robe of the High Priest.
The
interiors,
Spain these ornaments were
in
ing countries.
architectural
designs based on to
it,
form of the rimmonim, or later
became
so
be characteristic of the type used
common in
as
Northern
(tappuhim) The extreme
Tur: Hilkhot Sepher Torah, 282). Solomon
Bonfed (c.
in
Vatican MS. Heb. 324 (14th century).
seems that
It
due
apparently
showing synagogue
dieval manuscripts
in
can see representations of
name
on the notables of Saragossa,
1400), sneeringly alleges that they had agreed
rarity
of older specimens of these and
may be due in part to order of the Castilian cortes of 1480, forbidding the Jews to place silver or gold on their Totalis.
similar objects of Jewish ritual art
the
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE ACES TO THE EMANCIPATION
319
320
m^ktrT*
H2. of
and Western
the
Europe.
for
Finials
Jewish
Torah
Historical
Different
scroll.
Thus the
Italian tvpe of the 17th
of
and
countries,
even different towns, developed their own tion.
Silver.
Society
tradi-
and 18th
centuries took the form of a three-tiered steeple,
Venice.
18th century.
England.
University
hung on long chains below the head-piece
(fig.
pierced
which supported
of
shew-bread,
menorah,
etc.);
in
142).
decoration,
inscription.
a
of
level
A common
model was a bulbous shape of
ing the conventional symbols of the Jewish cult table
were usually
these, as in Italv generally, the bells
with scrolled buttresses and balustrades enclos-
(altar,
(Tuck Collection London).
College,
Nuernberg
silver gilt,
topped by a
lion
cartouche for a
the
with a
rampant
dedicatory
RITUAL ART
321
The tvpe which prevailed
322
Hol-
in
land after the settlement of the Jews there in the beginning of the seven-
was
teenth centurv
form of a
in the
baroque turret obviouslv inspired by the local church steeples: sometimes
many
with as
ed by a crown
143). This form
(fig.
was subsequently taken and
be found
to
is
London synagogical eighteenth
the
surmount-
as four tiers,
England
to
the earliest
in
Early
silver.
centurv
the
in
turret
form changed here into a composi-
pierced with
three)
and
tions,
knobs
bulbous
of
tion
(generally
composi-
floral
form composed
later into a
open bowl with a bracketed
of an
canopy. In the middle of the century the
form
turret
followed by urn-shaped neo-Classical in the
of
be
finials in
the
and culminating
style,
Regency period with
individual
the
of
reaction
number
a
compositions of dimi-
nishing crowns, vival
to
reappears,
and a
obelisks,
open-bowl form. the
against
re-
This
architectural
form found expression independently in
rimmonim
the
produced
about
1750-1770 by Myer Myers, the
American Jewish silversmith of
first
colo-
nial times.
Some
commun-
povertv-stricken
143. ities,
unable to afford precious metal,
made
their
materials
cade, the
objects
ritual
of
— the Torah-crowns
of painted
folk-art thus
emerged.
for the
another adornment
Sepher Torah became popular
communities beginning
Many
scrolls
were kept
in
Ashkena-
in the sixteenth centurv.
in
the Torah-shrine, of
which sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes three
were used
in
the prescribed readings. In
order to avoid confusion,
hang around the highly
ornamental
scroll
it
became customary
to
what was ultimately a
plaque
Silver.
Dutch,
18th century
Museum. Amsterdam).
for the prescribed reading to
adjusted
containing
an
inter-
changeable panel which indicated the occasion
("New Moon,"
144),
(in English
which the
"Passover,"
and so on). This was known (fig.
finials,
scroll.
other
rimmonim more frequentlv
In addition to the
Torah
(Jewish Historical
sometimes of bro-
wood. Some interesting examples of
zi
Finials for
text
was
"Hanukkah"
as the tas ("plate")
generally and
somewhat
unfortunately rendered as the "breast-plate"). In
due course, the container became more and more elaborate, the inscribed panels less
and
less
con-
spicuous, until in the end thev disappeared entirelv.
Now,
the ornamental "breast-plate" alone re-
mained, without any functional
sometimes
Europe
attained
justification.
great splendor
of the eighteenth century.
in
These
Central
A common tvpe,
apparently originating in Breslau, embodied the figures of
Moses and Aaron, supporting the Ten
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
323
324
iiiiisii *v
Breastplate for Torah scroll, with indicator-plaque. Silver, parcel-gilt. Vugsburg, 18th century. Master: Markus (Matthews) Wolff. (Jewish Museum,
1-44.
New
Commandments on (see
fig.
the
indicator-panel
central
139). Often, in imitation of the priestly
breast-plate, the central decoration
High
Priest's
reproduced the
hoshen (Exodus XXVIII, 15-21),
se-
mi-precious stones representing the Twelve Tribes. Finally, so as to obviate the touching
possible obliteration of the sacred text
York).
Owing
to the small bulk of the pointer,
sometimes possible to devote
to
its
it
was
manufacture
special pains
and indeed expense, and
possible
to
describe
assumed
(fig.
it is
hardly
innumerable forms
the
it
145).
and the
by the hand, Ill
the Sepher Torah was provided with a pointer. In most countries, however, the form ultimatelv
developed of a rod terminating
and
outstretched
forefinger
whatever
form, termed
too,
its
was made
in
a
hand with
was accordingly,
it
ijad.
Generally, this,
of silver, or even gold, sometimes
with precious stones
(e.g., in
a miniature ring).
The use
of decorative textile material for wrap-
ping the Holy Books
is
attested
already in the Talmudic period
by
literary sources
(cf.
Sabbath 133b,
Kelim XXVIII, 4). Evidence of the use of frag-
ments goes back possibly
Hasmoneans, as indicated
to
the period of the
in the earliest
Dead Sea
,
RITUAL ART
325 *' -v-
145.
»^ '*•-'
i i:
Torah
Pointers of
Scrolls in 1947. It was,
scroll, Italy,
however, only
--; "i
Germany,
in the
Middle
Ages that brocades were specially prepared these purposes.
persecutions in
that the wrappings
Memorbuch
were
add the
The
pillaged.
but from the context
the reference
We
is
to
congre-
is
possible that
warm garments
for the poor.
it
however, from the customs of Rabbi
learn,
Meir of Rothenburg that for a
earliest
who among
(12th century?)
other things left three "cloaks" to the gation;
detail
Nuernberg records the genero-
woman
of a
sity
of
for
The accounts of the Rhineland 1096, when they speak of the
desecration of the Siphre Torah,
in his
day
it
was usual
bridegroom to vow a wrapping (mappah)
for the Scroll of the
marriage.
Law
on the occasion of
From approximatelv
this
period
etc.,
18th century. (Feinberg Collection, Detroit).
century,
However
that
may
made
for his domestic
synagogue a cur-
Law, both decorated with
his crest, at a cost of
hundred ducats.
five It
scroll of the
was on the curtain
for the Torah-shrine
the most prominent feature in the synagogue that the greatest attention
the case especially
among
was
lavished. This
where
we have
seen
antiquity the
movable ark was secluded
end
synagogue behind long
whether
was
the Ashkenazim: con-
practice,
be, at least from the close
— —
ceivably a remote echo of the ancient Palestinian
his
Middle Ages, brocades constituted no small
or unimportant part of Jewish ritual art,
in the early 16th
living in
tain for the ark and a mantle for the
This
of the
Padua
German' banker
the
for the glorv of the Torah.
so
in
many Jewish communities. We are told, for example, how Naphtali Herz Wertheim, a wealthy
women who made
wraps
or of the
expert embroiderers who were common
east
cloaks or
women
they were the work of pious
formulas for benediction in the Italian synagogues called for blessings on those
326
of the
feature
sanctuarv wilderness parokhet.
as
was
curtain
(Exodus
The
generallv of
the
XXVI.,
classical
in
known,
curtains. after
tabernacle 31,
at the
etc.)
the
in
the
as
the
materials used were of the finest:
an examination of those manufactured
in
Moravia
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
327
32S
**.~"
Valance of ark-curtain: red velvet, with applique embroidery. Prague, 1764. (Jewish Museum, New York).
146.
and now preserved
Prague Jewish
in the
Museum
This valance was sometimes
known as XXV,
has revealed fabrics dating back as far as the 14th
or "mercy-seat" (see Exodus,
century and including specimens of the Italian
other reason but that the term
Renaissance, Spanish Baroque and French Rococo.
in
Obviously, these were not necessarily of Jewish
khet.
manufacture and displayed Jewish
motifs,
by the
lavish
Hebrew
lettering, either
Apposite
the
use
Biblical
in
specific
patterns no
provided
quality
superbly
the
of
their
decorative
embroidered or applied.
verses
were incorporated,
or
lengthy inscriptions commemorating the generoof the donors.
sity
To
these votive decorations
were often added conventional svmbols, such
as
and
the
In
ark-curtain
by
enclosing
or
the
of
light
for
e.g.,
special
New
for
special
there
occasions
—
circumcision ceremonv or for the
the
Sabbaths throughout the year.
On
the
Dav of Atonement it was usual, among the Ashkenazim, for the curtain
Year and
especially (as
Sometimes,
religion.
well
as
the other svnagogical brocades)
be white and
to
to
be embroidered with penitential
very
name
— Elkanah
is
In due course, a stereotvped pattern emerged, in
Central Europe especially, for the Torah cur-
tains.
the
Over the top was
a
valance
(fig.
146)
containing representations in heavy gold thread of the traditional
Temple appurtenances
menorah, table of shew-bread,
altar,
and
—
the
so on.
(fig.
two
of
18th
the
of
(Elkone) of Naumberg, whose
be found on some memorable work
to
and Jakob Kopel Gans,
There are for
work
the
in
artist-embroiderers
gifted
century
inscription
of these objects reached
high pitch of perfection
of
Hochstadt
from 1726 onward.
also extant
Torah-scroll
some impressive mantles
made, sometimes en
suite
by these same craftsmen. Among the Sephardim be simp-
and
Italians, these objects, too,
ler,
reiving for their aesthetic values mainly on
tended
to
the exquisiteness of the materials, though some-
times embodying a brief inscription.
Among
the
Ashkenazim, on the other hand, they were far
more
texts.
most prominent
itself,
dedicatory
a
The manufacture
147). a
in Bavaria, active
were special curtains
found
were the two twisted columns
characteristic
Crown lizing
so often
is
no
framing the central panel, generally surmounted
of 1713-24,
Lamp symbo-
for
17)
the Pentateuch in conjunction with the paro-
the twisted columns, or the Lion of Judah, or the of Torah, or the Perpetual
the kaporet
ornate, being encrusted with lettering
svmbolism, stones.
made
and
Some in
sometimes
communities. in
gold
were
in the early years of the eigh-
teenth century for both the
orphrevs
semi-precious
of the finest examples extant
England
Ashkenazi
with
and
and
Sephardi and the
These silver
have
thread,
elaborate
sometimes
RITUAL ART
329
Ark
147.
much
raised
stump-work,
in
curtain,
with symbols of
made by Leah
with
silk
the
manner
of
festivals
a
within
what
is
termed
which comprise the usual Jewish
plastic
its
shrine), the
model.
Some
outcome resembling Central
Needlework
Ottolenghi. N. Italy, 1699. (Jewish
cult-symbols (including even a miniature Torahscroll
etc.
330
European
on
canvas,
Museum.
seldom had a
tions,
embroidered York).
New
specific design or decoration.
Before the mantle was placed on the Sepher Torah, the scroll was fastened together with a
long
strip
of
material,
or
"binder"
(mappah)
which, being lighter and simpler, was generally
mantles bear the ever-popular figures of Moses
of domestic manufacture.
and Aaron. The cover
embroidered with verses or the name of the pious
received
much
for the reading-desk also
attention, but save for the inscrip-
donor:
in
the
New
These were
York Jewish
also often
Museum
is
one
.
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
331
332
word "marriage-canopy" (huppah) was sentation
and
a repre-
wedding ceremony, with bride
a
of
bridegroom
under
standing
canopv
the
Manx
before the rabbi, a wine-cup in his hand.
hundreds of such Wimpeln were formerly preserved by some
German communities such
Worms.
they
of
degree of
Occasionally,
attained
as that
high
a
artistic merit.
IV Besides the fine specimens of craftsmanship in precious metal intended for use in the synagogue, especially in relation to the Torah-scroll, Jewish
demanded the use
ritual
of a large variety of
objects in connection with the
We may
home
ceremonials.
take as an example the hanging Sab-
bath lamp, which in Germany, and other Euro-
pean countries developed a
We may
form.
the
trace
specific
star-shaped
development of
this
type in the domestic scenes depicted in various
Middle Ages. The
illuminated haggadot of the
one traceable, going back to the fourteenth
earliest
century, has six points. Another very old specimen is
in the
Cathedral Treasury at Erfurt, but though
the shaft probably dates back to the 11th century, Sabbath lamp, silver. London. 1730. Master: Abraham Lopes d'Oliveira. (Jewish 148.
much
Museum, London).
as
Italian
was only
cords,
needle-work,
six
these
Jewish
girl
who, as she
re-
years old. As specimens of
sometimes
are
exquisite
of
Germany, an
interesting tradition developed.
Here the piece of linen used on the occasion a boy's circumcision
mother
into
the synagogue on his
typed formula
in
for
the
termed
scroll,
in
the child presented to
first visit.
This bore a stereo-
bold characters, usually
large,
embroidered, later sometimes painted: ,
of
was cut up and made by the
a binder
German "Wimpel," which
of
born of good on
Mav
"
son
....
the Almightv
permit him to grow up to the study of the Law, the marriage-canopy and good deeds."
tomary
to
at
It
was
cus-
decorate the inscription with various
conventional birth
in the official
from the early sixteenth century onwards.
on
Later
was termed
it
the
Sephardim
of
Northern
(Amsterdam and London) developed
quality.
In
registered as having manufac-
is
tured a Judenstern (as register)
s\-mbols;
thus
above the date
was the corresponding sign
of
of the zodiac,
the end, after or above the mention of the
variant form, with a deep
Some superb specimens ver:
some
of the
own
their
bowl and blunt
spouts.
are extant of both of these
of
18th
the
sil-
work by the London Sephardi
Abraham
silversmith,
part
Europe
Sephardi and Ashkenazi, executed in
types,
as
500 years younger. More than one Frank-
furt silversmith
made bv an
may be
(with twelve spouts)
the oil vessel
d'Oliveira
century
(fig.
in
the
148).
early
the
In
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a number of Ashkenazi
impressive figures
Sabbath lamps of very
which
design,
representing
the
made in and Western Germany vances, were
In
due course,
was displaced
in
various
Alsace (
intricate
sometimes
and
embodied
Jewish
obser-
(Metz, Forbach)
Frankfurt
am Main
the traditional Sabbath
)
lamp
most of Europe by candles.
Occasionally, candlesticks with symbolic designs
RITUAL ART
333
Kiddush beakers,
149.
were
specifically
manufactured
silver,
for
Central Europe, 18th century. (Feinberg Collection, Detroit).
Jewish use,
this was not very usual. The Sabbath, ushered in by the kindling
of the
England
shaped
Germany,
Biblical
verses,
specific hexagonal-
engraved with appropriate
silver goblets,
were
manufactured
great
in
profusion in the 17th and 18th centuries in Augs-
burg and elsewhere cial
goblets,
sensations,
(fig.
149). Sometimes, spe-
bearing apparently svmbolic repre-
were made
for the individual festivals,
in particular the Passover, or for
cumcision
made and
ceremony.
Special
"Cup
to serve as the
as the ceremonial
were
cup
the
in
one
and the
One such beaker
the Cathedral Treasury of Trent
is
in
(North Italy)
the property seized from the local Jews at
the time of the ritual
when
form of into
fitting
another, the one being for ordinary use
among
also
for the circumcision.
hooped beakers
other the ceremonial cup.
cir-
of Elijah" for the Seder,
These were sometimes shaped barrel-shaped
use in the
goblets
it
is
said to
murder accusation
have been used
of 1475.
in the tragic
Passover celebration. Of course, the kiddash cup could
be
made
cious metal.
of
materials
Thus one
of
other
engraved
than
glass,
presented
to
Solomon
pre-
appro-
in 1802.
As the Sabbath began, so
lamp, was subsequently "sanctified" over a brimof wine. In
was
inscribed,
priately
Hirschell on his appointment as Chief Rabbi of
'hough
ming cup
334
it
ended with a
pic-
turesque ceremony over the wine, to the light of
and
a taper
to the
accompaniment of aromatic
herbs, symbolizing the sweetness of the
had ended. Spices are now used in
Western
when
in
for this
purpose
the Middle Ages,
these were intolerably expensive, a sprig
myrtle
of
but
countries,
day that
(in
Hebrew hadas)
aromatic herb was used, as
and the
Italy
Orient.
This
is
or
some other
still
the case in
was
replaced
by
dried leaves, which would naturally be kept in a container.
Thus we see the term hadas generally
applied even
now
in
many
parts of
Europe
to the
"spice-box" used on Saturday night in the cere-
mony
of havdalah or "separation."
ben Isaac of Regensburg have objected insisting
mitzvah;
that
to
(d.
Rabbi Ephraim
1175)
is
recorded to
the use of drv myrtle leaves,
only
spices
were proper
he had a special
glass
for
the
container
for
them. More often, however, these were
made
of
metal, especially silver.
One are
of the earliest literary references to these
probably
those
in
the
15th-century
ritual
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
335
336
property of the Messianic dreamer, David
Reubeni
we
1530),
(c.
silver
havdalahs
musk
to
smell;"
read of the "two
was
of silver, wherein
all
we
are not told of their
form.
Germany, towards the end
In
the
of
Middle Ages, an innovation was introduced
making the spice-container
of
the form
in
A number
of a tower or steeple.
of refe-
rences to the manufacture of the "hedes"
"hedisch" are contained in the order-
or
book
the Frankfurt silversmiths'
of
this
was
work
that
from 1532 onwards. In one case
accompanied by
a sketch of the
guild
had been commissioned from Master Heinrich Heidelberger:
it
was
made
object should be
specified that the
similar to the one
which had been owned bv the father
who
the person
ordered
back the history of generation at
came
original inspiration
possibly from the Christian monstran-
ces in
which the Host was exhibited and
which often bore a
On
thus throwing
type for another
this
The
least.
it,
similar architectural form.
one occasion, indeed, in 1550, one of the
Frankfurt silversmiths contracted to a
of
Monstranz" and
"Juden imagine
to
what
it
could
else
is
make
difficult
been
have
intended.
This tower-form became immensely popular. Occasionally, local
it
was imitated from a
tower building; often,
it
would be a
surmounted by a
veritable church-steeple,
pennant and even furnished with a clockface on of the 150.
Spice containers, silver filigree,
Europe,
17th
— 18th
centuries.
Central
etc.
Bezalel
Museum,
which the hour
Sabbath could be indicated. There
and Eastern is
Jerusalem.
extant one such spice container
Frankfurt
compendium Leket Yosher, of
Rabbi
Israel Isserlein, of
relating
whom
counts, "I recall that his hadas in
which
presumably served for the
in
had
he in
form,
floral
was made
The
usages
his pupil re-
of silver
original
type,
been
pre-
has
very large numbers of spice-containers
made in Central and our own day. They are
havdalah ceremony
Eastern Europe
shaped
spices."
the
down
to
like flowers or fruit,
ate clusters
(fig,
150).
sometimes
of the conclusion
in elabor-
In the inventory of the
though a
am Main
(c.
1550)
was restored and somewhat
it
hundred years
later.
The
made
at
151),
(fig.
altered
material used
was
generally silver, sometimes engraved to resemble
masonry; filigree
later on, especially in
—
was used example, it
coarser and coarser as time for
tower lent
Eastern Europe,
the purpose
itself
human
representing
to
(see
150).
further embellishments:
figures could
the
fig.
went on
various
prepared to begin their work
—
The for
be placed around synagogue
—
officials
the rabbi with
Ceremonial Objects, collection Torah in
Scroll, Persia,
background
:
at the Bezalel National
Museum, Jerusalem:
1799; Silver Breastplate, Poland; Torah Crown, Poland; Torah wrapper and mantle, silver embroidery, Italy
RITUAL ART
331
sermon, the shohet with his knife, the hazan
his
holding a beaker of wine, and so on. While the
German
the form of a
spice-boxes are usually in
tower with a central spire surrounded by four corner-spires,
those from
Bohemia often
bulbous
bell-towers
of
the
imitate
Baroque
the
rural
churches in that country.
was
taper-holder,
thus combining the two adjuncts of the havdalah
Western Germany
in
in
also associated with the
obviously deriving in some in-
stances from local buildings; in one case, for ex-
ample, there
is
Church
of the
a distinct similarity to the facade of "II Redentore" in Venice.
arms of noble patrons
of
sixteenth-century
Hanukkah lamps
contained in a drawer under the taper, which
their distinctive hats
senting the synagogue
home, perhaps
the most important object,
was the eighth
ninth)
light
oil
are
adorned
ratively
on either
whose cords descend deco-
The Baroque style of the Hanukkah lamp merged into
side.
the Rococo, which continued to prevail generallv
the spice-con-
after
(or with the master-light,
Hanukkah
the
for
festival,
celebrating the victory of the Maccabees. Later,
grew up of making these objects
the practice metal; of
only
metal
a
in
in
example recorded that Rabbi Meir
for
it is
Rothenburg would
light the
(not
Hanukkah
lamp
clay)
lights
(Tur Orah
Hayim 673). The type
of
generally of a wall,
lamp that now developed consisted back-plate, to
flat
with the eight
not yet in use)
hang against the (candles were
burners
oil
affixed
below
it
at right angles;
was
the master-light (called shamrnash or beadle)
generally
appended
dle or on the left
at the top, either in the
hand
side. It
back that the maker's
of the
specimen extant
oldest
is
of arches
"rose
and a
window"
is
The
centered.
of a Gothic type, be-
lieved to be of the fourteenth century
here the back-piece
mid-
was on the design art
(fig.
152):
pierced with a colonnade
circular design almost like the
of
a
was followed widely
Gothic church.
This type
at the close of the
Middle
Ages. In sixteenth-century Italy,
tention
began
would be
to
be paid
cast in
more and more
to the back-piece,
at-
which
copper or bronze or brass, and
decorated with cherubs, tritons, cornucopiae, urns, masks, and so on in the fullest Renaissance
Not infrequently, they embody
style.
Biblical or apo-
cryphal scenes such as the annunciation of the birth
of
Isaac,
Holophernes
or Judith
carrying the head of
— an episode which
in
Jewish folk-
on
Catholic Church, over which putti hold
16th-century Italian
officials.
In the ritual art of the Jewish
tainer,
figures repre-
figure
with the armorial bearings of cardinals of the Holy
Roman
was sometimes supported by
also
The
occasion: thus, an entire series of splendid bronze
the eighteenth century: in this, the spices were
also
Hanukkah period
153). Occasionally, the back has an archi-
(fig.
tectural pattern,
coats
cum
Another form, of spice-box
ceremony, was evolved
lore
338
container for Havdalah ceremony. engraved, cut-out and cast. Frankfurt am Main, about 1550. restored 1651. (Jewish Museum, 151.
Spice
Silver,
New
York).
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
339
Hanukkah lamp,
152.
cast bronze,
14th century.
there until the end of the
with arm for master light. (Roth Collection, Oxford).
ghetto period, with
some notable exceptions.
French or
Italian,
Wrought-brass lamps, with two master-lights (for use on Sabbath eve), emerged in the 18th cen-
In Holland, the tradition developed of a brass back-piece, in
S.
340
flat
which decorations or symbols
tury in Poland.
Candelabrum types seem
been manufactured originally only
few examples preserved
synagogue
for
were engraved or embossed. In the seventeenth
use, a
and eighteenth centuries
back as the Renaissance period. In the
into silver
and
this tradition, translated
by the eminent craftsmen
later in
London, was
to
mely noteworthy examples.
was a great multiplicity complicated, but
was
cially there
of the
mon new scale
human
it
Amsterdam
in
produce some
extre-
Germany
there
In
of styles,
some highly
noteworthy that here
is
figure, as for
example
in the
scenes of Judith and Holphernes.
type of standing
began
to
espe-.
objection to representations
little
A
Hanukkah lamp on a
be produced
com-
rations, these
well
— both
as
menorah and the
began
to
from as far last
gene-
be made for the home as
vague reminiscences of the Temple
for the utilitarian
room with
for us
have
to
candles.
The
nukkah lamp remains one
purpose of lighting
lighting of the
of the
Ha-
most popular
Jewish domestic observances, and very large numbers of
delicate
merit,
smaller
Israel.
new
types,
some
of considerable artistic
continue to be produced,
especially
in
in the course of the
eighteenth century in great numbers, with small variations, at Frankfurt, in
Augsburg and elsewhere
Germany. Some splendid examples, many
of
were made
in
them imitating these Northern
Europe
of
of
silver,
pewter
at
this
period.
A further
opportunity for Jewish ritual art was
given bv the domestic "Seder" service on Passover eve,
which included
a
number
of svmbolic food
RITUAL ART
341
342
prophets and kings
(Moses, Aaron,
David, Solomon). The cavetto
is
in-
scribed with the text of one of the
prayers in the ritual (Kiddush or Ha-
lahma)
some
in
,
cases supplemented
or even substituted
by the
traditional
catchwords giving the order of the
The manufacturer
service.
signed
the
adding
his distictive
these
centurv,
imitated
made
plates
on
the
reverse,
mark. In the
last
were exactly
plates
embossed
in
generally
silver
dishes
Germany.
in
In Northern Europe, great use was
made
Seder plates
of
in
engraved
pewter, often bearing representations of the Seder scene or features of the
haggadah, with the catchwords of the
and
service
The
personal
inscriptions.
oldest of these are of the middle
of the
16th century, but the
specimens
date
Pewter was
made
to
also
carry
from
a
finest
later
era.
used for Purim plates the traditional
gifts,
or circumcisional plates usually bear153.
preparations.
some
Hanukkah lamp,
bronze. Italy, about 1600. (Formerly Howitt Collection, London),
These had
sort of container,
to
and
be placed
in Italy
it
be-
manufacture
special
Several
to
sil-
in
majolica holders for the purpose.
customary
Isaac: the latter are extant also in
towards
the close of the Renaissance period
came
ing a representation of the sacrifice of
makers of these platters and similar dishes are recorded, mainly belonging to the families of cially in
early
Cohen and
Azulai, working espe-
Pesaro and Ancona in the 17th and
18th centuries. of the
The Passover
same type
dishes
154). They
are
all
are
approximately 17 inches in diameter,
(fig.
with a wide flange border, relief-decorated
with a
floral
design in color. Within this
are four large oval cartouches, those at the
top and bottom enclosing Biblical or festal scenes, those at the side with floral or architectural
decorations.
These were probably
intended for the bitter herbs and other ritual commodities. The larger cartouches are
di-
vided by smaller panels with figures of the
154.
Cohen Museum, New York).
Passover dish, majolica, by Isaac
(Jewish
I,
Pesaro, 1614.
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
343
344
ver, mostly
however, nineteenth century archaistic
versions. In
Germanv,
at the
end
of the eighteenth
century, ingenious three-tiered Seder dishes were
made
of
unleavened
made
for the inci-
to contain the three cakes
bread, special containers being
dental commodities. For the haroseth (a mixture
chopped apple and
of
which the
tar
made
often
in
—
one of the
figure to represent
various countries for
Purim
for
havdalah
the
Egvpt) there was
slaves used in
bondsmen. Porcelain dishes were pro-
Israelite
poses
mor-
a miniature wheelbarrow, sometimes
pushed by a human
duced
nuts, symbolic of the
(fig.
many
155), for
ceremony,
other pur-
weddings, for
sometimes
or
with
a
purely ornamental and complimentary object. In addition to the kiddush-cups for the domes155.
Purim
platter,
showing triumph of Mor (Cluny
decai. Porcelain. Strassburg, 18th century.
Museum,
(including the Passover) ritual, wine beakers
tic
were
sometimes
manufactured
Germany,
in
Paris).
especially for the use of congregational fraterniat their
annual banquets or for similar pur-
poses; these
were sometimes covered with medal-
ties
on which were inscribed the names and
lions
wardens
family
badges
of
surers.
Among
the most characteristic of these
successive
or
trea-
were the beakers or jugs used by the burial societies
for
banquet
annual
their
These were made sometimes of
156).
(fig.
glass or porcelain,
and were not infrequently decorated with scenes showing the members engaged (fig
in their
on porcelain
which might be
jugs, the lids of
mounted bv some
detail
pious work
were depicted
157). Sometimes, similar scenes
sur-
of the burial-scene in
silver.
Of
great importance in Jewish ritual art in the
medieval
and post-medieval periods were the
betrothal rings
(fig.
158). These were sometimes
of great magnificence,
and
it
is
said that they
were the property of the Jewish communities, being "given" to the bridegroom in order to per-
form the ceremony, and were afterwards returned to the
synagogue treasurv. Their form was com-
pletely characteristic,
Jewish, even
if
and they are recognizablv
they do not bear any inscription.
They may be divided roughly
silver,
Beaker of Burial Society of Worms, 1712, chased. Master: Johann Conrad Weiss. (Jewish Museum, New York).
two
the one, the
band (which
wide)
and decorated, sometimes
is flat,
with words of good 156.
into
in
in either case
omen (mazal
some exceptional but very
representations
types. In
in
tov,
is
very
enamel, etc.)
fine instances
or
with
such as the High Priest Aaron,
)
RITUAL ART
345
346
ing back, revealed the words mazal tov, or some-
times the names of bride and bridegroom. In the
Renaissance
period and throughout
seven-
the
teenth century, these rings, with their superb gold filigree
decorated with
enamel, sometimes
finest
attained great magnificence. In the seventeenth-
eighteenth centuries, silver rings of a somewhat similar
design, but sometimes far
cated in construction, were used rope.
the
more compli-
in
Central Eu-
These very often bear representations of Sabbath
accompanied
candlesticks
appropriate benediction;
worn by the brides
it
is
said that they
were
when
they
years
later
in
by the
kindled the Sabbath light on Friday evenings.
VI
The foregoing pages have by no means
exhaus-
ted the categories of ritual art on which the Jews in
bvgone days lavished
their
devotion.
There
were large numbers of other objects connected Beaker of Burial Society of Prague, 1712, Enamelled glass. (Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem). 157.
with the various observances which would ceive loving treatment, though the tradition
the
or
band
is
not perhaps so constant as in the instances which
Sometimes, the
have been described above. In medieval Spain,
highly decorated in filigree with raised
according to literary sources (Rosh, V.ii) special
else
peace-maker between
the story of Eve.
bosses or rosettes. teristic,
On
the finest and most charac-
however, there
is
superimposed a minia-
ture building, presumably intended to represent
the
Temple
in
Jerusalem,
so
as
with the Psalmist's injunction (Psalm to "set
of the
was
man and
traditional
wife,
re-
Jerusalem above
my
chiefest
to
comply
CXXXVII, 6 joy." The roof
"Temple" was sometimes hinged and, swing-
158.
Betrothal
rings, gold
and enamel.
(Jewish
carpets
were made
walls, in the
Moslem
to
hang on the synagogue
fashion.
One specimen
dat-
ing to the fourteenth century which bears stylized representations of the Torah-shrine, has been preserved.
The handle
for the circumcisional knife
(and sometimes the blade as well) would be ador-
ned with a circumcisional scene,
Italy
(probably Venice),
Museum, London).
17th century.
or a representa-
'
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
347
»*fl*£fc
'.
348
****'*
./aM&--
mm® "\3?
~^ca "wprw ctnto nj^rnnx? n^ tmrnjn
al"%n \"a
m
1
tro m» jrom cam T#fjfiPHffljirttf
,l
itjk? D'Hso
a*w znf
,t
gd.i )p grtirTy *ntg»{«
w>c p'jpjn rwrro rmpfn "f^TOin/wo
^
1
,
Sr1 "Cn3
""zy
159.
NoS VT'
1
^tr ft*!"
1
p tj stj*^ *p* 2'3y^
N*!"'
"'t
'o.", ^•a^*"'
Scroll of Esther in silver case,
Germany.
1
7th
embossed with vignettes showing scenes from the (Jewish Museum, London).
century.
Most synagogues had
special "Chairs of Elijah" for use during the cere-
seat on
rfcTDTW O
-'
tion of the sacrifice of Isaac.
mony
-
»
,
•
story.
—
¥
3 ? -is^s* TO^njrl yfcg ii^g rsry rcto ? b"0^^0Nr 3T^3^3TOyaeT»fln3^1» nNj &VtVty& KP31 Tf NTU3W KTlbXJKrnK?tl| on ve'vx >n^7 bt^n i'tw i!sn»srrnfew\J
foj
',!»-
1
double among the Ashkenazim
(one
which the infant was placed, the other
Occasionally, a householder might commission a
miniature ark, perhaps of tic
Torah-scroll.
illuminated, as
The
we
silver, to
hold his domes-
Scroll of Esther shall
was not only
see later, but
was
also
reserved for the invisible Prophet), single in Italy
often placed in an ornate cylindrical container of
and elsewhere. The cushion
precious metal, which might carry on the decora-
for this chair
was
also
sometimes splendidly embroidered. Special ewers
tive
and basins were provided,
work scenes
for
the
priests before thev blessed the people.
use
of
the
motifs of the
Ashkenazim
scroll
in the storv in
or (fig.
depict in repousse
159).
Among
the
Central and Eastern Europe, the
RITUAL ART
349
Bookbindings,
160.
silver.
Holland,
Italy,
etc.,
Collection,
hammer with which knocked on the
the beadle or Schulklopfer
when he aroused
street-doors,
the faithful for early-morning worship,
was some-
made and finely carved with Hebrew inscriptions. The bread on Sabbath eve would
times specially
have
cover, a specialtv of the
its
household, bearing
Hebrew
women
and sym-
inscriptions
The shophar (horn) sounded on
bols.
of the
the
New
350
— 18th
17th
surmounted by a knight's helm. In the East, on the other hand, the amulet
on
engraved
finely
silver at great length: the so-called
The
avzam (arm)
gift
bridal couple often received as a
a prayer-book in
(fig.
an ornamental
wedding
silver
binding
160), sometimes (especially in Italy) bearing
a representation of a Biblical scene relating to his
name, or the coat of arms of the two
or her
sometimes was
families.
etched with Biblical texts
was often
amulets of Persia are especially common.
Year Feast was normally impressive plain, but finely
(Formerly Howitt
centuries.
London).
In
Germany
the bridegroom wore the
of
given him
by
bearing on the observance. In Eastern European
bridal
synagogues there was placed before the reader's
the clasp sometimes symbolically fashioned and
pulpit a tablet artistically inscribed with the Bib-
suitably inscribed.
lical verse: "I
have
set the
Lord always before me"
belt
silver
A
his
bride,
special silver girdle, dividing
the baser from the purer parts of the
body was
(Psalm XVI, 8) which was sometimes engraved or
used by householders to fasten their white prayer-
embossed
robe on the
in silver.
The mezuzah
sometimes
ioned
The of
wood,
of
case for the
Tabernacles
citron
might
ornamented with the
of
ivory.
on the Feast
silver
—
some-
sometimes as a box
fruit,
ritual
or
silver
(etrog)
be
times in the form of the
box
symbols.
The
alms-
at the
synagogue door would occasionally be
specifically
manufactured and bear an opposite
design.
Italy
In
especially,
beautiful
with the word Shaddai were
one very
The study
for the door-post, containing the
prescribed Biblical verses, would be finely fash-
common
made
containers
for amulets,
17th and 18th-century type of
Baroque shape bearing the normal
ritual
svmbols,
Day
its
infancy.
little
of
Atonement.
of Jewish ritual art
Up
was paid
attention
decades, a
number
have been
built
accumulation
is
is,
however,
in
to a couple of generations ago, to
it.
Within the
last
of important public collections
up.
At present, the labor of
being succeeded by study and
investigation. Jewish ritual art has, at last to take its place in cultural history. It
is
begun
of parti-
cular significance as that branch of art in
which
Jewish warmth and devotion found in times gone
by
its
most spontaneous and genuine expression,
and which lopment.
is
still
receiving a
memorable deve-
WORLD
JEWISH ART IN THE MOSLEM LEO ARY MAYER
by
Modern tion to
na-
produce everything he needs, from
ato-
mic research
The
man wants
own
nationalistic
to clothing,
from
his
fine arts to food.
true Oriental, on the other hand, never enter-
tained such ideas as cultural self-sufficiencv. His
was divided
societv
occupations
into classes,
considered
some devoted
honorable
and,
to
conse-
quently, privileged and coveted, and others, no
matter
how
garded
as castes of slaves or, at best, as second-
grade
important to society as a whole,
re-
of the
Umayyad
or Abbasid
resi-
dences from Cordova to Samaria appreciated art as
much
ropean.
161.
tapestries
and
rugs,
which
filled
retain their appeal even
of
He saw
beauty.
limits of his
armor,
were
all
means
pen-boxes,
his
works of
like the ancient
he thought painters as
to
—
that
it
lamps
his
art in their
of
little
members
craftsmen,
of his
own
and braziers
architects
society. It
is
sums on them, but
it
was the work of
art that
mattered, not the maker of a masterpiece.
immediate
modern man. the medieval Arab
162.
and true
Maecenas lavished considerable
devised beautifullv-built and taste-
Aviv.
the
own way. However,
any ancient Greek or medieval Eu-
Tel
within
Greek or the medieval European,
as
collection.
—
his clothes, his arms, his
He
Yemenite jewelry. Gridi
them with
today, even to people with a very different sense
that sometimes a
citizens.
The Arab
fully-appointed houses, and he
result of this attitude
Yemenite jewelry.
was
The
that, unlike
or Persian felt
Gridi collection, Tel
Aviv.
JEWISH ART IN THE MOSLEM
353
WORLD
354
monopoly
of
all
metal work.
we
If
see a dagger, or a ring, or a silver box
and are sure that
or a platter
made sure
it
was
Yemen, we can be equally
in
that
was made by
it
Jew.
a
This was the case a thousand years ago, and
was true
it
until the recent
exodus of Jews from Yemen. In a way, Yemenite art
work
Essentially the consists
it
eternal.
is
of silversmiths,
most simple geo-
of the
metrical patterns carried out in simple
techniques, such as granulation and
work.
filigree
It
is
the kind of style
that has baffled historians of Oriental art
faced with jewelry
made
in
such
and periods
a varietv of regions
as
Byzantine Europe, medieval Egypt,
and even modern Timbuctoo. Yet the one thing certain about the objects 163.
Hanukkah lamp from North-west
Museum, London.
Africa. Jewish
no frustration when his buildings or works of
art
shown here
(figs.
they are
Jewish and
monopoly
groups other than his own, or even bv foreigners
Among
imported for the purpose.
which have survived
Consequently, for generations states
artisans
of
even
the
professing Jews
long
for
Moslem
if
in a
a
the
is,
either
made
in
virtual
North-west Africa.
is
the numerous ritual objects from this area
— mainly modern —
deserve at least cursory attention
There are more examples of
handiwork
in
wood than
in
(fig.
a
few
163).
definitely Jewish
any other material.
of
Starting with the splendid Fatimid piece, at pre-
therefore,
no
sent in the Louvre, called
else
given country, say Yemen, where
old standards of class differences
where
certain
work
of metal
that
men
and Christians or It
in
were
world
Jewish or Christian outlook.
wonder
(and
centuries),
all
is
Yemen. Another region where Jews had a
were created bv members of religious or national
Moslem
all
161, 162)
still
prevail,
and
given trade, say that of the smith,
is
dune
niche
century
(fig.
bv Migeon "montant
de priere" and dated 164),
we
find
10th
— 11th
two hitherto unpub-
lished examples from Egypt, one in a private col-
and another
Museum
singled out as particularly despicable, the Jews
lection (fig. 165),
should have had even
Islamic Art, Cairo, which are almost contempo-
in
164.
modern times
a virtual
Carved wooden panel with Hebrew inscription. Louvre, Paris
in
the
of
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
355
rary with the one in the Louvre.
reconstructed
(now
in
York)
may
ark
Museum, New
the Jewish
date in part from as early
as the 13th century finest
example
Mordecai
a cenotaph in the
is
photograph
can
taken as long as
it
be
considered
bv Jews and Moslems
sacrilege
be
possibly
in situ; while
is
would
removal
its
167); un-
(fig.
placed that no
so
is
it
and
of Esther
Hamadan
in
fortunately
The
166).
(fig.
mausoleum
traditional
good
a
of
The
synagogue
alike.
but
literate,
different
a
in
Having learned
356
script.
as children to write
had
a script other than Arabic, they
spoiled their
hand
when
for Arabic
as adults they tried to imitate deco-
naskhi lettering. In
Mameluk
no Moslem
and verv
rative
Syria
artisan,
few Christians, were acquainted with any
other
none
mastery of glass work.
and
Arabic,
was known
these
of
but
script
for
his
Onlv Jews,
have been respons-
therefore, could
making and writing on these
ible for
lamps.
We
II
Apart from metal work, the most commonly mentioned Jewish craft in was the making
the Middle Ages glass.
We
later,
period,
when
it
the Ottoman Damascene master in
during a
1694 produced a lamp, (now
of
Museum very much
Jewish
have numerous references 171)
to
are on safe ground only cen-
turies
in the
London)
in
(fig.
after the fashion of
from Jewish and Gentile sources, those used in mosques, covered with
yet not a single specimen of medieval glass, tries,
There
made
Mohammedan
in
coun-
can definitely be called Jewish.
Hebrew Later
and
still
Near) Eastern (e.g.,
one
in
Jewish.
lettering.
Middle (not
Eumorfopoulos
the
168), which
(fig.
The main
the group
Col-
perhaps
characteristic
Whereas
script.
is its
is
in origin are various
for-
of
in all
other respects the lamps are identical
opaque
glass,
of
which
remain several specimens
in
public
of
bottles,
lection)
clearly
however, one glass of Syro-
is,
Egyptian glass-lamps merly
with an upper
inscriptions,
bowl decorated with Arabic
and private
collections.
most important are
in
Among
the
the Victoria
and Albert Museum, London
(fig.
170), and in the Feinberg Collection
with products of the Aleppo workin
Detroit
(fig.
169).
shops of the fourteenth centurv, their script
stands
out
once.
at
Studied
against the background of the magnificent
specimens of Arabic calligraphy
on Mameluk glass and bronze vessels, the inscriptions on these lamps look extraordinarily clumsy.
much
Orientalists copying
Of Jewish textiles made under Mohammedan rule, almost all the surviving examples are very late.
monumental Ara-
them belong
venture to suggest
(very tentatively, and with that
these
all
orbit
Fustat. I.
who were
wooden beam Collection
fireen.
present treatment.
Three very notable exceptions are an early
now
Moslem turban
of fine material
Museum
of Islamic Art,
in the
Cairo, Inscribed
of the
proper
lamps mav
be the work of craftsmen
from
and
European
infuence, not falling, therefore, with
we
16"".
to the 19th century
are already strongly under
the reservations)
Most of
so
attempts of European
like first
bic script that
Thev look
Ill
of
a
Samaritan hanging
still
in
the possession of the Samaritan com-
munitv
at
Nablus and a Turkish rug
JEWISH ART IN THE MOSLEM
357
166.
Reconstructed Torah-shrine of synagogue Fustat. Jewish Museum, New York.
WORLD
358
at
167.
Cenotaph
in
the
Esther and Mordecai in M. Mostafawi, Director
mausoleum traditional Hamadan. (Courtesy of of
Antiquities
Department
of Iran).
169.
168.
Jewish lamp.
(Formerly
in
Eumorfopoulos Collection).
Glass bottle with
Hebrew
inscription.
Feinberg Collection, Detroit.
of
Dr.
359
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION 170.
Glass bottle with Hebrew inscription. and Albert Museum, Loudon
Victoria
brW
171.
rew
172. 1
lamp with HebDamascus, 1694. Jewish Museum. London. glass
inscription.
woven Hebrew inscription, Museum, Washington, D.C.
Turkish rug, with
8th century. Textile
Hanging
360
JEWISH ART IN THE MOSLEM
361
173.
Museum, Washington, D.C. The 172) is of court manufacture, made either
the Textile
in
rug in
(fig.
Istanbul or Brussa, and
century. As a whole, lar
Samaritan Torah-curtain, dated
Moslem
it
is
obviouslv of the 18th
follows the pattern of simi-
WORLD
362
1509, Samaritan Synagogue, Nablus.
usual
mosque
columns,
mosques unique.
the
—
tvpe. This
bases
of
is
flanked bv two double
which look
a detail, to the best of
The Hebrew
inscription
like
domed
our knowledge,
on the upper
mihrab
re-
it
has a few note-
gister of the spandrel of the
The main
part looks like a
from Psalm 118:20, to be found over innumerable
prayer-rugs, but
worthy
peculiarities.
Moslem
prayer-niche, with a big cup in the center
on which are displayed nine hanging lamps of the
entrance doors to synagogues
The appearance
of a
Hebrew
all
is
a quotation
over the world.
text
on a Turkish
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
363
174.
Page from decorated MS. of the
Bible,
written at Cairo,
(State Library, Leningrad. After Giinzburg
carpet
is
unique. Although there
prove that the rug as such was indeed, the clumsy character of
is
nothing to
—
made bv Jews the Hebrew letter-
ing might even suggest the opposite
— the rug was
1010.
and Stassof).
traditionally
connected with the Temple,
seven-branched candlestick,
and the found
Aaron. The theme
staff of
manuscripts and ritual objects
modern times
serve as a hanging in front of the Torah-shrine: has. consequently, a right to
Of (fig.
special interest
is
it
be mentioned here.
the Samaritan
silk
hanging
173) embroidered with silver bv Joseph ben
Sadaqa
in
1509-
-0,
probably in Damascus.
It
represents the Tei. nle and a variety of objects
— often
to
be
Hebrew almost down to
in Samaritan, as well as ordinary
and designed
the spirit of Jewish tradition, to
like the
incense-burner,
the
without any doubt woven to Jewish specification in
364
—
Jewish tradition;
how thoroughly
shows the strong current of
its
execution proves once more
the
Samaritans,
as
well
as
the Rabbinites and Karaites living in the Mos-
lem tic
East,
assimilated
the
expression of the nations
lived.
language
of
artis-
among whom they
*
r
5* 3
175.
Page from decorated MS. of the Bible, dated (State Library, Leningrad. After Giinzburg and Stassof).
051, perhaps from Jerusalem.
176.
Page from MS. of Pentateuch from Yemen, in minuscular writing, dated 1469. (British Museum, London, MS.:OR. 2348).
with decoration
177. Page from decorated MS. of Pentateuch from Yemen, dated 1409. (British Museum, MS.:OR. 2350),
178.
Page from decorated MS. of Later Prophets from (British Museum, MS. OIL 2211).
Yemen, dated 1475.
:
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
361
368
well
— framed with
bed
in
bands
inscri-
Arabic characters.
Jewish illuminated manuscripts
from Moslem countries are many,
and cover the whole period
(figs.
174—180). The
finest
belong
to
group
a
and
oldest
acquired
in
the
Near East
the
19th century by the Karaite
the middle of
in
Abraham
scholar,
Firkovitch.
He
brought them to Russia long be-
he ruined
fore
his
repuation by
indulging in forgeries and deliberately
falsifying
genuine objects,
order to prove both the anti-
in
quity and the non-Jewishness of the Karaite
mea.
A
community
first
treasure
in
the Cri-
skimming from
was published
tury ago, and
some
this
half a cen-
of the plates
have been reproduced repeatedly ever since, judged on internal evidence, they are Syro-Egyptian of the 9th *
from
page
Illuminated
179.
MS.
of
Pentateuch,
showing the
Sanctuary and its vessels, written in Cairo, 930. (State Leningrad. After Giinzburg and Stassof).
centuries.
That the Arabic
The
sub-
does not inproved by the Karaite Biblical manuscripts written in Hebrew, but in Arabic characters, the bestknown specimens of which are in the dicate a
Library,
— 15th
British
Moslem
script
scribe
is
best
Museum.
IV
Although Jewish book production times and in effort
countries
all
was concentrated on
by
excelled at
offering a correct text,
rather than on turning a manuscript into a of
Perhaps
art.
that the Torah-scrolls
reading nated.
which
the
in
used
in the
field
fact
synagogues for
weekly lessons were never
But even the
—
work
was influenced bv the
this
illumi-
of the script proper,
the sphere of Arabic lettering
—
one of the greatest achievements of Moslem
is
art-
throughout the ages, was neglected bv Jewish
ists
scribes in Islamic countries. It
that
Abraham ben
biblophile
who
may be
Joseph, a Jewish Maecenas and
15th cent ry in San'a, had
at least
two
Biblic;
which more
significant
flourished during the second half
of the
—
all
high standard,
its
Islu
in
his library
manuscripts with frontispieces ico
served as an ex-libris as
Decorated page of Bible MS., 13th— 14th cenFormerly in the Karaite Synagogue, Cairo. Leningrad. After Giinzburg and Library, (State
180.
turies.
Stassof).
JEWISH ART IN THE MOSLEM
369
WORLD
370
Marriage Contract from Meknes, Morocco, 1814.
ject-matter of these miniatures
is
once used in the Temple
ly objects
or else to
be seen
The
fleur-de-lis in the center of the panel in the
in Jerusalem,
first
row
The ornaments
formed from the Hebrew
It
a
is
heraldic
emblem and
Egypt during the
consequently not surprising to find quite
hand
of
ing
objects
(figs.
(fig.
174, 175) side by side with
179)
and vignettes which
script of that period
and
region. In a
way, the
most interesting designs are those reproduced here 180). They belong
to a manuscript, today
early
Mameluk
period
of
its
second row shows the Maghribi
master.
V
columns and a hang-
might have adorned any Arabic Moslem manu-
(fig.
the
in
pages depicting the mihrah, com-
mosque-lamp
Temple
letter
localizes the manuscripts in
(13th to 14th century); and the very significant panel
plete with a pair of flanking
a well-known Saracenic
Syria or
samekh.
number
is
private
at
Moslem, with the one notable exception of some vignettes
to the right
are entirely
synagogues or
in
religious ceremonies.
— main-
Jewish
One a
class of manuscript documents soon became
most popular object
for decoration,
i.e.,
marri-
age contracts. Although thev were never as illuminated
shly
as
ance, they stand out
the
Jewish
those
among
communities
lavi-
European proven-
of all
other products of
from one end of the
colophon, showing
Islamic world to the other. Different as they are,
geometrical ornaments of the most commonplace
the Moroccan with their strong black and white
unfortunately deprived of
sort.
Yet
its
its
subject can be located and dated.
effect
(fig.
181), those from
Meshed with
their
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
371
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—
—
JL
delicate colors
but more vigorous and with
horror vacni that
each community could
a
marked
minating Persian epics.
it
them accompanies
it
is
offer
in
this
illu-
outstanding example
Jewish religious architecture.
to
significant that in lands of
Blanca
in
Moslem
rule
oldest
Toledo (see page 290 and
bv
What then Moslem
fig.
may
science, medicine or philosophy,
when
applied to the
field of art:
first,
be done
region where a Jewish
most conserva-
poor appearance, or by their modern
date. This applies especiallv to secular architec-
specimens of which are works of
the 19th century. As an earlier example
we
can
mention, however, the ceilings of the house of a
Aleppo,
which one
where the Jewish
community flourished greatlv under the benevo-
must remain open for the scope of
and with the very limited means
posal, this cannot
in
in
the Jewish con-
Jewish art under Moslem rule must be established
Christian recon-
to
after
Jewish patrician
first
say can be answered easily in the field of
either ruled out
ture, the best
the
in
of Jewish art in
And what was
Most other buildings are
their
Rejeb Pasha
was the standing
countries ?
— according — already the
126) was erected tive dating
quest.
Mehmed
tribution to Islamic art? This question,
this chapter.
of the rightly-famous Spanish svnagogues, Santa la
of
field.
Moslem miniatures
An
was never properly developed. Even the
Maria
rule
stand the Judaeo-Persian
In this short survey, appropriate space ought to
But
lent
half of the eighteenth centurv (fig. 184).
VI
own
miniatures, imitations of
have been given
s
182), thev represent the best
(fig.
In a class of their
of
!
^^m ^
!
183) and those from Herat,
(fig.
1
Portion of marriage contract, Herat, 1812. (Hebrew University Library, lerusalem).
182.
similar,
'j'Ha^^^? — ^^^~~~~-
372
there
a
is little
Moslem
unless
it
at our dis-
at present.
Although date and
difficulty in establishing the
work
of art
was produced
country, the sad fact remains that
bears a
Hebrew
inscription, or
kind used exclusively for Jewish worship, not be identified as Jewish. not applv to Jews only.
It
Of course
would be
is it
this
of a
can-
does
just as diffi-
cult to apportion the role of
Armenians or Copts
made
in Islamic countries.
in
secular works of
art
Unless the signature of a craftsman reveals his
n JEWISH ART IN THE MOSLEM
37:
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WORLD
374
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Portion of marriage contract, Meshed, 1834.
Part of ceiling decoration in a Jewish house in Aleppo.
First half of 18th century.
I
_
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
375
ethnical
unless
origin,
an inscription
in
a non-
Arabic script or a religious invocation proves that
he
member
not a
is
there are no
means
of the
of
Moslem community,
knowing whether he be-
longs to a minority group, and,
This
is
not the only occurrence in the long
history of the Jewish people in
had no idiom
artist
difference
which the Jewish
own. But there
much
he was completely assimilated
vironment.
was
as
But from
time
time,
to
Hellenistic
private
as
Syrian
any
capital,
or
a
Empire, or a
and
incorporate in
house,
It
was the
inarticulate cry of a
testing his identity, powerless to
do
it
sculptors,
artisticalh
felt
the need to assert their Jewishness. At
such moments
and
—
isolated
either
and
cases these
were
moments — they painted Jewish
some scene out
of Jewish history or
who happened
simply a few Jews
Up
many
in
to a point, this
was
to
as inefficient
be nearby.
and
inarti-
But
a seven-
branched candlestick, or some other Jewish symbol.
and
something
lintel of his it
painters
Jewish
culate a cry as that of their Hellenized forefathers.
sarcophagus as
in the
but
less.
to his en-
would shake him; and he would carve a purely
Roman
time
life:
a son of his age as any other master. Artis-
tically,
too,
rare
the Hellenistic period, the Jewish artist
—
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
a
is
the idiom of artistic form
protesting none the
which characterizes the ages. During
of his
—
assimilated to their surroundings, from time to
to which.
if so,
language
376
mute proin his
own
it
We
was heard. have no means of knowing
artist in
secular
Moslem work
is
the Jewish
countries ever felt this way. His as
he
left
nymous donor
—
Artistically,
if
Moslem
as
it
no signature.
can possible be.
He was
and he made sure
anonymity would not be betrayed historians of Oriental art.
an anothat
his
to inquisitive
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE FRANZ
by
So far
ceremonial objects and
architecture,
as
L
mural paintings are concerned, medieval Jewish art has to a large extent
been
lost.
That Jewish
book-illuminations have been preserved in rela-
numbers
tively great in
all
is
the more remarkable
many wanderings and
view of the
Jews during those centuries.
of the
It
sufferings
would
ex-
ceed the space here available even to classify these illuminated manuscripts. It
is
all
only possible
A
ND
S
13
E
pagan
RGER
have been
its
inventors. It
aroused opposition. But
assume that
in private
not unreasonable to
is
only to the Torah-scrolls
and not
to scrolls
may even have
hands, some of which
which have been found on the walls and been
have
made
demonstrate
and
early Christian book-art elements
About the beginning tion
of this art,
scanty indeed. Nothing
is
is
our informa-
floors
of synagogues of late antiquity. Indeed, various
attempts
development.
and codices
illustrations of the Bible story similar to those
to give a general idea of this "art of the book,"
to outline its
may even
true that the practice
is
it
this referred
for synagogical use,
had
Jews
literature of the period, the
from
to derive
this earlier
to
in
which appear
Jewish tradition.
preserved, and
die literary sources, too, are sparse.
The
fictitious II
"Letter of Aristeas"
centurv b.c.e.)
Ptolemy ed
II
(
written perhaps in the second that the Egyptian ruler,
relates
Philadelphia (285-247 b.c.e.) wish-
to incorporate into his library at Alexandria
and that
a translation of the Five Books of Moses,
him
the special copy brought to
from Palestine was written
we
Elsewhere, too,
name
of
God was
writes the
lettering.
written in golden script.
(Sabbath
of the
Lord
"If
in
the past-Talmudic tractate Sopherim
we
all
written in gold.
before the sages,
The then
strated:
the
and
who
classical
as
"One does
it
is
God
The matter was brought
ordered
it
existence of gold script
in
:
read
once happened that
Alexandrians the names of
in a scroll of the
were
It
one
in gold, the scrolls
thus written must be set aside." Again,
not write a scroll with gold.
The
103b), however,
unfavorably:
this practice
names
gold
in
read of codices in which the
Babylonian Talmud
comments on
purpose
for this
period
is
to
be
among
set aside."
the Jews
clearly
nowhere mentioned
demonin
the
Yet these
illuminated
Hebrew
first
centuries of the Christian era,
are
lost.
Nothing
century:
tenth
codices if
the
of
they existed,
preserved earlier than the
is
and from
this
period,
only
too,
single pages,
from Egvpt, Palestine, and Yemen
have thus
been made available
far
to the student.
Here, too, gold plays a dominant part. Further-
more, the gold also
for
objects.
eleventh-century
174)
We
Oriental
but
for letters
have, for instance,
manuscript
in
(see
an fig.
a fantasticallv-shaped portal that closes in
a semi-circle
This
used not onlv
is
design
and is
is
supported by a central
composed
of
minuscular
comprising various Biblical quotations.
pillar.
letters
We
have
here an ancient usage. Already from heathen antiquity
we know
of
Carmina Figurata, that
is
poems
the letters of which formed an egg, a flute, the
wing
of a cupid, etc. In Jewish book-illumination,
this
custom
Ages.
It
was
continued
throughout
the
Middle
especially popular in the writing of
the Masorah, the marginal notes that guarantee the correctness of the traditional text of the Bible. Cf.
for
all
this
chapter
VI.
They were written
in the
form of abstract pat-
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
379
380
<<-'
'V V.
r
*.««.»£ *<4AiK.\ *v«*X»^
•
y
IKS.
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Design of lion
in
minuscular
German MS.
terns, but in the later
Middle Ages
of the
assumed
also
the shape of plants, animals, grotesques,
letters.
and even
human figures (fig. 185). To return to our oldest preserved codices, there are among them, besides the micrographic figures nial
and marginal decorations, those ceremo-
objects
which were
in
the Tabernacle and
Temple. The representation, however,
One
of
the
fol
is
in
a
famous
is
(Beginning of Masorah
13th century.
curious.
tenth-centurv
to
Book
of Ezekiel),
(National Library, Vienna).
manuscript,
probablv Egyptian
shows the Tabernacle not but laid completely
by
side, like cards.
flat,
its
in
(see
three
that
is
dimensions,
Above the Tabernacle stands
visible
tablets in the middle, is
179),
five walls lying side
the seven-branched candelabrum,
Above
fig.
a
golden
two wings
also strip
laid
flat.
with two
at the side. This
presumably the ark with the two tablets of the
Law; onlv these
tablets are not inside
the ark,
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
381
as related in the Bible, but
above
ly
it
placed perpendicular-
make them
to
The wings
visible.
out of
some supplementary
some
decorated
show the complete
we
Among
figure of
the smaller objects
can distinguish two columns, apparently the
columns that stood before Solomon's
Temple.
382
these,
in
moreover, of divorcing the decoration from the text,
hesitation to
The convention prevailed
life.
denote the cherubim, for apparently there was
such holy creatures.
THE MIDDLE AGES
IN
the
filling
while the Bible text
(or
first
and
first
was
itself
very lavishly
treatise
pages,
last)
or nearly
left plain,
In these codices, the only attempt at relating
so.
text
and decoration was the
num-
inclusion, in a
Here we have then a representation of what the
ber of cases, of a conventional representation of
Jew has
lost,
the vessels of the sanctuary which, as
hopes
Messianic times.
that
and
in
made
we
It is
the Messianic hope
the subject of this folio so popular,
come
shall repeatedly
centuries.
dle
but for the rebuilding of which he
There
is little
Ages beyond
obedience to the
advance
across
in later
it
in the early
this representation,
Mid-
probably
commandment which
in
prohibited
up with some
seen, links
A
Farhi
called
Bible
who was
Crescas,
Sassoon
the
in
in point
first
the so-
is
Collection,
illuminator as well as scribe.
decorated from beginning to end in the
This
most profuse
is
one of the
plements.
memorable case
achieved in 1366-1382 by Elisha ben Abraham
resentation of ceremonial buildings
their im-
of the earliest extant
book-illuminations towards the end of the
millenium.
the imitation of natural objects, but not the rep-
and
we have
style,
many
of the pages reminding
Moslem
finest
and
carpets
tapestries,
with the lavish decorative use of verses in majuscule
letters
Ill
In order to follow up the further development of the art of illumination,
where the Jews
we must
lived, partly
under Moorish, part-
under Christian domination. Their book
ly
minations were influenced
now from
that.
now from
and now reflected Christianity,
side,
it
utilize
pictures,
back on the mother-faith.
another daughter of Judaism, had
early freed itself rial
this
illu-
Islam had at one time taken over
from Judaism the hesitancy to
its
turn to Spain,
from the prohibition of
representation,
and
this
picto-
departure, too, had
influence on the Jews.
The former,
non-pictorial
tendency
is
repre-
some
of
them very magnificent, decorated
rather than illuminated, there being
no correlation
between the embellishments and the text, nor any attempt to delineate the human form or scenes
One
the standard Jewish works of reference repage from an elaborately illuminated MS. (a commentary on the Book of Psalms) purporting to have been executed in 1158 by one Abraham Hispanus(l). If authentic, this would obviously change the entire perspective of the subject. But the MS. (in the Palatine Library, Parma) is clearly not earlier than the Hth century; 1158 of
a
not the date of copying but of the original composition; and Abraham Hispanus is not the scribe or illuminator but the twelfth-century author, the famous Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, called Ha-Sephardi (editor's note).
is
vessels
and
pages,
final
which magnificently indited verses from the
Psalms a
The
spread over several
illuminations of the preliminary in
surround
an
ornamental
panel,
central
lexicographical treatise figuring in minuscular
hand here
The
the margins.
in
186)
(fig.
example shown
first
typical Islamic style with
in
is
bands that interweave with each other into knots.
The
area
is
not
and the
filled,
lines
shoot, like
lightning, towards the four corners, lending the
pattern
-
a
human
when one would most artist
tells
Throughout
excitement.
strange
figure
expect
avoided,
is it.
this
even
Thus where the
of the return of the spies from the
Holy Land (Numeri, Chapter XIII) he shows a
huge grape-cluster suspended from
a
wooden
frame: there are no spies.
As an example Jewish book-art
produces
gold.
in
But more important than these are the
pages.
manuscript the
sented significantly and artistically by a series of Bibles,
heightened
the sanctuary are here
of
of the other tendency in Spanish
we may
take the fourteenth cen-
tury "Sarajevo Haggadah," so-called because
today in the
— the
of Passover
illumination
peal to rity,
museum
ritual for the
of that city.
because of
women and
The haggadah
domestic service on the Eve
— was always
and the very
it is
a favorite subject for
small
its
children,
fact that
it
its
bulk,
its
ap-
great popula-
was not taken
into
the synagogue, where severer standards prevailed.
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
383
384
not portrayed. After representing the
days of creation, the
six
someone that
pret of
God
To
in a state of rest.
figure
Here
incorrect.
is
whom
but man, to
inter-
representation
a
as
shows
artist
God
not
is
henceforth
is
as-
signed the duty of abstaining from
work on the seventh day. Where,
in
the picture of Jacob's dream, the artist
cover
But
with their wings.
faces
their
makes them
he
angels,
represents
what
in spite of these limitations,
power
of expression there
scenes
Sea
is
in these
The passage through the Red indeed, pictured somewhat
!
is,
But how vivid
clumsilv.
Miriam
below:
the scene
is
the
beats
timbrel,
while the maidens hold their hands in
dance
French
The
189).
(fig.
art
$w;:;
look
strength
rv^-'^P
is
here:
Gothic
of
church
Remarkable
similar.
manifested in the Giving
Law
of the artist
front
in
portals,
of
Wise and Foolish
the statues of the Virgins,
marked
strongly
is
influence
on
Sinai,
to
which the
has devoted a whole page
(fig.
190), whereas usually he places one
—
Haggadah
merges
the decoration preced-
ing the text consists of sixtv-two Biblical scenes, not,
however, exclusivelv related to the subject-
matter of the volume.
On
the contrary, the artist
begins with the creation of the world and only gradually works his
whom
wav up
he accompanies
to
Moses
(fig.
There follows a picture of the Temple, and end, the miniaturist takes us to the
He shows
time.
shrine open
tures
in
and the distribution
is still
its
life
at the
of his
own
us a synagogue with the Torah-
unleavened bread before the All this
187),
in his career until his death.
of
festival
dough and (fig.
188).
related to the oldest Jewish minia-
emphasis on the
flat
plane, so that
the figures, at times, appear as against a carpetlike
backdrop
(figs.
With regard imposes on
to
content,
too,
in
from which only one
wide horizontal layer
a
figure,
apparently Joshua,
stands out somewhat. Contrasted with this tall
figure of Moses,
the folio
is
the
surrounded by flames. Above,
contained by another horizontal line
is
formed by a layer of cloud, out of which emerges the ram's horn (shophar)
,
where the awe-inspir-
ing blasts accompanied the revelation. Similar dignity
is
conveyed by the page show-
ing the distribution of
bread (see
fig.
dough and
188). Here
we have
occurrence but recurrent events; ture,
of unleavened
it is
not a single a genre pic-
but a genre picture with religious content.
added
There
is
other
genre theme.
regularly
Spanish manuscript
to the
haggadah yet an-
Another fourteenth-centurv (British
Museum, MS.
Or.
2884) shows the Seder evening, the family and
178-190).
himself certain
The crowd
other.
waiting at the foot of the mountain
England.
In the Sarajevo
above the
scene
Decorative introductory page of the Farhi Bible by Elisha 1382. Sassoon Collection, Crescas. Spain or Provence, 1366 186.
the
artist
limitations:
still
God
is
guests joining in the festive meal. At the top of the table
sits
the master of the house, clad in white.
187.
The
Fifth
murrain.
Plague:
Miniature in
Spanish MS. of the 14th century. (National
the
Museum,
Sarajevo
Haggadah.
Sarajevo, Jugoslavia).
188.
The
bread.
189.
Miriam
hands
in
beats the timbrel, while the
dance.
190.
Miniature
The Giving
Sarajevo
in
the
maidens hold then Haggadah.
Sarajevo
Law. Full page miniature in the Spanish MS. of the 14th century. (National Museum. Sarajevo. Yugoslavia). of the
Haggadah.
distribution
Full
of
dough (above) and
page miniature
in
the Sarajevo
of
Passover
Haggadah.
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
387
191.
The Passover meal.
Full page miniature in a Spanish
(The
the
Haggadah
in front of him.
At
British
haggadah of
38S
the 14th century.
Museum. London).
his side sits a
meal
in a British
Museum
manuscript of Spanish
shown
boy; next are his wife and daughter, and lastly
origin of the 14th century
two other members
here appears in a miniature set in a finely deco-
of the familv or guests. It
is
a
is
rated page
suspended from the
the cup;" the dog, expelled as
the table. Ye'
and two dogs under
mother representation of the Seder
191).
It
embodying the phrase "Here they drink
comfortable Gothic chamber; with three lamps ceiling
(fig.
miniature, contently
gnaws
his
it
were from the
bone
just
below
it.
THE ILLUMINATION OK HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
389
THE MIDDLE AGES
IN
390
At the foot of the page, the master of the house assisted to lave his hands,
shown being
is
being the next stage in the
this
ritual.
Yet another motif recurs in these manuscripts:
MM Wn-M'
I-WW rv>iv:>
v^-**-!
*lli
the initial letters are sometimes distinguished from
and
the others in size
which
color,
preferably
is
gold. In this process, these letters are frequently filled
with abstract ornaments,
even
animals,
here
on
laid
specially-colored
a
which shows patterned
ground whole
and
finally closed
is
by
unknown
which
arches. This enlarged
to the Orient. It
pean product which the Christian
had used
The
traceries.
a broad border,
crowned with Gothic
is
initial is
designs, or
floral
is
the Euro-
art of the
which seems
for centuries, but
iSiro
West
to
fjp$p3Q$*
-TOraofrtrn pte a*
have
penetrated into Jewish art only in the thirteenth century, to remain there throughout the Middle
ffap nj?w* iktt pram
Ages, often in conjunction with tendrils or rib-
bons framing the rest of the
text.
One
should
note, too, the small twigs with tender leaves shoot-
ing from them; on
some
perched. This, too,
is
of
them
tiny birds are
accordance with Gothic
in
which, coming from France, penetrated to
art
Spain, to Jews as well as to Christians.
We
will select
one more of the numerous
ntt*'iinaiiTnaimn.'vr
illu-
minated manuscripts from the Iberian peninsula, 192.
written in 1476.
It
is
generally called, after an
eighteenth-century scholar, the Kennicott Bible,
and
is
today one of the treasures of the Bodleian
King David. Marginal miniature
Kings
to
I.
Chapter
I.
Kennicott Bible, illustrated by Joseph ibn Hayyim in La Corunna (N. Spain), 1476. (Bodleian Library, Oxford). in the
earlier
In
date.
the
we
Kennicott Bible
again
Library in Oxford. In accordance with the con-
find the abstract ornaments familiar to us from
vention mentioned above, this splendid Bible
the Farhi Bible, the beauty of which here con-
is
preceded and followed by a grammatical work, Kimhi's Sepher Mikhlol. Here, the sanctity of the
gave free rein to his written
in
Biblical artistic
two columns,
unencumbered bv
contents, the
imagination. is
binations,
the
conveyed
in
in
the
ally
also
incorporating
but occasion-
sometimes hu-
animals,
morously. At the lower edge of one page, for
example, there at
scribe's
on leaves, and,
a hare feasting
monkey swinging
the top, a
The
is
colophon,
in
composed
the tendrils. of
"anthropo-
morphic" figures ingeniously incorporating human forms,
is
refinements
of
black-and-white.
interplav of the
which cannot be But,
whereas the
Farhi Bible illustrates Biblical scenes without the
human figure, the artist now and then overcomes instance,
upon in
shows David
his head,
holding
of the
Jewish book naturalistic,
then,
Kennicott Bible
mighty king, a crown
in his right
both
and, for
this limitation,
as a
the shape of a huge club
manuscript,
hand
(fig.
192). In this
tendencies
illumination,
a scepter
of
Spanish-
the abstract and the
have been reconciled.
something of a tour de force. This should
IV
be compared with the not dissimilar conception, less successful, in
new
but also in the inexhaustible color com-
text,
center and at the sides with borders consisting of architectural designs or tendrils
lines,
not only in the always
artist
The
ornamented
sists
however,
the text of a Spanish
in execution, to
haggadah
of a
be found
Turning now from Spain
somewhat
emphasized
to France,
it
must be
at the outset that culturally,
and
to
J
ART FROM THE MIDDLE ACES TO THE EMANCIPATION
|E\VISH
391
392
dominating
responding to the vertical tendency
Gothic It
art.
probable
is
French Jewry produced
that
of the finest achievements in the realm of
some
Hebrew manuscript
the illuminated
Middle
of the
Unfortunately, the wholesale burning of
Ages.
Hebrew books here in 1240 and afterwards must have destroyed many memorable specimens of such work, while the expulsions of the Jews
century ended the tradition at pre-
fourteenth
when elsewhere
time
cisely the
upon
in the
was entering
it
most fecund period. Nevertheless, there
its
have survived a few medieval Franco-Jewish specimens of manuscript illumination which are of
The most remarkable, probably,
rare merit.
manuscript of 1277-78, today
seum (Add. MS. 116/39). prising the Pentateuch,
Aaron kindles
(The
British
of the Bible, together with selected
and a number
From a French MS. Museum).
an
800
in the first
some
lacks
the region of Provence in
socially,
or
initial,
an
illustration.
than to the French orbit, and the Provencal
This
minated Hebrew manuscripts are hardly to be scope and style from those of
was distinguished
Spain. This region indeed its
achievement
Nathan haYarhi, century,
in
at the
Jewish communities
ence
in
beginning of the thirteenth all
other
the smoothing out of parch-
purple dyeing. This cultural
its
for
Abraham ben
sphere.
us that Avignon surpassed
tells
ment and
this
influ-
discernible particularly as regards Bible
is
manuscripts, where, too, there was the tradition of divorcing the illuminations from the text and
among them
corporating as has
been the practice
in Spain.
of the in
characteristic
is
in
sanctuary vessels,
the Orient and
example
is
later
a manuscript
Perpignan (a similar one, written
in
the
cod. hebr. 2). across
in
in-
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, written
1299
1301,
A
the
Roval Library
in
in
Copenhagen,
where these implements are spread
two pages. The choice
of objects
is
above
deeply
ture
all
and
in this codex.
human
penetrates
into
figure.
this
style
Now
the Jewish
inclination
In
consi-
this fea-
and
field,
art,
becomes apparent
slender figures which rise
of the
hitherto
here, in the land of origin of Gothic of
193).
(fig.
illustrations
implements
its
lacked the
also
fluence
Here and
twice, suggesting
seven-branched candelabrum
Tabernacle dered
Forty-one full-page
had a hand
be recalled that the
will
none of which a coat of arms,
the case, for instance, with Aaron kind-
is
ling the It
artist
it
to the Bible.
same subject occurs
there, the
that more than one
illu-
leaves, almost
devoted
southern France belonged to the Spanish rather
distinguished in
of other writings.
treatment, be
artistic
illustrations are
some extent
miscellanea, com-
It is a
liturgical texts
the candelabrum.
of 1278.
a
and other parts
all
193
is
Mu-
the Prophetical Lessons
Just as varied are the artistic illustrations,
ysv VV* V**i **»V*J» *'
jvnvs
in the British
the inthe
in
upward with
a light
of the body.
the tenth-centurv Egyptian miniature dis-
cussed above
(fig.
179), onlv the wings of the
cherubim on the Ark In the Sarajevo
of the
Haggadah,
Covenant were in
visible.
the scene picturing
Jacob's dream, the angels had, indeed,
assumed
human
shape, but
wings.
Our French manuscript has overcome
hesitation
to
their faces
represent
them.
were covered with
In
fact,
there
all is
hardly a more graceful representation than that one,
where the cherubim guard the Tree of
Life.
rooted in m< dieval pictorial tradition. In this case,
Youthful figures with lifted wings, they hold slen-
the elongate
der spears in their hands. Here, too,
proportions should be noted; cor-
we
find this
393
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
194.
The Gates
of Mercy. Page
from the
Worms Mahzor
of 1272.
IN
THE MIDDLE AGES
(The National Library, Jerusalem).
394
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
395
limitation
the
to
plane.
flat
stead of surrounding the fashion, are placed
The cherubim,
tree
in
in-
protective
a
above one another, the upper
protests in his Sepher
such
We
levities.
Hasidim
39(i
709) against
(p.
show, as an example of
cultivated especially in
Germany,
this art,
page not from
a
ones smaller than those below, as no more space
the twelfth but from the thirteenth century. It
was
from a codex containing the Prophets and Hagio-
available.
grapha
(see
V
The animal represented
185).
fig.
book of Ezekiel,
here, introducing the
is
is
a lion,
evidently with reference to the prophet's vision.
Rich and enduring was the Jews
medieval Germany. Here,
in
book among
art of the it
true,
is
were expelled and massacred, but only
Jews
at specific
The most
interesting
work
German-Jewish
of
manuscript art of the thirteenth century two- volume
prayerbook
referred
1272,
of
the
is
to
times and in specific regions, so that in the Middle
above, formerly preserved in the Synagogue of
Ages German
Worms, and now
of
territory
Jews or of Jewish In
there
the
literature
is
sometimes
twelfth-century
was never wholly devoid
artistic
about
achievement.
Hebrew manuscripts
mentioned
commentary
to
this
is
have begun
that
time.
first
Hebrew
volume of
the Worms Mahzor we illustrate may be interpreted as the Gates
the
Pentateuch
tioned in the earlv morning prayer on the
Hebrew manuscripts must at
the
illuminated
based on a confusion. However, the
decoration of
From
an
which was owned by the Synagogue of Worms: but
the library of the
in
University of Jerusalem.
There were
already at
least
masoretic notes in the shape of animals, for already
Atonement.
of
Their
columns
194) what
(fig.
Mercy, men-
of
on
rest
symbolizing the victory of good over
evil.
Dav
wolves,
Above
the round arch appears a multi-colored city, pro-
bably of Messianic import
— the longed-for
Jeru-
salem.
Rabbi Judah the Pious of Regensburg (died 1217)
human
In the representation of the is
figure there
greater hesitation here than in the above-men-
tioned French manuscript, no doubt because of a lingering tie with tradition.
A hymn
for the
second
day of Pentecost begins with the words "A loving hind," and the artist draws
195) two deer
(fig.
pursued bv dogs. Behind them comes the hunter, but he, too,
is
given the head of a dog. This device
of evading the stern prohibition of the
Ten Com-
mandments by depicting men with animal
common
bird-heads was fairly
man Jewish striking,
a
manuscripts, with results sometimes
sometimes merely bizarre.
ous example
po-roarmwi pre
rwntm^-^TCRi
bition
a
is
Museum
Bezalel
of Jews; non-Jews,
S3W83tia>vwaaare *=
*3
to
I'awtrtwTwa "Oj< 9tf» r**;
other later
liturgical
in
date,
on the other hand, are shown,
manuscript, in
From
ational
the
Worms Mahzor
Library, Jerusalem).
of 1272.
is
the Giving of the principal
the
the representations
with their prothe an-
probably somewhat
the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Here a portal somewhat similar
hunt.
in
In this, the inhi-
in the self-same scene,
have described (The
curi-
human heads. In the same tradition as Worms Mahzor, though less well-executed, is •*
The Dec
most
per
rnjj;itbin'>yp"
«8<
195.
A
haggadah manuscript
in Jerusalem.
was applied only
sometimes
or
medieval Ger-
in
to that
which we
surmounted by a delineation of
Law
characters,
at Sinai, in
which
though wearing the
all
the
tradi-
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
397
The Giving
196.
of the
Law and
Whereas still
pointed hat are given birds' heads
!
rounded
Romanesque appear
in
Worms Mahzor
at the top, in
style
later
of
was
accordance with the
architecture,
German
the gate
those which
miniatures are topped
with a pointed arch, demonstrating the triumph of the Gothic tradition.
One
manuscripts in this style nides'
1295-96 levi.
in the
is
of the
most beautiful
a codex of
Maimo-
Code, the Mishneh Torah, completed
398
13th-century
(Bodleian Library, Oxford).
196).
(fig.
THE MIDDLE AGES
the defection of the Israelites. Page of a
German Mahzor. tional Jewish
IN
in
in
Cologne b\ Nathan ben Simeon Ha-
(Academy
of
Codex
Budapest;
Sciences,
Kaufmann 77), (fig. 197). The surfaces of the letters making up the initial words are decorated with ornaments and at the same time set off against a background of stars
Out
of this
background
and
— and
little
resemblance to the Sarajevo Haggadah
narrow bands which frame the
squares.
in this there is a
text.
—
Where
bands again become horizontal, below the
flow these text,
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
399
Only Ml
$03
figures
How
become broader and develop not only
short
figures of
Sea,
as
(Parma,
height but
in
and massive,
Moses and
century
in
are
Festival
Liturgy written
of the fifteenth
northern Italy, but by a
German artist. The most important work
in
this
style
famous Darmstadt Haggadah, preserved Landesbibliothek of that place. reproduction of this codex
made
it
A
much else
thev increase in
thickness.
illu-
its
conception
symbolism.
drawn the
Jewish
in
but
sacrificial knife,
In
spite is
in
times hardlv any room the example which
left for
we show
(fig.
to
a Gothic conception. Like other
in
illustration,
text.
It
originated from sheer
here even illustration of the
naked body (color plate).
The tinued
graceful in
style
teuch of about 1300, rary,
of
now
is
the only one illuminated
medallions,
—
con-
Penta-
the Schocken Lib-
in
Jerusalem (color plate).
forty-six
manuscript
this
later books, as for instance in a
On
it
page
its first
mahzor, written Library, Viei
on
a
a
ground
spiders'
webs
in
encircling
1347,
now
Biblical
in
the
scenes
198).
A
National
(cod. hebr. 163) has initial insisting of lines,
(
—
has no fewer than
from the Creation to the story of Balaam.
words
and delicate
as
198.
is
some-
the text which, in
here
of the
is
little
their initials
and animals. There
decorating the manuscript, this one has
no relation to the joy
which enchant us with of plants
great deli-
cacy in the slender body of the Patriarch, as
not so
but eagerly read the haggadah, but in the
Abraham has
dramatic impulse of the story, there
scenes
lies
who do
stopped bv an
is
angel descending from heaven.
be expected
remarkable beauty. This
in the figures of individuals,
art-lovers
all
we
example
the
In
Sacrifice of Isaac, a basic
the
complete color
Budapest).
show thev enclose the
in
one of the most familiar of Hebrew
entire pages
Sciences.
the
has
and designs Moses constrains the people. Marginal miniature from 197. Mishneh-Torah of Maimonides, written and illuminated by Nathan ben Simeon Halevi, Cologne, 1296. (Academy of
is
(Leipzig, 1927)
minated manuscripts, and enables to enjov
the
Rossi 653)
a
in
Palatina, cod.
— probably
breadth.
in
instance,
for
and
and the
people crossing the Red
his
thev are shown Ribl.
initials
heavier,
and illuminated about the middle
vrqjM
\TP3
do
the fifteenth centurj
in
runners
400
Page of a GeimanMakzor, 134" National Library, Vienna.
200),
is
>-fLX*
f*
Scenes from Biblical history. First page of a Pentateuch. Franco-German school. About 1300. (The Schocken Library)
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
401
limited to three or four lines. Everything else
THE MIDDLE AGES
IN
402
is
filled with borders or decorations encircling the initial
word and the
Mishneh Torah
how
clear
it
text.
A
comparison with the
mentioned
just
Haggadah
the Darmstadt
the lightness and elegance of Gothic
and more
replaces
by a heavier
The manuscript was
solid style.
and illuminated by a certain of Heidelberg, who,
first
written
ben Meir
Israel
from the
to judge
work, lived in the
his
197) makes
(fig.
style of
half of the fifteenth
century. Interestingly
enough, a manuscript has been
preserved by the son of this Israel ben Meir,
named Meir
who
Jaffe,
lived in the second half
of the fifteenth century. This in
the Library
a
College,
The son took over from his father for beautiful initials and ornaments;
Cincinnati.
the talent
each page here
framed with an ever-varying
is
border. However, his interest in scenes with ures
is
more
strongly developed than
One need
with Israel ben Meir. "Seder Meal" mot-ier
(fig.
—
and son
Compared with
only look at his
Haggadah depicted above (fig. Haggadah has gained in
How much
alone in the table with
symbolic dishes on where, the
it
its
depth
golden
the
Else-
(fig.
202),
Worms Mahzor Haggadah
195). However, in the Cincinnati
has another meaning.
there
cloth!
shows us a chase
artist
recalling the hunting scene of the
is
platter,
hidden by a
The sequence
of bless-
be recited when the Seder night coincides
with the termination of the Sabbath forms, with
a
the
initial letters,
its
slight
alteration
mnemonic
"Jagt
(and
number
of manuscripts of
some printed
trated with a hare-hunt. nati
was made
Haggadah,
to
form the
den Has" ("chase the hare"), and
later in
in a large
gin
word "Yaknehaz." With but
this
The
in contrast to
artist of
the
German was
texts)
trees.
Here,
jump, the hare
The
approximately
in its
several
surpasses the Cincinnati
to
illustrations
page,
the
Hag-
Four pages, with
delight of genre.
illustrate
the
preparation of unleavened bread from the mo-
ment when the to
grain
is
brought to the mills up
Our
the baking of the matzah.
tion
from
shows a
this (fig.
man
and next
to
first
carrying a sack of flour on his back
him
a
second
man opening
row above, again from the the housewife filling her bowl with
In the
sack.
one sees
illustra-
203). beginning bottom right,
the
right, flour.
In the adjoining scene, she kneads the dough, a
boy adding the water. To the
stands the baker,
left
dividing the dough. In the top row a
man draws
carry a trough of water on a stick. Very charm-
hounds
ing,
on the following page,
adults
Second
These
books.
is
the scene where
and children are gathered around a table
to decorate the
matzah with
lightly-sketched
that time, used
escape.
contemporary
gadah
Schocken Li-
water from an ornamental well, while two others
the Cincin-
the
brary, Jerusalem)
in the
ori-
Worms Mahzor,
the hunter runs,
tries to
Nuernberg Haggadah (now
illus-
places this chase in a real landscape with bushes
and
Jonah under the tree. From a 14th century German Mahzor. (Academy of Sciences, Budapest).
199
family.
little
Cincinnati
the
ings to
father,
participate; they are possibly
space and dimension.
(fig.
—
the Seder meal of the fourteenth-
century Spanish
it
fig-
the case
is
201). Three persons
the portraits of the patron and his
191),
,-,
haggadah now
Hebrew Union
the
of
is
Even
if
stars, flowers, etc.
illustrations
by German Jews
were,
at
also for secular
book decorations were principally
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
403
Page of Darmstadt Haggadah. (W. Germany, about 1430).
2(J0.
used for religious writings, there was no dearth of
unhesitating entry of scenes of daily
other, the linear treatment of the subject, placed
For instance, the animal-fables known
on the parchment without a background (often
Meshal ha-Kadmoni ("Ancient Parable") by
at the
the Spaniard Isaac ben Solomon ibn Sahula were,
almost
as
on the
life,
works of a profane nature deemed worthy of
illustration.
as
404
we
are informed,
illustrated
thirteenth-century author;
and
by the
his
original
(fig.
margin of the page), so that the picture appears
to
as
evidenced by copies
in
example was
Oxford, Milan,
added casually
been
199).
VI
not infrequently followed by later copywriters in
Germany,
have
The art
of Jewish book-illumination reached
and Munich. From the last-mentioned a typical pen-drawing is here reproduced. We see a shepherd who, while pasturing his flock, light-hear-
art
tedly plays his flute. All
a land of immigration for persecuted Jews,
realism
(fig.
is
executed with powerful
204).
Nuernberg Haggadah were doubtlessly influenced by contemporary German
main
at that
art
—
which began
ime.
It
especially
by the
to flourish in Ger-
taught, on the one hand, the
is
to
be anticipated,
in
Italy.
its
In this
country conditions were complicated as far as the of the
in the
This scene, as well as those in the Second
art of engraving,
zenith, as
ly,
book was concerned.
Italy
and
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries especial-
many "Ashkenazi" Jews who
fled to that coun-
try maintained to a great extent their tions.
was long
own
tradi-
Those German immigrants, who worked
miniaturists,
have
a
mixed kind
as
of style, halfway
between German-Jewish and Italian-Jewish
art.
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
405
THE MIDDLE AGES
we have some
Nevertheless
begun
IN
manuscripts, perhaps
Spain and completed
in
406
in
or else
Italy,
executed in collaboration between Italians and Spaniards, the pages of which
and partly
nish
case in point
show
partly Spa-
A
memorable
Italian influences.
Codex
the Bible
is
in the Library
of the University of Aberdeen, completed in
by a Spanish
1494
probably in Naples. This
scribe,
perpetuates the former Spanish tradition, the Bible text
being preceded by a number of sumptuously
— without, however, any human
decorated pages
—
figures
grouped around an extraneous
(fig.
206). Memorable, too,
15)
in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
parently
brought from Spain to Italy flight.
Our example
made
in
Italy,
a Bible (cod. hebr.
manuscript,
unfinished
this
is
text
Ap-
was
too,
in the course of the
207), almost certainly
(fig.
shows remnants of Moorish
still
art in the intricate pattern of the right-hand bor-
der.
on
In the main, the Italian style predominates
shows the front of a portal
this folio. It
mal perspective, with those
classic
which earned
name
for this style the
word
first
of the
Passover meal. Illustration from a
201.
Meir Yaffe.
by
Germany,
15th
century.
Haggadah written (Hebrew Union
College, Cincinnati).
Among
these, to
Simeon,
now
one
creator in the
Library of Congress, Washington
tration to a verse straits I called
We
see a
my
man pray-
with folded hands, in his dungeon in a tur-
ing,
where, as so often in the Middle Ages, pri-
soners were confined.
The
city adjoining the
shows decidedly Italian features broad in
illus-
from the Psalms, "Out of
upon the Lord."
city hall
and
its
— above
tower
it
of
How
determine.
The
imbued
deeply
long
its
tradition it
is
of
impos-
examples
oldest extant
date no older than to the fourteenth century, but
one
may assume
that
Hebrew
were illuminated long before
codices in Italy date.
this
As
in
fifteenth
century, a
of book-illumination than did the
was
alreadv
torial art
more
liberally
—
that
is
to say, to avoid
only the representation of God, but to abstain from
new
immigrants swept into Italy from the
manuscripts
and
Europe,
in
was
Italy
in
fashion to interpret the Biblical prohibition of pic-
wave, partly because, at that time, the
minated
settlement
manuscript illumination dates back, to
also
book illuminations.
Jewish
with Italian culture.
sible
and
northern Europe, there alternately developed the
Iberian Peninsula. This left fewer marks in the field
oldest
pervaded
folio is
Italian art,
the
all,
as an independent edifice.
At the close of the
wave
the
native
all
tower which does not, as
Germany, surmount the building, but stands
adjacent to
The
of the portal bearing gar-
typical of
of Italian-Jewish
haggadot including
205). Let us look, for example, at the
(fig.
ret
several
of Joshua written on
manner the whole
lands. In this
by a harmony
mention only one, was Joel ben of
on the arch
sit
Book
by naked cherubs. Other che-
a small tablet held
rubs
Renaissance,
rounded arch appears
re-birth of antiquity. In the
the
in for-
decorations
German
nothing
nature was at that time no longer least
of
all
in
books.
Hence, plants, animals and even people are
now
pictured with increasing enjoyment.
A
art of illu-
declining.
else; for
an object of reverence,
is
supremely charming work,
in
this
respect,
an Italian miscellanv of the late fifteenth or
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
407
202.
The hare-hunt from a Haggadah written by Meir Yaffe. Germany, 15th (Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati).
ins
century.
Museum
early sixteenth century, in the Bezalel in
Jerusalem (formerly owned by the Rothschild
family). It
is
greatly to be regretted that here
only one of
its
numerous delightful small pictures
can be shown. This
(fig.
illustrates the be-
208)
ginning of the Psalms, and
we
seated on a red cushion playing his harp. in a
garden which loses
by the sounds forest
^
and
itself in
without
He
This lovely scene
fear.
is
surrounded by a
is
wholly characteristic of Italian-Jewish book
mination, If,
its
gilt
sits
woods. Attracted
emerge from the
of music, deer
listen
David
see King
framework, and
this again illu-
joy in creating a picture-like effect.
in fifteenth-century
Germany, there had been
an influence from engravings, with their linear emphasis, in Italy
it
came from
easel pictures
with their golden frames, decorated churches and palaces.
This
tendency
towards
even more pronounced nides'
now
Unfortunately, .
Prepara
Nuernberg
h
.
,
tor the Passover.
idah.
(Schocken
From
valuable
,
the
Library,
l:>th
century
Jerusalem).
picture-like
enough
in private
is
Frankfurt-am-
in
hands
in
New
York.
only the second volume of this
manuscript L to
effect
manuscript of Maimo-
Mishneh Torah, formerly
Main, but
203.
in a
is
preserved,
l
prove the eminent
artistic
but
this
is
abilities of
•
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
409
IN
THE MIDDLE AGES
410
• f\>w iy*HH tnpijijjytofihpvp* v***i i3?*n *j*9*a 93*> *4 l^>^»*l 1NW» V**H ^llitil *>J'>» \>* w*-* J*V'>^ 4* **
Mto
.+•*»
£«&
-»ai
— '*>jh>
>•
** *••# '>> Vi
jphh.1 l>t
^•^i'
*w ^m
.*6» us* p»t*t» *&>Jj»ft i****/*^*)*^ £TT)i i»**tw f*^»" *****
H
J***!
wi
»*-vi *«m^» **d
h
,
•'>«UJ
,
>
*»*i
^""t?
-"rtf
**
w w w^ts ?w ^ot pa?
'fK
The Shepherd. Miniature in the Meshal ha-Kadmoni of Isaac ibn German MS. of the 15th century, following traditional pattern.
204.
Sahula.
National and University Library, Munich.
Each book begins with an
the illuminator.
word
in
burnished gold
Jewish book-art
is
same time,
initial
this
—
initial
which
a technique with
But
well acquainted.
word
is
at
the
placed against a
picture illustrating the contents of the tractate. In this, as in
many
other instances, the
initials
pictures arise not only from an artistic
simultaneously
serve
a
practical
facilitate the finding of the
section.
Our example
section dealing with is
(fig.
and
need but
purpose:
thev
introduces the
The Temple
an echo of the Mosque of
a
picture
which
many
Omar a
in
Jerusalem,
fifteenth-centurv
brought back with him as a
an
ox,
while a priest pre-
and
left.
Behind the
the undulating countryside with
lies
trees in the distance. All this
in accurate perspective,
is
hills
not presented
but nevertheless achieves
an illusion of depth.
Such a degree
209)
here shown as an octagonal structure, obvious-
of
Temple
possible.
ly
traveler to Palestine
right a youth sacrifices
mastered,
service.
flank the Temple; on the
altars
pares the burnt-offering on the
desired paragraph or
Temple
Two
memento.
more Thus,
successful of a
of technical skill having
ambitious
achievements
were
for example,
we have
very
attempt
synagogue
ben Asher's
been
at
in a
representing
the
a
interior
superb manuscript of Jacob
ritual code, the
Arba'ah Turim, co-
pied for a wealthy Jewish banker in Mantua in 1436, and
now
in
the Vatican Library
(Codex
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
411
112
positions are frequently illustrated. Avicenna, the
great
Arab physician of the eleventh century, was
work ("Canon")
the author of a comprehensive
on medicine, which had become a standard work
V
in its
Hebrew
that
some wealthy
translation. It was, therefore, natural
fifteenth-century Italian Jew,
probably a physician, commissioned a magnifi-
many
cent copy of this classic; after the volume
core"*
'HDfi
vicissitudes
today in the University Library
is
of Bologna. Here, too, the books are introduced
bv fully-illuminated pages. The one reproduced here,
(fig.
210) greatly reduced
in size, introduces
the chapter dealing with the cure of diseases in
we see
general. So
£wr tertian
the physician's consulting room,
where the patients wait
their
doctor
hand extended
is
company
seated, his right instructions
he
Only the
turn.
to ac-
The top and embody the signs
giving.
is
left-hand margins of this folio
of the zodiac, for astrological considerations of superior importance in medieval medicine.
were
The
function of the musician depicted at the bottom is
less
easy to understand.
About the middle began
serious rival
of the fifteenth
to threaten the hand-written
and hand-illuminated book: the Page from Haggudah illuminated by Joel ben Simeon, N. Italy, 15th century. Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
205.
555
Rossi
)
The
.
interior
the
of
thrown open and permits us
to
synagogue
is
take part in a
Jewish religious service as held in fifteenth-century Italy.
On
the extreme right
is
noble piece of Gothic carving.
surrounding him
enwrapped
human
in their
figures are
is
in
gracefully intertwined in the
memorable codex there are composed
similar
in an identical
from contemporary
ner, depicting scenes
fact
man-
life
—
a court justice, a butcher's shop and a delightful
illustrated
by an
early
der meal
New
211). Now, the participants wear
(fig.
Renaissance
York, from which
the page depicting the familiar Se-
known
to us
costumes of the High
from the pictures of Ti-
tian or Veronese; the table, too,
heavy with foods,
testifies
to the
abundance
Even
in the
seventeenth centurv the art of the
of that time.
written and hand-painted book did not cease, and in the
will
eighteenth century
be treated elsewhere
other author.
it
had a
in this
revival. This
volume by an-
**
representation of a Jewish marriage of the period.
The
is
the ample and splendid
At the beginning of the three other main sec-
illuminated pages,
This
sixteenth-century Italian haggadah in the Jewish
A dignified old man.
prayer-vestments. Plants and
*
Illuminated manuscripts yielded to this rival only gradually.
we reproduce
the congregation devoutly
of printing
together with illustrations
Theological Seminary in
surrounding framework (color plate).
tions of this
letters,
art
the form of woodcuts, and later of engravings.
the Torah-shrine, a
the draped scroll in his hands, stands in front of it;
with movable
century a
VII
fashionable clothing indicates the prosperity
with which the Italian Jews of that dav were
We
blessed.
Jewish manuscript art on the countries and times
is
Even more
tl
abandoned
at
in in
Germany, the
imes
in
Italv,
religious field
and secular com-
*
**
have repeatedly
See chapter XII. See chapter XI.
stressed the
dependence
of
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
413
206.
in
which
it
originated. This involves the question
ap-
to
the text sometimes provide us with
conclusive evidence. scripts
To be
sure,
not
all
manu-
have colophons, and those which have
them usually
tell
THE MIDDLE AGES
414
Introductory page of Bible MS. completed in 1494 in Italy (probably Naples). University Library, Aberdeen.
whether these works, certainly written by Jews, were illustrated by non-Jews? The colophons
pended
IN
of the
work
of the scribe, not of
the illustrator. Nevertheless, there are exceptions,
and these include some manuscripts tic merit.
To mention
close
the
of
written
in
the most important: at the
thirteenth-century
Germany
of high artis-
(fig.
Mishneh Torah
197),
Simeon Halevi thanks God that "worthy to write, to complete and
Nathan
ben
He made him to finish
with
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
415
information
can
be based onlv on
certainly
personal experience. His work
but written in
he
that
is
Hebrew
416
in
is
Portuguese,
which proves
script,
addressing not the general population,
but his co-religionists. This documentary evidence
many such
reinforced by
would make
various arguments which that
is
it
likelv
manuscripts, though thev do
not mention the fact, were actually illustrated
by Jews. The Sarajevo Haggadah and the of the
memorable
Spa-
series of 14th-century
nish haggadot have no colophons.
rest
However, we
often find here several scenes assembled on one
page; for instance, the creation of Eve, the Fall,
the expulsion from Paradise and the
human
first
couple at work. Christian art would
picture these happenings from left to right.
Here, however, the right
first
scene starts on the
and continues towards the
direction of
Hebrew
script,
artist-scribe naturally set
left.
Opening page Spain or
Bible.
of the
Italy,
Book
about
of Joshua in an illuminated
1500.
Bibliotheque
artist of
is
the
and apparently the
down
the sequence of
his scenes in this order. Again: 207.
This
the Christian
the Middle Ages, illustrating the Old
Nationale,
Testament, depended mainlv on the text as
Paris.
painted pictures the book of
Ibn Maimon." The fourteenthcentury Farhi Bible
186)
(fig.
was written and illuminated b\ Elisha
ben Abraham Crescas,
and the Kennicott Bible
(fig.
192), by Joseph Havvim. Here
we have tion
the interesting situathe
that
illuminator
scribe
are
and the per-
different
demand for illustrated manuscripts among Jews in sons: the
Spain was apparently so great that
a
division
of
was
labor
desirable.
We
even know a tractate on
the art of illumination
(Libro
de como se facem as cores)
composed b\
a Portuguese
Jew
by the name of Abraham ben Judah ibn Havvim. The
trac-
King David. Introductory miniature to the Book of Psalm in miscellany volume executed in N. Italy, late 15th century. Rothschild MS. in the Bezalel
208.
tate de;ils with the preparation
of colors,
tbove
all
gold.
Such
Museum,
Jerusalem.
Prayer.
From an
illuminated manuscript of Jacob Ben Asher.
Mantua,
Italy,
1436
417
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
209.
The Temple. Page from an illuminated MS. Italy,
The Jewish medieval on the other hand, knew a large number
he found artist,
of legends
Bible and
We
in
it
the Bible.
which had been woven around the
made ample
use of them.
see, for instance, in
how Abraham
is
of the
15th century. Private collection.
haggadah manuscripts,
locked into the burning oven
but
Jethro
fully
Pharaoh bathes
in the
Nile
by the Egyptians;
blood of
Israelite children
Maimonides.
Moses
his
is
imprisoned by
daughter,
her. This
Zipporah,
wedding
(illus-
Second Nuernberg Haggadah)
faith-
shows other characteristic features drawn
from dailv
former,
the
by
freed
trated in the
under a
into
of
418
York.
whereupon he marries
body
cast
Mishneh-Torah
New
to rid himself of disease;
by Nimrod, but emerges unharmed; Joseph's dead is
THE MIDDLE AGES
IN
life.
Thus, bride and bridegroom stand the
tallit,
and the
to the latter.
A
mother being next
rabbi,
winecup
in
to
the
hand, next
miniature in the Cologne Mishneh
|EWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
419
which these foods are consumed
German
a .^t*_^t-**-'-
fir*'
420 portrayed in
is
Bible of the thirteenth century, pre-
-
Ambrosian Library
in the
served
Milan (cod.
in
hebr. 30-32).
In
spite
humor
the
of
seriousness
of
these
scenes,
occasionally gains the upper hand. In the
Washington Haggadah, we see the
arrival
of
Elijah
who
mount
are also seated no fewer than four children,
riding on a donkey,
is
some on the
and on the same
In the same haggadah the three
tail!
symbolic dishes are reproduced which are essential
to the observance of the Seder service: the
lamb,
paschal
bitter herbs.
unleavened
the
and the
bread
The unleavened bread
is
held aloft
by a monkey, while a man holds up the herbs, at the
hand
at
his
same time pointing with
bitter
his free
wife! This and similar pleasantries
are repeated also in other haggadot.
Jewish book illuminations, moreover, show, at
which are manifestly Jewish by
times, illustrations
reason of their fidelity to the actual words of the
Hebrew The
210.
Aviccnna.
Physician. Illuminated page of the
"Canon"
15th century. University Library, Bologna.
Italy,
text.
There
is,
for instance, the sentence
of
occurring in the haggadah:
"Go
forth
and learn
Torah of 1295/96, already mentioned, reinforces
Moses with the Tablets
the point.
men and women
of
illustrates the
Law
of the
stands in front of a rock, from which a
crowd
This apparently
look out.
tells
how
God
turned the mountain over them, saying: "If
as the Israelites reached
you accept the Torah, mountain
ji«pB» j-cife:" raw
it
is
mount
the
artists,
of
Temple and
Nor
is
it
are
also
Elijah, its
Messianic
the or
appearance
the
*" '
'
^
"'
':
*J^»
of
implements.
onlv the haggadah that exploits these
^f»ilTO.#« &
The French miscellany of the thirteenth century, now in the British Museum, displays on
—
the
Yakhani or Ziz (a gigantic bird, here shaped
like
separate pages three mythical creatures
an ostrich) the Leviathan (a colossal sea
and the
aurochs
of buffalo with an is
v\-
scenes,
topics.
mal)
iv<
well; otherwise, this
and therefore presumably painted by
coming
the
sr
Sinai,
-V'.
Jewish
f.-'-v **»• •\B'9>f.ioi
be vour grave." Completely Jewish
will
in feeling,
;••
well-known Talmudic legend which
(shor
enormous
ha-bar)
tail.
,
a
mam-
}0r\ rvv d'jt
137
^7
w*! *ty orp rt$ o*^
1
kind
Messianic hope
legendarily linked with these animals, which
were
211.
to furnish the food for the righteous in the
Messianic
Kingdom.
Even the
festive
meal
at
The Passover meal. Page from 15th-century
haggadah attributed
Italian
Giovane. Adler Collection in the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. to
Bonifazio
il
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
421
what Laban, the Aramean, designed father"
Jacob).
The
artist
this
by a young wanderer
walking across a
and a book
hand
"Go
rates the phrase,
is
found
(fig.
connection with the "four
in
who have
their different
towards the miraculous happenings of
attitudes
narrative.
"Thou
haggadah
to ask questions," the shalt
open up
Many
for him."
an
however, deliberately ignoring the true
illustrator,
meaning
"who
As regards the youngest
knows not how advises:
212); thus, he sepa-
independently. Similar
it
sons" of the haggadah,
the
of the Cincinnati
and learn" from the
forth
context and illustrates
treatment
422
a lance over his shoulder
field,
in his
THE MIDDLE AGES
do to thy
to
illustrates
(i.e.,
Haggadah
IN
of the phrase, puts a
who opens up
companion next
to
mouth. Such peculiar-
this
son
ities
could hardly have been painted by non-Jews.
his
From all this, it is manifest that the number of Hebrew manuscripts illustrated by Jewish artists is
handful thus designated
far greater than the
in the
colophons.
From
the Jewish point of view, there were no
objections to calling in non-Jewish assistance in
masters of graphic
art.
Such outside aid can be
traced through the whole history of Jewish
art,
212.
and could
also
have been
making books. In trast to, for
utilized for the art of
however
this field,
example, architecture
No
favored the Jew.
—
—
—
everything
was
a Jewish scribe
dispensable to a congregation.
The need
of
in con-
matter to what occupations
the majority belonged
The Wayfarer. Marginal illumination to Haggadah ben Simeon. Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati.
Joel
for
in-
Torah
ments through personal inhibitions (by the pro-
outward
hibition of
making images)
restrictions
(by not being accepted into guilds),
or through
they found the art of book-making in
many
cases
prayer-books, codices of the Talmud, the
the only channel for their artistic urge. For this
works of the great religious sages, marriage con-
reason medieval illuminations are of such great
scrolls,
tracts
and
bills
of divorce
was
sufficient to give
him, at least in a larger community, a full-time
occupation
and
at
the
same time an assured
livelihood.
Torah
scrolls
were concerned, had
it
follows that
some
as far
meet not
to
only ritual but also aesthetic requirements. this
peoples, the art of illumination
From
of these scribes felt im-
pelled to decorate their manuscripts,
with
illustrations.
Barred from other
initials,
where
ornaments
permissible,
it
was
and even
artistic
achieve-
is
only one aspect,
and not even the most important one, the art of the book activity.
All
talent
of their
For medieval Jews, however,
artistic productivity.
Such writing required great care and, as
Among other
significance for Jewish art in general.
is
is
the center of
all
directed toward
artistic
it.
Here,
the rich storehouse of Jewish thought and imagination, find
of Jewish
pictorial
solemnity and Jewish humor,
expression.
And
here,
finally,
we
have the clearest evidence of the fact that the Jews of the Middle Ages enjoyed form and
color.
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS AFTER THE INVENTION OF PRINTING ERNEST
by
With the
invention of printing the role played
by miniatures and illuminations
came
in
an end. Calligraphy was
to
European
art
to eke out a
precarious existence in the chancelleries;
do-
its
main would no longer be the book but the manudocuments and diplomas, and
facture of
would be exposed the printed
From
in
its
too,
it,
turn to the influence of
M.
NAMENYI
the sopherim
were able
printing at the
art,
The miniaturists long tradition, had acquired
aspiration
artistic
which thev
outside of their
principal vocation. Thus, for example, scrolls of
the Book of Esther
hanced with
artistic
for the creative
were often en-
(megilloth)
work
Another
decorations.
field
of scribes, in the countries
where Sephardic culture predominated, was the preparation
letter.
the point of view of
an
to satisfy fully only
And
of
or marriage
ketuboth,
contracts.
in the eighteenth century there re-
finally,
and prayer-books
outset led to an impoverishment.
appear haggadoth
and illuminators
with miniatures, as well as communal registers
an unusual Rich
page.
of
facility
the
in
were
patrons
art
of
decorating
accustomed
to
a
this
magnificence and regarded printed books as the
product of a craftsman, not of an in
order
conceal
to
incunabula
were
entrusted
to
Indeed,
artist.
the
plainness,
their
miniaturists
and
designs.
was
This
the
case,
and subsidiary
charities
organizations.
The forms
of
European
art applied in all these
We
fields of artistic activity.
will revert to
them
first
one by one. Baroque and rococo became a uni-
in
versal language, culminating in the classicism of
order to be embellished bv hand with ornamental letters
and those of synagogue
illustrated
for
the end of the 18th century. Nothing contributed
more
to the dissemination of these forms of ex-
example, in various copies of the earliest edi-
pression than the spread of the art of engraving.
Hebrew Bible. But such survivals were exceptional. The ornamentation of printed books took before long a new direction in accord-
Through
men and
ance with the techniques of printing and the
inspiration from
tions
of the
number
ever-increasing
which poured
of copies
this
means, the sopherim,
artists,
of art of all
became
like all crafts-
familiar with the works
Europe. They were thus able to draw
illustration of
it
for decorative motifs
books and
and the
scrolls.
from the press. Nevertheless, in Jewish book art, printing did II
not completely eliminate miniature as late
as the
and even
17th and 18th centuries, Jewish
The outward form
found one of
contract,
artistic creation istic
art,
expressions
in
its
most character-
illuminated
books.
The
is
of the ketubah, or marriage
not fixed by any religious prescrip-
tion; only its contents are
determined by rabbinic
sopherim (or scribes) never disappeared from the
rules.
scene of Jewish
proved by documents dating from the 10th cen-
to
copy Torah
life,
scrolls
texts for use in the
governed
this
because
and
it
was
their
duty
certain other religious
synagogue. Strict regulations
type of work,
all
artistic
fantasy
being exclv ded. The constant desire to give a perfect form
their calligraphv preserved
among
tury.
the
The custom
of
illuminating
ketuboth
is
Thus, one marriage contract discovered in Cairo Genizah has
its
text
encircled
by
a
colored architectural decoration in micrographic writing;
while some of the text
The custom
is
to decorate ketuboth
in
color.
seems
to
have
213.
been widespread
Illuminated
later
on,
marriage-contract
for
the
first
{k,etubah)
known
medieval specimen after the one referred to above, is
426
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
425
of
German
(Austria).
It
origin,
,
Padua 1670. Museo Correr. Venice.
these works of art prior to the 17th century have survived.
The
largest
number
of
them (with the
being dated 1391 at Krems
exception of some Oriental-style ketuboth from
husband placing the
North Africa and the Balkans, which seem to
represents the
ring on the finger of his bride.
However, few of
preserve an old tradition of exuberant
floral
deco-
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
427
rations),
come
essential
home
one another
428
which was the
seasons, while the legendary coats-of-arms of the
of this art. Here, families vied with
twelve tribes of Israel are also sometimes included
to us
from
Italy,
commissioning richly-illuminated
in
In more elaborate miniatures a drawing of the
ketuboth on the occasion of a marriage: indeed the Sumptuary Laws enacted by the community of Ancona in 1776 forbade its members to spend more than the sum of 40 poali in the illumination
is
of the marriage contract.
we
In the 17th century, the forms of Italian ba-
roque dominated the
conception of these
artistic
213).
(fig.
City
Jerusalem
of
("That
the
in
Psalm
of
spirit
my
place Jerusalem at the head of
I
On
frequent.
quite
find a
of illustrations
series
"Thy wife
be
shall
ketuboth
certain
of
137 joy")
again,
Psalm 128:
as a fruitful vine, in the in-
nermost parts of thy house; Thy children
like
documents with many remnants of the soberness
olive plants,
of the Renaissance. In the 18th century the forms
occasionally depicted in contemporary costume.
baroque
of
but
remain,
a
excess
certain
of
—
of Esther
ketubah of 1756 (British Museum, MS. Or. 6706)
bears the
decoration
the
has
appears.
within
written
text
superb
a
portico
a
two
of
twisted columns surmounted by cherubs. At the
two miniatures ornament the work, the
base,
whole completely encircled by a cut-out garland colored
of
The
flowers.
grace
more severe
classical taste
example
for
as
expressing
also
by
one
in
makes
of
the light
itself
Towards the end
decoration.
floral
a
rococo,
of
forms
structural
baroque are before long supplanted
rich
in
of the centurv
appearance,
its
document
beautiful
decorated in Ferrara in 1775, bearing the majestic figure of
Ohio).
cinnati,
The
Samuel (Hebrew Union College, Cin-
is
often placed inside
an architectural doorway, sometimes
in a portico
with two openings, recalling the tablets of Moses. In the Balkans and Islamic countries of the old
Ottoman Empire, these doorways occasionally take
window
the form of the outline of a
or
mihrab (prayer-niche). Floral decoration lacking,
bearing the
inevitablv
imprint
is
of
a
never
of
the
generally
encircles
of the
the
—
two families
traditional
a very
overtones,
coats-of-arms
common
motif in
Another signs
the
of
the zodiac,
engraving
as well as s\
element
in
frequently thus
certain
used
creating
printed
a
were link
the
with
prayer-books,
with the floor mosaics of the Galilean
nagogues o
zodiac are con
he Classical period. The signs of the
lemented bv svmbols of the four
lend
illuminated,
with representations of
too,
and Eve, the
Ketuboth are frequently
text.
Adam
married couple, shown under
first
Knowledge
the Tree of
Garden
in the
of
Eden.
such iconographic elements, themes in
Besides
with
connection
the
about
individuals
be
to
married were used to decorate these contracts.
Rabbi Abraham de Boton 1588),
in
responsa
his
in
ketubah
the
the
discusses
(15), of
(1545-
Salonica
of
portraits
the
of
married couple, together with the sun and the
moon.
He
tates to
does not approve of
oppose
it
it,
though he
outright. Nevertheless,
on a 1718 Sienna ketubah
(e.g.,
Museum, Budapest) pictures their wedding clothes. On an contract
of
hesi-
we meet
in the Jewish
the
couple in
elaborate marriage
(probably executed in Amsterdam)
of
two members of the Texeira and the de Mattos
who were joined in wedlock in Hamwe see not only the portraits of the
in 1690,
married couple under a huppah or canopy held
up by cherubs, but
also the entire assemblage,
including a rabbi reciting the benedictions, and the hazan holding a wine-goblet
Italy.
—
Mordecai
are surrounded by minuscular
Songs or kindred
families,
folkloristic
and the Book
of Songs
ornamental patterns of the Song of
writing in
burg
with
These are
one of the bridal couple
of Esther or
Some specimens
period and the place where the work was done.
sometimes
if
table."
themselves particularly to the marriage contract.
In cities without artistic tradition, this floral decoration,
especially
name
inclusion
text of the contract
Song
Illustrations of the
Modena
Thus
round about the
It
was
a
common
of the married couple lical personalities
duties
were
(fig.
214).
practice to allude to the
by scenes representing Bib-
whose names they
and the occupations
also illustrated.
names
of the
carried.
The
young couple
Thus on the Sienna ketubah,
mentioned above, the virtue of hospitality
is
rep-
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
429
214.
Top
of illuminated
marriage-contract.
Hamburg,
430
Hayim Seminary,
1690. Etz
Amsterdam.
resented by a series of miniatures. These portray tht-
husband and
his bride receiving distinguished
on horseback
visitors
in front of their
house; the
husband followed by servants bearing provisions; the housewife
drawing wine from a cask and
turning the millstone; and finally the guests ting
around the table with
The names
sit-
who
illuminated these
marriage contracts are not generally known, nor
were always Jews, though
certain that they
is
it
a
few signed specimens are extant which prove
that this
was sometimes the
The framework
was sometimes
engraved, instead of being painted by hand. In Italy,
we
find a beautiful
plate form
surmounted by
and
name tribute
to
his
type, with
1693, for example, the
(in
Haham
much-loved
the
of
recently deceased,
was added
at
Isaac Aboab,
the base as a
memory) was current for many the Age of Emancipation. A
until
copy executed by H. Burg was
in use in
London
middle of the 19th century.
until the
Although the ketubah was the most
document with
and
decorations
architectural
young couple. This
some modifications
be illuminated,
to
it
common
did not
stand
Other opportunities were taken by sopherim
alone.
case.
of the ketubah
floral
the drawing of a
generations,
their hosts.
of the artists
plain
artistic
of their
and elaborate copper-
fashion.
Adam and
talent to
enhance the magnificence
work by the use Next
in
of miniatures in a similar
order
of
prominence are the
Eve, nude,
epithalamia or marriage-poems, generally in Heb-
under the Tree of Knowledge, with vignettes and
rew. Floral decorations, with allusions to the sub-
bevies of putti (cherubs) below: this seems to be
ject
of the sixteenth century at
and was perhaps executed
Mantua. In Holland, Salom
engraver of Italian origin of
painter and
Italia, a
whom we
shall
speak
again in various connections, produced, at about a
1648, colored rural
scenes.
another,
ketubah
copper-plate
by
far
hand) This
showing
was
simpler,
in
later
(subsequently a
number
superceded
Dutch
taste,
of
bv with
matter of the
poem
(e.g.
a house for the
newly-wed) were often appended ments not
in Italy
lacking.
to
such docu-
and Holland. Other occasions were Rabbinical diplomas, for example,
could be ornamented with the crown of the Torah
and encircled by decorations and cherubs. The custom iatures
Jews,
university
of acanthus leaves
of decorating with min-
diplomas
when they graduated,
(including those for example, at
of
Padua
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
431
432
period) could well serve
at this
There
as a model.
extant even
is
member
a license for a
of
a
wealthy family to act as shohet
which
or ritual slaughterer, in
man
the decoration includes a
performing
We
this function.
charmed by the
are
rah")
which
to
prayer,
in
("miz-
direction
eastern
the
nai-
mark
vete of the tablets used to
turned
one
decoration
as
for
the walls of the succah on the
Feast
amulets
or
Tabernacles,
of
215). Thus, for
(fig.
parchments
mystical
example,
as
bearing the divine
name
shad-
dai represent the best in the
Jewish popular art of Alsace.
Other instances are the omer
\\5.
Academy
Cut-out panel ('Mizrah'). Galicia, 19th century.
of Sciences, Budapest.
which were common
calendars,
while one executed at Castelnuovo near Sienna
in all countries.
1567),
(c.
now
in the library of the
Hebrew Uni-
Ill
versity, Jerusalem,
The main
field of artistic activity
maintained by
the sopherim after the invention of the printing press
was the ornamentation
Book
of Esther.
of the scrolls of the
For the ceremonial reading by
minated.
On
decorated rather than
is
illu-
the other hand, the illuminations to
the Book of Esther in the Alba Bible, executed
with Jewish collaboration in Spain
the 15th
in
century, reproduce certain characteristic features
the hazan in the synagogue on the feast of Purim,
of the later megillah illumination
only scrolls written according to ritual prescrip-
emptying of household refuse on the head
could be employed. For private use, how-
tion
ever, illuminated megilloth
were
in great fashion.
Moreover, while the decoration of the ketaboth is
limited
to
countries
ment
of
and
Italy,
to
a
lesser
Sephardi tradition,
the
extent the
embellish-
Europe
of the megilloth obtained all over
from the 17th century onwards. The
con-
text
tinued to be written generally in the traditional fashion, but the scrolls
How A of
the
early
is
the
but
obviously
to
belongs
is
to
Library
clearly
the
the
ascertain.
dated
17th-18th
with the date 1512 in the John
Rylands Libran
costume and gen least
illuminating
in sepia in the
Athenaeum, Liverpool,
century; anoth
at
of
impossible
superb unique specimen
1453,
of
tradition
back
goes
two
Manchester, displays the \\
enemy
style,
characteristics of a period
jenerations
after
this
date;
of
imagining him to be his Jewish
Mordecai
)
,
and
makes
this
it
con-
ceivable that illuminated megilloth were
known
the Iberian Peninsula at this period.
Extant
in
specimens of the
late sixteenth century
both from
Central and from Southern Europe plainly indicate a long antecedent tradition. in
were decorated with minia-
tures or with a copper-plate or etched frame-work.
megillah
her husband,
Zeresh's
(e.g.
any In
case, the record
Italy,
may be
two types
From
this period,
continuous.
is
of
illuminated
megilloth
distinguished. One, the most frequent,
purely ornamental.
The columns
framed with ornaments, either
is
of the text are
linear,
formed
of
entwining ribbons of rich fantasy and coloring, or else
used,
acantho-floral; in
imitation
sometimes, of
the
animals too are
frames adorning the
pages of the Renaissance manuscripts. Occasionally,
the beginning of the
into
a point,
owner's family
scroll,
which
is
cut out
contained the coat-of-arms of the in
the midst of lavish ornamenta-
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
433
tion.
The
illustration of the text itself,
stands by
however,
Thus, for instance, a beautiful
itself.
megillah of the beginning of the 17th century in
Rome
the Bibliotheca Casanatense in
(Cas. 4851)
and geometrical ornamentation
retains the floral
between the columns, but above these displays illustrated
miniatures
the
of
episodes
various
norms
prescribed
enclosed
all
geometric
within
In most cases, however, an architectural decoration prevails.
The
text
is
framed by the arches
an arcade and surmounted by elaborate tym-
panums. The twisted columns are girdled
in ac-
cordance with baroque taste with garlands of flowers,
and
and support cornices adorned with vases
allegorical figures.
Between the bases
columns and above the columns of
of the
text there are
which hangs one
of the ten unfortunates
associated with Purim
banquets,
the
— the presentation dancing.
The
of gifts,
!
produced the splendid megilloth preserved
artists
Collection in the
and
in the
stress
is
Esther.
Museum
Budapest
of Sciences of in
London. In
this
Holy Scriptures and the Book
The symbolic human
and those above the columns
A
of text
and the customs of Purim.
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—
1
o«Sf-ir»i tsrt-i'NO opjnH- fwn oi*H tr-tir** *isHr3 o*>tA»*i ta+HV-iso wv* s"J-ir>f>Nrt *5rv-sa> rron tfc"fc/3 rtjnj 1 J-V—>tfljn -vm J or-i t-»y->n li/ishs -f-yr^rr *iiHrs tyr^i toJ*-*« fii •v'-or^i rt Y+r-vrvie tu/ity »~ii ttt J < vp't tk/fc'j ttnafc'i rt-itt* r-ir-> r -» to t i r- H ? rtfrolf i -vp l->331 f-^j^-i,^,, ,-j,^^,^ i—,;,^, *-afr -iIs/m oif^w {—-tr-ifcHp oWiHt*H> i^/tj/, rtrtot- ir'ja n-m -f-.o^' u«-yir» J t1t MfYs t-^ *» a^rt'riD V""*** "nl»o e^a-n sib rffe/iM^a -y-^ fc,-^ tttfj-, t,HrfV —ifc/p t3'jfc>sii tst-r 1 mtt/piH1 \Si-t pye-r —>fcT< i3t3i* -ti&x-7 ij-tHi -|' >i3f" T ni&i "th orra bii-,^1-7 D^vrrir •a.j* 1 «fcT< ni'n at* 1 tynij-ttt ito'-jk" ->fipi q^'Hlfc/i Man, i ttc/t* jor-t k/oifcfffr< -froft r-iij« > »o ^ 333 tot-H' >X'i t3*—'»ir-t*r-t *7i>i «3 BrttfijA -top t
fl D'Ja->* »fc'"Hf" r-i-cc-tor-T <-ife.' Hoi a^nprt Try^elfio i' >o' > itfK r-rsN iw-H »fc»>i r"^flrt» ' *•=>• «-«3 3 r Trt.a ->bi "a ta " 'Hi "W ijh IpOk-'l "T *—ri—tS <3 tat-V 1—7i»ar—T J i*33j «3~*r rHVi-Sij -T^iin "y-y >a U"t3ii ti +-nn-i'rJ is'i ,, 5 ^te.'iti/iji TaJiV' iK3r £3T—i»Nil^i Uca"! ti'ort iW>r>3 liixi t3*-*-m—i't—-r 13 J tt~n
*ato<—
i
*-r-'ft*Ti •f->nti
—— .
-
'
—
V
.
1
1
— —
.
•
— —
——
—
—
,
illuminated
in
sepia.
South France, early
'
—
'
—
1
Ho
1
'
1
m
—
'
of Esther,
— —
—
— onp—
—
.
Scroll
—
1
'1
-^
—
—
1
MV
—
—
Tpi
can
16th century.
its
represented
ya ay-intfAwrr HrtpnS -v.fi -vp H03 xrnivi n*te'Ji tp ant< tr-iyrr rtJ'-io' op S*rV Ho jin jt3k u ~<&Sr nteiHco U/i-"fc>f'N -iHio^t j-uv-ro Has *^'H< am ush p* "truriV insrt Wfni) -v-vx k-Hrft «rr» -»fc>p ai& k'-tftH ty wvr r jnmHi o-opft Ho ? "iH>i ru«+»i tTJC^o Hoi •>
The
vivacity.
its
completely different tradition
>—item
illustrate
completely harmonious and, despite
is
richness, never loses
Jrwr
216.
The
medallions between the pedestals of the columns
traditional
X.
of
on top of the
figures
balustrade refer to the moral of the story.
Itfta'
F=P
work
on the connection between the various
of the
parts
Kaufmann
of Padua, the
Academy
Jewish
laid
the narrative
the
a re-
The same way competent eighteenth-century
whole
end), the customs
up with
presentation of a gallows on successive stages of
vignettes, illustrating the events told in the story
the
of
an otherwise blank column. The fantasy of the
and
(generally towards
the condemned
should figure, in bold characters,
by the Jewish community
patterns.
of
names
the
that
Haman
Book
of the
text
miniaturists sometimes filled this
of the Book, taking into account the midrashic
interpretations,
for the writing of the
sons of in
434
!^^ — o
1
i
Roth Collection, Oxford
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
435
217.
Scroll of Esther with cut-out borders illustrating the story of the
Book,
436
etc.
Roth Collection, Oxford.
by
a series of megilloth superbly executed in sepia.
Between the columns story
nations found sometimes on ketuboth were widely
current in Holland during the 17th century and
around medallions with heads. Below,
wers and
lions
beautiful
piece,
seems
flo-
surrounded the medallions. This resembling
wood-engraving,
a
show
tumes, too,
216).
(fig.
one executed
late copies
(e.g.
by a Polish
artist,
ably the finest
Of
exist,
at
type
this
of
including some
Venice
in
1748
Arveh Loeb ben Daniel). Probthe one in the Roth Collection,
is
Oxford, which was found (together with another of the
same type) by the present owner
French
origin,
It
is
where they remained
Alongside these illuminated
from
of
one here illustrated
which are
with
(fig.
The
218), several copies
quietness of the orna-
is equaled by the beauty of the vigThe arcades vaulting the columns are surmounted by a balustrade adorned with flowers
mentation nettes.
probably
emanating
from
the
indeed likelv enough that wood-
(presumably made
in
the 17th and 18th centuries) an elaborate
Rabillu-
mination presenting scenes of the stories of Esther, cut out of the parchment, with superb silk lining
laced frame to the
Museum
underneath and forming a
text. in
skill,
There are instances
London and
in the
in
Roth
unfortunately unsigned, but per-
birds.
Between the bases
Biblical novel.
entrance
The
the
of
last
of the
columns there
engraving represents the
Messiah into Jerusalem, taken
from the Venice Haggadoh of 1609, giving a messianic character to the whole.
The
technical
execution was as folloyvs: the decorative portion the
of
fh
extant.
megilloth
Outstanding among these
copper-plate borders. is
century
appear
and
In other megilloth
1
seventeenth
the
scrolls there
are twenty vignettes depicting the story of this
century.
Collection,
middle
of
certain Jewish communities early in the 16th
the Jewish
in fashion until the
of the 19th century.
to
thus,
engravings illustrating the Book of Esther existed
showing the
mizrahs
folkloristic
good reason
is,
Jewish communities of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin.
way on
their
Hungary, Poland, Alsace and North Africa,
into
was an engraved prototype
South of France. There believe that there
the
in
made
thence
be of a 16th-century tvpe, as the cos-
to
megillah several specimens
is
217). Such illumi-
of text the characters of the
flutter
in
(fig.
were drawn on a black background. Above,
garlands of foliage gush out of vases, while birds
in
haps from the same hand
scroll
vignettes,
was printed from one
which
yvere
inserted
the
plate;
later
on,
from
separate small plates, into the open spaces; the text
was then
Two more great
many
filled in
bv hand.
engraved megillotli are extant
copies. In both, the
columns of
are separated by decorative pillars.
one
is
in a text
The top
of
adorned with small landscapes having no
connection with the contents of the Book, while
.
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
437
the bottom sixteen vignettes follow the story
at
and
finish
with an illustration of the celebrations
P u rim. These vignettes, printed from separate
of
with vases containing
plates, are joined together
The page containing the
had
previously,
a
great
438
influence
Oil
the
hand-
illuminated megilloth of the eighteenth century.
The
engraver Francesco
Christian
Venice
produced
also
Crisellini
of
megillah
in
beautiful
a
is
1748, framing the text with arcades capped bv a
framed with scenes of the story of Esther. The
balustrade with vases of flowers and birds, and
other megillah, probably Italian of the seventeenth
illustrating
flowers.
century,
is
notable for the medallions placed above
the written columns;
the
The
initial
last plate,
five
characters
Esther, Zeresh and
boards of of
—
surrounded by acanthus
framing the blessings, has
word with ornamented
as tail-piece,
lettering and,
(Haman, Mordecai,
Harbona) carrying oval
sign-
probablv characteristic of the decor
contemporary Purim plavs. These two variants, less
artistic
below the
value than
the
scroll
described
the storv of Esther
vignettes set
in
text.
In the middle of the seventeenth century the
each contains the bust of
a character in the story, leaves.
blessings
moved from
production of engravings
to
Italy
Amsterdam. The megilloth executed bv Salom Italia in
Amsterdam
art.
We
the
conception
know two
markable
are
among
of his
the finest in Jewish
works
in copper-plate;
and execution are both
artistry.
He
places
the
of
re-
characters
on
pedestals between the columns of text.
framed bv a
The
rich architectural design with
text
is
baroque
B3»iw
BPOVJMi
rn^onrrt^riH*T3T5, nrw> n?3 *3-raH rvyi o.-n*yav rrnovi wr?* s-okj „Jt ^OTTyb 3ViB > n;nn3yrspT^;yft k
njnipur
,
,
,
H
rraa Bbp '30 t
>
h3WB 3rrt"'*30 "'CD^b»)i-ftorir!3?3O3 trie
mi
^-an# "wwyw*iwrt7«T»nritf'*!» oiai
an
jj
rw'
tmyvh ni"psn
rTTri'f7onTri3S (Din-'iK>''OT^irtnDTvJ vymptpg1? fa it -ry anfignrarura ,
wprv
I
'<
If
^1
\
'
r-
,
|
b—r—1» yv) r-ntp -ntx to rwjr? "Tins
r*<*'i
""»»* pw»arn t-va rt*
KbiTsri
*—«» p» warn •pan -
^Tw«n "iiBS'Bnwnwrw "rwSm»y s?tp
Scroll
of Esther with engraved
to
,-rtK ,
W^anrao'inHDjwr&Tww-pnhpri Sag rwt' onTT TfWojntfTO to o' qp
r^^TO#on^r^bira N«}eo- 33 ,
borders.
-fjraac
Km -nsy dw anrb annei oi«S dvd pn
"Wl
Sssnrb
218.
f won
!
p»ir)Nrntt'vicroK4aro , ^T's-->SycM< 7*3Nl7«*rtl
t| |v,
o-T^oyttfr*n?rwro 70 i»33->?e»
<
Hasin^rranripwnpTmBrrnffi-nM
nyiw
*3"i"'03T* itis-'S yyys rsMronpriNSfn
^WTsnrbpHB^iwps^w^mrvs
;» c
ipn'ro
porhn
_^,
,
,
Italy,
17th century.
,
i
i
ft
I
i
irmt" -ipNPrt
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE ACES TO THE EMANCIPATION
439
tympanums crowned by
women
made
of
figures
devoid of grace, using flowers and the signs of
charming
These engravings are missing
same hand we have
They
loth.
the
engraved
same
artist's
signature.
A
megillah of outstanding
made in 1687 in Amsterdam by Aaron de Chaves. The text is surrounded by by
lush floral ornamentation animated
The only
of creatures.
ning of the
scroll, a
kinds
all
illustration is at the begin-
medallion representing Esther
The seventeenth-century megilloth with copperornamentation are either of Italian or of
Dutch
origin.
From 1700 onwards
engraving appear also scroll
in
decorations by
Germany. One such
with decorations was executed by the Chris-
tian painter-engraver,
The border
and
nette
J.
J.
Frank around 1700.
of the scroll consists
of acanthuses
enriched with birds and female torsos and of oval medallions with landscapes.
The columns
of text
is
(but
not
One
attractive
colored
many fine
!
illuminated)
of
scrolls
less frequently, in
Persian type shows the text within
Here the hypothe-
borders.
Haman and
ancestry of
tical
Paris),
of Marie-Antoi-
guillotine
Esther were found also, though the Orient.
generations,
is
Mordecai, for
of
embossed with
elaborately
decorative effect. Perhaps the most curious
illuminated megillah from the East
one (Roth
is
Collection) apparently executed for the last sur-
China
in
the
of
(fig.
community
'lost'
of this scroll
is
decorated with the
Buddhist and Confucian symbols. To-
classical
wards the end, illuminations so that
figure,
Kai-Feng-Fu
of
in the nineteenth century.
219) early
The beginning
Chinese
we
dress,
are
in the fullest sense
shown an executioner
Chinese
culinary preparations
and
making
children
in
their
(in the usual place, at
the foot of the penultimate column)
gaily cele-
brating the feast.
by vases
are separated by twisted columns topped
Collection,
beheaded by the
Decorated
vivors
before Ahasuerus.
plate
(Klagsbald
century,
where Vashti assumes the features
merit was
artistic
end of the eigh-
a crude Alsatian scroll of the
the
scrolls, a medallion borne by two angels carries
the
the most interesting of these
the
At the beginning of the
scrolls.
is
conception as
artistic
Among
the zodiac.
teenth
some pen-drawn megil-
also
are of the
in
From
the smaller one of 1660.
scroll,
of the
in 1637, vignettes representing the
of
larger
landscapes are engraved between the bases of the
second
text
Biblical story with a naive decoration, not entirely
the
In
various scenes of the story, as well as
columns.
which frame the
megilloth,
loristic
these
holding palms.
scrolls,
and
flowers
440
IV
with flowers and small statuettes. At the beginning of the scroll three small engravings illustrate the story of the Book. In
engravings,
the
text
all
these megilloth with
remains written by hand,
except for the column showing gallows and the
names ever,
of the sons of Hainan.
Two
megilloth how-
were engraved entirely on copper
—
one
an indifferent piece of the eighteenth century, the executed by Marcus Donath
other,
(Hungary), a work of candid
Nyitra
From numbers
in
megilloth
were produced
at
folklore.
copper-plate borders
water-color.
in
great
Germany. These are only variants
the engraved scrolls; indeed, in
give
1834
the seventeenth century onwards, hand-
illuminated
actual
in
Some
evidence
craftsmanship
of
of them, fine
are
some
enhanced with
on the other hand,
artistic
taste
In the beginning, as
generally in S uthern
of
cases the
Germany,
and
solid
was the case
Italian influence
predominates. There are a great number of folk-
There
is
a close relationship
between the
engraving and good penmanship. ral that
Amsterdam, where
for
art of
only natu-
It is
more than
a hun-
dred years Hebrew books had been published with
ornamental engravings, should also witness the
penmen whose production
rise of fine
transcends
the level of craftsmanship. Epithalamia riage
poems) were very fashionable
especially
among
(i.e.
mar-
at the time,
the Sephardim, and as has been
mentioned, were presented to the bridal couple
an
artistic
in
form. Another matter for calligraphers
were books of apologetics
in
Spanish,
which,
because of their anti-Christian polemic character,
were not intended of excellent
to
be printed.
A
whole
line
penmen produced manuscripts which
give clear evidence of the high artistic standard of the
Dutch metropolis. Prominent among them
was Jacob Gadelle, who was an of calligraphy in
Amsterdam
in
influential teacher
the middle of the
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
441
.
»»
I
.
442
'
»*,
n*oT jron:^ Thorf? -pah
Wi poMUn
&/r^j>Kik^m8)£roh *qw znwmpn
*in» msD^-ypinsiv^o Dtt£*h Sjif^-i
vex TQjtrn rjrpi t$ "psb pa rp TVjri * •"it's
anwr ->ho 33 jnPirfc TO^Sy ox
pnrop-c^pxi Dpi rrornr^ }ry^3"
r
t^^rpfrrpnfppp^pTrypx^rirj
dt px Wtep hban
3n^ "phj tcn r Thro Qft&jjtD D*Wh oro
rvife^p
rm *^\x pk an wpSapi aton
219.
seventeenth century. extant
still
perfect
testify
skill in
The specimens to
a
rather
copyists,
who
Abraham Machoro beu
A
(c.
(c.
Hebrew Union College artist.
In
pages, as
1675) whose
(c.
(c.
1719).
museum
in Cincinnati,
Amsterdam
in
was
collaboration
in
.'jWki'
of
masters begin to
1775.
in
number
make
of
their
From about
1756 Yekutiel
who worked
Solomons,
appearance
—
same
Oxford
in
this
competent writing-
other centers of Western Europe
1700), Jehudah Macha-
produced bv an excellent scribe with a real
time, moreover, a
at
in various
Israel
e.g.
about the
time.
Another type of Hebrew illuminated manu-
engage us elsewhere,
small masterpiece, at present at the
of the
an aristocratic family
initials.
and Michael Lopez
1664)
hand taste,
executed such work,
include Benjamin Senior Godines rich artistic production will
title
<
China. Early 19th century.
in
of his
pedantic
the execution of the
well as of the richly-ornamented
Noteworthy
community
Scroll of Esther executed for the last survivors of the 'lost'
Kai-Feng-Fu
Jfehtej
bw$
r«JPB| tf$*WJ* nuoiwai hhafe* ftrfep
-
W mfct™?
-rep n"ifd tsp p^aj iibHflW^ "^p pr^h bh^Sfra Inrw oittifoso hw u •.r-^t'orncrTpx^^r x ptasJB *p* 373^1
it
which derives from
of this period,
script
of peculiar interest.
many households
in that
A
Italy,
precious possession in
country was a
roll
(
some-
times transferred into book-form) in which were
recorded the various
briefly
cities
and holy
sites
of Palestine, including the graves of the "saints"
and
periods which
Sopher wrote a small psalter containing a pen-
of the
drawing of David, with a convincing expression
were the objects of pilgrimage. These brief des-
of majestv
and humble devotion. The rococo
page and decorative vignettes
imitate
is
a
David
work
of
is
signed A.
Israel.
copper-
edition of the "al
The
picthis
question.
Aron Santcroos, who signed the
Talmud (1752-1765)
in
yede Aharon bar Avraham Yisrael."
finally
illuminated
to celebrate a
there
Hebrew
all
closer
also
wedding
in
is
which gave the reader an approxi-
of the
appearance of the places
in
Between the various extant manuscripts
a close family resemblance,
and there
therefore, every reason to believe that they
He
with contemporary scenes a
Hebrew epithalamium
gaily colored,
Probably
engraved title-pages of the famous Amsterdam
post-Biblical
were accompanied by naive drawings,
criptions
mate idea
engravings in a very ingenious manner. ture of
title-
Biblical
is,
were
based ultimately on an identical prototype,
by a in the
by
far to versimilitude,
visitor to or
executed perhaps
emissary from the Holy
Renaissance period.
Land
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
443
ever, a great difference
the seventeenth
144
between the court
art of
century and that of the eight-
when the latter's solemn quality gives wax more humane feeling, less stiff, more intimate,
eenth, to a
coming nearer
to the bourgeois taste.
These illuminated books of the eighteenth century are exclusively liturgical. Haggadoth, megilloth,
Sabbath prayers, domestic formularies, books circumcision registers, psalters and
of blessings,
prayers
incidental artistic
The
almost
constitute
the
entire
production. art of
engraving exerts
its
influence on the
technique as well as on the iconography of the manuscripts of the eighteenth century. The pen-
drawings closely imitate engravings.
It
is
some-
times difficult to perceive the difference between these drawings and copper-plate engravings. imitation of the engraving
The
coupled with the
is
imitation of the printed letter for the written text.
Since the finest printed books then
Amsterdam, the sopherim
came from
over Europe incor-
all
porated in their title-page the words "with the characters
of
Amsterdam." Very many of the
manuscript title-pages are adorned with the
fig-
ures of Moses and Aaron, a popular motive of the
Amsterdam
frontispieces
220). Meanwhile,
(fig.
the increasing diffusion of reproductions of works Aion Wolf Gewitsch. Title page Haggadah, Pressburg, 173l). Academy
of art, through the technique of the copper-plate, of Passovei
22(1.
acquainted the producers of the Jewish illuminat-
of Sciences.
Budapest.
ed book with the general
V In
witnessed
renewal
a
circumstances
buted
especially
primarily
Jewish,
continued
vitality
scribe, the other circles
of
said
art
Court jaws,
life
to reveal their inherent artistic abilities.
The
best example of this revival
in
the illuminated haggadoth.
the
the
svnagogical
of the new who endeavored
of Jewish religious
exception, on the
1712
at
proselyte
not
termed, came into being around these solid Jewish
the
haggadah,
We
men
illuminators,
/
a psalter for
an
it
need not be surprised, there-
that the
fore, to learn
as
most sought-after of these
m Wolf Gewitsch, Irian
also executed
archduke. There
is,
how-
of
in
engravings
Jacob,
Mattheus
be found
1695 and
bv
the
copied from the
Merian of Basle.
Nevertheless, these engravings of Merian which
did
art",
with
Abraham bar
to
almost without
haggadah published
Amsterdam,
Icones Bihlicae
is
The iconography
manuscripts was based,
might be
business
free themselves
and gradually began
of
with an atmosphere of luxury and beauty.
Thus, a veritable "court
so servilely,
and
was the emergence
of wealthy
imbue every circumstance
to
artistic,
of the
had been copied
contri-
One was
development. of the
have
to
unique
this
book.
illuminated
the
may be to
to
from dependence on those models which formerly
the eighteenth century, the Germanic countries
Two
tendencies of the
artistic
Thus they were able
times.
entirely
correspond
were
to
completely
the
text
of
transformed
by talented miniaturists, who succeeded sometimes in surpassing their model, enriching their
manuscripts with small genre paintings of real value.
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
445
rm iVllWJEJaJaM^M'-H.B^
most important characters
the
no doubt
that,
thanks to engrav-
knew
our miniaturist
ings,
the
:
and the child-prophet. There
princess is
446
the works
of the great painters of this period,
Poussin and de
like
same
treated the
The
la
Fosse,
who
subjects.
three angels
who appear before
Abraham are represented by Abraham bar Jacob as winged beings wrapped in a tunic, while Abraham kneels before them. Uri
the house of
Phoebus Segal of Altona, on the other
hand
(fig.
Jewish
The Four
Joseph Leipnik.
Sons. Miniature in Passov er
The
sages
Amsterdam Haggadah
the
in
B'nei-Brak
of
of
Merian
for
his
illustrating
them
(Genesis XLIII,
brothers
nine characters light of a
after the engraving
sit
of
34-4),
Joseph
where
around a long table under the
lamp. The haggadah, however, speaks
only of five rabbis, and the scene occurs in the early morning.
gadah
Aron Wolf Gewitsch,
in his
hag-
1730 (Kaufmann Collection, Academy
of
of Sciences in Budapest,
A
removes the lamp and
light enter
The
Copenhagen), youngsters
dressed in the Jewish fashion of the
Abraham
We
serves
them the dish prepared
see, thus, that
some
for them.
of the miniaturists of
the eighteenth century were not
mere
copyists.
Their other works (e.g. blessing-formularies), for
which they had no model cisively.
Where
hand, their
They
to copy,
prove
this de-
there was a model, on the other
artistic quality
enliven their
very often surpasses
it.
work with the humane and
kindly spirit of the rococo period.
•*
;
run
the broad day-
lets
jno
through the windows.
"four sons" of the
of
three
423), eliminates the
four superfluous figures, sets the rabbis at a round table,
as
of 1739,
time, sitting at a table under a tree;
represented
are
banquet
the
Haggadah
Museum.
of 1740. British
{Haggadah
Community
portrays 221.
222)
haggadah were copied
—!»N*r vxs nitr^S ppnntf san ar-yyki parrot? i j'zjk on-o^
by Abraham bar Jacob from various engravings of Merian,
which he assembles on one
plate, with-
out any connection between them. Judah Pinhas in his
haggadah of 1747 (Library
sity of
Erlangen,
but places them
MS in a
Drop Drh ti^ pso -rjnr nrr -u wins 03i njtr nisojrriN arm* ijji TF-Ssr pnnNTDjs pryTqmtfN
of the Univer-
1262) retains these small landscape,
figures,
makes the
wicked son stand, instead of running, and turns his face to the
monize
wise one,
who
thus seems to ser-
to him.
Again
in the
David Leipnik Sloane 3173) the finding of
haggadah finished by Joseph ben in the (fig.
year 1740 (Brit. Mus., MS.
221), the miniature showing
Moses has nothing
the composition of Merian.
in
common
The whole
with
picture
is
dominated by the group under the tree presided
by Pharaoh's daughter. The coloring emphasizes
222. Uri Phoebus Segal. Page of illuminated Passover Haggadah, 1739. Library of Jewish Community, Copenhagen
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
447
But he shows
it.
mastery
his full
448
those colored
in
miniatures where, free from any model, he creates
works of
real
the family seated around
art: .e.g.
the table at the seder in the van Geldern Hag-
gadah and
colors;
in
The
that of Cincinnati.
himself
presses
quiet
in
he composes
artist
ex-
and harmonious
lines
pages without muddling,
his
places his vignettes and tail-pieces with discri-
mination, and preserves a just balance between the
text
and the ornamentation.
Moses Leib continued
through Europe, and stayed artist of
established
at his house.
the
all
families
Jews were among the clients
spent part of his
works known
is
Arveh
The
first
of his
to us seems to be the prayer-book
Oppenheimer There
Vienna.
in
life
of
the
of
who, however,
this place,
the famous
for
native
Trebitsch also enjoyed a well-
reputation:
Judah Leib Cahana of
made
his
passed Trebitsch during his travels
turer-rabbi,
Court
at
Simon van Geldern, the adven-
Trebitsch, since
Another
seems that
It
reside
to
court
Simon Wolf
Jew,
in 1712.
another
who
artist
acquired a privi-
leged position in Vienna, and from whose hand a great
Wolf
Moses Leib Trebitsch. The Passover Meal. Page from 18th century. Formerly in Cologne.
Van Geldern Haggudah
The home
was Moravia
artists
and Bohemia, whose culture preserved
for gene-
rations the imprint of the former imperial metro-
While
polis.
after
Bavaria, the exiles from Vienna
in
1670 enhanced the
(Tora/i-curtains,
His
work
extant
oldest
dated
circumcisions,
Vienna
a
register
of
(Jewish
Museum, Prague). The painted
title-page of this
is
As on almost
richlv decorated.
.
most of these
of
Gewitsch.
of
have survived: Aron
of manuscripts
1728
is
223.
number
etc.);
art of ritual
embroidery
Moravia they gave a
in
we
all
the title-pages of the period,
of
Moses and Aaron, here surrounded by medal-
lions.
These represent Elijah
clouds in a chariot of
fire,
rising
Abraham
of the title-page
representing a synagogue
towards the receiving the
But the principal
angels, the sacrifice of Isaac. illustration
find the figures
is
a lovelv vignette
— on the
right, in front
new impulse to the art of pen-and-ink miniature. The oldest of these artists seems to have been
of the Tora/i-shrine, a circumcision scene; on the
Moses Leib ben Wolf
ing.
1713.
of Trebitsch, active after
the Cincinnati Haggadah,
In
masterpieces,
is
dated
1716-17.
one of
The
his
famous
left a
group of
at the
entrance of the build-
That same year, 1728, Aron Wolf made two
haggadoth lies,
women
and
for the daughters of well-to-do fami-
more haggadoth follow each
at least six
van Geldern Haggadah, immortalized bv Heinrich
other from 1730 to 1751, in addition to several
Heine
psalters, etc.
1723 his
his
in (fig.
gifted
"Rabbi of Bacharach,"
223). At
least
a
pen are known.
is
His
pen-drawings,
usually set off bv wash, are well-composed
genre pai ing as a
m
tings. Tel,
Whenever he he transforms
dated
dozen works from
little
takes an engravit
and recomposes
The census
of
Jews
at Pressburg in
1735 contains the following entry: "Aron Schreiher
Moravus Gebitsensis sarea Viennensi
—
7
Officialis in Bibliotheca
Uxor,
This obviously refers to our sible that
I
artist. It is
he worked with an
Cae-
famulus, I ancilla." thus pos-
assistant (famulus).
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
449
The
number
great
need
some
for
of his
would confirm
quality
works would
justify the
help, while the unevenness of their
A
it.
small Vienna psalter
of 1736, executed for Mayer Michael Simon at
Pressburg, at
Pressburg Aron
who
is
lives
production of
The Austrian National Library in
cantor
Hebrew
books.
Vienna possesses
in
made
1733 and 1738,
in
which contain the Book of Ruth
Hebrew and Lamentations
He was
in
German, the
in
in Latin, Eccleciastes
1593 and 1594).
fudaicus,"
micrographic ornamental hand-
writing from his pen,
Song of Songs
as
Aron Wolf did not
possibly his brother.
limit himself to the
two pictures
same house
the
in
"viennensis
Herlinger,
Israel
"Schreiber Herlinger," for
signed
is
and Esther
French
in
nov.
(ser.
responsible for similar
450
of these artists; with their art strongly rooted in
calligraphy,
almost impossible to attribute
is
it
any anonymous pieces with certainty. At
this time,
sopher Nathan ben Samson of Meseritz,
too, the
illuminated several haggadoth and formularies of blessings with a characteristic breadth of treat-
ment, brightly colored,
sharp contrast to the
in
neat penmanship of the Viennese masters. There are specimens of his
work
About the middle
of the century the production
moves
of illuminated books na's
ascendancy
in several collections.
declining.
is
into
Germany. Vien-
On
the other hand,
throughout Southern Germany, but, above
Hamburg, remarkable specimens
at
all,
of the art of
illu-
now emerge. The most important figure new school at Hamburg, Joseph ben David
mination of the
productions in 1749 and in 1752. Aron Wolf was
Leipnik, was of Moravian origin. He, like
an excellent penman;
who work at Hamburg, Altona and Wandsbeck, may be recognized by a growing tendency for
all his
works have a
graphic character. His pen-drawings set off
by
definite
(sometimes
coloring) are very neatly executed, with
perfect craftsmanship and impeccable taste, but
pictorial expression.
They no longer
all
those
imitate en-
gravings, but adorn their manuscripts with real
very often drily academic. His talents were emi-
miniatures. His later haggadoth (Bibliotheca Ro-
nently graphic and he only painted to enhance his
senthaliana,
drawings.
formerly at Frankfort, 1738; but especially British
Aron Wolf's competitor lam
(Zimel)
Vienna was Meshul-
Bohemia.
Polna,
of
"prayers
calligraphic
in
the
for
Two
sovereign"
German still
From
in the
true
year 1733.
medieval
the
of
It is
in
at
the
(Heb. 223
Austrian National Library in Vienna
and 224) were signed by him
large
Hebrew and
in
a calligraphic work,
massora
figurata.
the eighteenth century until the middle of
the nineteenth these artificial lettering devices the decay
an
of
art,
which,
among
mark
Jews, had
Museum, MS. Sloane 3173,
compositions small
book of Sabbath prayers (Add. 1133)
markable
at the British
testifies to his fine taste
skill.
Written in Vienna
A
Museum
and
in 1714,
completely.
pictures,
basically
talented painter,
who
of the great masters
relationship
at Pressburg. It
assign the works
made
in
is
very
is
a
his
Moses saved from
illustration of the "four sons" in
The
an interior has
does
representation of the various stages of the seder
it
of his works, but like
the
artistry.
1735 with 52 vignettes from
a
nothing to do with similar engravings; while his
some
of
was
the works
his re-
contains,
was formerly
knew
obviously
of 1740, representing
final songs, are all
haggadah
are their
of
the waters, and the paintings of the masters.
in
vignettes,
miniatures
independent
from engravings. There
by Aron Wolf Gewitsch nevertheless,
these
between the miniature of
ceremony and, above
Sabbath meals, of a naive but attractive
These
gressing the limits of good taste. Leipnik
not reach the high level of craftsmanship displayed
some
Al-
model, and richly colored, though never trans-
haggadah
that.
real
art.
Amsterdam haggadah, he transforms
of the
dence of the
fantasy of the Jewish scribes.
are
though he follows pretty closely the iconography
close
artistic
1740)
of
masterpieces of eighteenth-century Jewish
reached a verv high standard and had given evi-
But Zimel of Polna could do better than
Amsterdam, 1738; Limel Collection,
his
A
hand
difficult to
Vienna during the
first
half of the eighteenth century to one or the other
It is
all,
his illustrations to the
genre paintings of high merit.
not surprising that, gifted as he was, he ap-
pended
to the
haggadah he made
at Frankfurt in
1731, at the house of Isaac Schwarzschild, a portrait of
the daughter or bride of his patron (Za-
gayski Collection, consider him
New
among
York).
We may
rightly
those Jewish miniaturists
who
FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
|EWISH ART
451
European
artists to
Jewish
initiated the access of
intermediate type was
this
Judah Pinhas (1727—1793), who became court miniaturist at Ansbach in 1775. His famous
haggadah
1747
of
MS
Erlangen
of
pretty
follows
Amsterdam
(Library
happy modifications. The most where
one
the
is
the
the
of
forming the
genre painting, where his talent
is
Chapter XV); the patriarch
nesis,
comes forward towards the garden.
The Temple
contemporary
represented per-
between the Portions' in
untrammeled.
is
him over manv
Oriental dress
castle.
have bv no means enumerated all the scribes who decorated their books with more or less interesting miniatures
Some
drawings.
or
whole, their achievement does not add anything
in
which
to the
growth of Jewish
The stream tury
Jews entering the other
of Polish
Europe during the eighteenth cen-
countries of in
art.
resulted
in
introduction
the
of
the united "three communities" of Hamburg-Alto-
ropean folklore themes into Jewish
na-Wandsbeck. Their increasing prosperity
art of the book,
at this
time attracted several scribes whose work differs
make
element dominates. Merian's engravings serve
remote models, hardlv any trace of them
the
characters are dressed according
and East European
Central
of
fashion
Jews; for indeed,
some
of these artists
come from
of
however,
Eu-
East
In the
art.
did not
this influence
itself felt.
To be
from that of the Viennese school. Here, the picto-
to
of them,
generations:
Joseph Ben David Leipnik ended his career
The
a
indeed, produced works of real value, but, on the
for the nineteenth-century Jewish artists.
remaining.
as
We
svnagogue scribes and miniaturists prepared the
rial
manorial
sacrifice in a
of Jerusalem appears
art
manner
the family record illustrates the
as very
(Ge-
the
Judah Pinhas was the son of a sopher and his
wav
'Pact
VI substituted
artist
miniatures in bright colors, each of them a small
to
landscape. .Abraham
lovely
in a
page
interesting
engravings illustrating the ten plagues by ten small
had come down
unleavened
the
some very
with
1712,
of
edition
written,
engravings
the
closely
University
the
of
magnificently
1262),
carrying
figures
bread and the herbs, and leading the lamb
art in the nineteenth century.
Another scribe of
richly-dressed
452
sure, the fanciful animals
and grotesques
the medieval manuscripts which enliven the
painted walls of the land, appear also in
wooden synagogues
of Po-
some illuminated manuscripts
from the seventeenth century onwards. This loric art
is
folk-
encountered as far west as London,
where the Polish-born Aaron ben Moses Sopher,
Silesia.
Two
pieces
executed
influence exercised
Hamburg show
at
by the
art of
the
Joseph ben David
Uri Phoebus ben Isaac
Leipnik. Their author
is
who finishes Jewish Community
his
haggadah, (Library of the
of
Copenhagen)
Segal,
1739 and
Altona
follows
altering
Jewish
it.
The
dress,
iconography
the
characters,
are
set
in
in
of
lovely
fore,
heads the
official list of
the Chief Rabbis of
England), wrote and illuminated a book of miscellaneous pravers in 1714 for the librarian of the Earl of Oxford, with decorations and illustrations
Amsterdam,
North European landscapes
are grouped in small genre paintings.
Great Synagogue in London, whose name, there-
in
rew Union College, Cincinnati). In the former he partly
recorded rabbi of the
first
1741 (Heb-
at
a circumcision register in
formerly of Dublin, (the
A
or
startling
of touching candor (British
5713), as well as similar
where
for other patrons.
Museum, MS. Harley
volumes preserved
One
of the
most
else-
interest-
ing of the folkloric pieces of Eastern Germany,
under Polish influence,
is
a
haggadah by Nathan
wonderfully combined with a poetical
ben Abraham Spever, dated Breslau 1756 (Heb-
conception of the text to be illustrated. Thus, for
rew Union College, Cincinnati). Everything here
realism
is
instance,
the
men"
accordance with
in
Flowers,
fruit
moniously ritual
three
the
text
like
of
"three
Genesis.
and heraldic motives blend harthe
wit.
objects
appear
angels
o
:
the
calligraphy.
seder
are
The
statutory
allegorized
bv
is
secondary to the coloring; perspective, three-
dimensional representation His onlv concern
is
do not disturb him.
expressiveness and the deco-
rative quality of the painting. If
we compare
this
haggadah with the one made by Uri Phoebus
of
THE ILLUMINATION OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
453
Hamburg, we
common
notice a
source or inspira-
succeeded
in
blending the popular elements with the urban
art
but
tion,
tbe
already
has
latter
duces a work which reaches the acme of the
monopoly
Wherever the Jews
of folkloric art.
among
lived
eighteenth centurv, ciety of
of the treasures of folklore of the peoples, they
minated
adopted the
which they
language of the country in
artistic
lived.
Some memorable works
are
due
1740
year
the
(Klagsbald
1740; Jewish Museum, London,
Collection, Paris,
His pen-drawings, which merely follow
1756).
the wood-engravings of the haggadah of Venice, are of
with
tion
coloring,
livelv
its
crowd
daisies
floral
ornamenta-
tulips,
carnations,
importance, but the
little
the spaces not required by the
all
text or the illustrations.
In
we in
the
find
eastern
a
part
folkloristic
of
Havim ben Asher Anshel
Jewry
some
talent,
of
artist
of Kize
(Kopcseny
Hungary), whose haggadoth (extant collections)
do not contain any
text,
but only
plays
all
local
popular
which
The
art.
to these works.
micrographic
in
of inexhaus-
more miniatures,
In ten
in
which
he shows forceful expression and expert composiceremonies and the
tion, the artist illustrates the
moment
beliefs that follow the
has an
artist
succeeded
poignancy a scene
in
on the
seated
of death.
rendering with such
in
which we see
mourning
a
consuming the meal
floor,
him bv the members
offered to
Seldom
of the fraternity.
These miniatures are among the masterpieces of Jewish
linking,
art,
so
speak,
to
medieval
the
miniatures with the art of the expressionist pain-
our dav.
ters of
dis-
The
The character
ornamentations of
floral
add
a
unique loveliness
flora of all the countries of
Europe where the Jews lived
is
of the rich
represented here.
synagogue patrons
changed around the end of the eighteenth
centurv.
In
the grace of the rococo, as well as of the
these illuminated books
also
illustration of the
ornamentation
floral
in
various
in
Museum, Budapest).
contains the so-called "Treatise of Ge-
it
fantasy.
tible
illu-
and some secondary deco-
title-page
henna" adorned with seven miniatures
Jew,
Ashkenazi
its
such as a figure of Moses
rations,
in
the pinkas of the Burial So-
cantor of Posen (Jewish addition to
lettering,
Alsace,
is
1792 by Judah ben Havim, son of a
in
to that folkloristic influence, as for instance, the
in
and perhaps
this kind,
Nagvkaniza, which was written and
haggadoth made by the scribe Abraham of Eyringen,
specimen of
finest
the chef d'ceuvre of the illuminated book of the
rural populations, the guardians
scattered
art
book illuminations.
of Jewish
The
the East European Jews did not have a
two elements pro-
while, the combination of the
around him. Still,
454
The communities
of Central
Europe now
reorganized themselves. Emulating the older communities,
the
new
ones,
loving attention on their
wished to lavish
too,
Memorhuch,
or
memo-
the nineteenth centurv the
In
dies out
1
(
)
.
The Jewish
the artistic production of
The of
art of illumination
artists find their all
miniaturists of the Jewish
European book
in
place in
countries.
the Centurv
Enlightenment are the forerunners of the pain-
who
ters,
in the
following century occupy a most
honorable place, and
later play a role of first
These miniaturists
art.
what
Moses
than one hundred years
less
importance are,
Mendelsohn
in
was
European
in
the field of in
the
field
art,
of
their Kuntres intended for the cantor
thought: the carriers of a synthesis between Eu-
and containing the special svnagogical formularies;
ropean culture and Jewish tradition. Thev express
and, above
this tradition
rial register;
all,
their pinkas,
with their statutes
and minutes. The same applies with even more force to the synagogue fraternities
(hebroth)
.
charities
Sometimes these books belong
folklore type
—
the Kishinev
community
flect
and
e.g. a
to the
They
with the
artistic
means
of their time.
often fumble, but thev prepare the
future generations, talent with full
who
wav
for
are able to develop their
masterv of their chosen medium.
superb pinkas (register) of
— but
as a rule thev re-
the tendencies of European
art.
Once
in
a
J Exceptions must be made, of course: e.g., ( ) Haggadah executed by Arthur S/.vk. published
in
1930.
the elaborate ir
facsimile
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK ABRAHAM
by
The influence
and
of the manuscript,
was
of the illuminated manuscript,
implicitly
clearly discer-
nible in the earliest productions of the printing
On
whether Hebrew or non-Hebrew.
press,
new
other hand, printing disclosed numerous
the pos-
which would never have occurred
sibilities
to
when
the narrow
scope of the effort and the fact that
was done
the producers of manuscripts,
once for
were inherent
all,
it
the very nature of
in
M.
MANN
HA HER
an exemplary page. The type-face
hibits
cut, the
columns are straight and
and large wood-cut
volume and
this
were
ner of work.
one of the
earliest
wider circulation achieved thereby.
inestimably
were following the example
and continuing It
were
work.
The printer, work in many
too,
endeavored to embellish
his
ways: by using good paper, effective implements, fine
and expert
inks
artisans.
But
his
primary
concern was to obtain a handsome type-face
made
by an expert scribe and cut by a practised engraver;
good type-setting improved the layout of the
page, which was enhanced bv effective lettering, decorations and borders.
illuminators to adorn the book,
in
the 15th century.
practice
The
early books such as Levi tary to Job (Ferrara,
and
mam
with
regular
the
of
work" of that
too.
Meshullam Cuzi and
and
printed
We
first
scribe-
this, too,
Jewish
words
in
was
printers
several
ben Gershon's Commen-
1477) and the Brescia Pen-
know
Abraham Conat (Mantua), who were
of
Conat's type-faces were cut after his writing, this
are
his
in
compared with
The
first
is
his
when
manuscript
been
filled
as in a
The
in
mam
by a
skilled
illuminator,
exaetlv
secono.
dated
letters.
name
printed
book,
model
in
and gene-
nor that of the
of letters: the Italian, the Ashkenazi
(which mer-
ged with the
although the
first
in course of time,
late Italian type-face also evinces the influence of
Spanish
characters),
own
and the Spanish-Oriental;
its
bellish their
work
In due course,
cursive form.
wishing to
to the utmost,
em-
had recourse
to
expert craftsmen for cutting their types, not caring
whether they were Jews or Gentiles. Some of the
script of the period.
Asher's Arhaah
his type-faces
mentioned. There are three classes
however, the Jewish printers,
which these vacant spaces have
for-
craft.
own hand-
printers sought an aesthetic
rally neither the draftsman's
type-cutter
of
characteristic Ashkenazi cursive;
immediately obvious
is
each has
for hand-illumination. Several co-
pies are extant in
definitelv
this
merly scribes and went over to the printing
tateuch of 1492, were not printed, and the space
empty
exchanged
his family (Piove di Sacco)
was
left
book,
and made a "holy
several varieties of the copyist's letters,
Sometimes the printers made use of a
at first scribes
who, perceiving the signs of the times and the potentialities
in the quality of the
man-
highly probable that some
is
printers in the early period
their craft for that of printing
one period to another
in
of the
their traditional
differences from one place to another
This applied also to the printed book.
found
other early printed books,
in
In the age of manuscripts there were, of course,
and from
form
in the
of this sort already occur in manuscripts; hence,
without the work of miracles"
as
of
also intended to please the eye. Decorations
best scribes
(
parts
of
of goblets, triangles, or other shapes, as
too, the printers
his activity) partlv referred to the
mark the beginnings
pages and of the colophons at the end
the work. At that time one writing produced only
termed
tastefully set,
and cross-heads. The arrangement
one book and no more. "Writing with many pens
printers
letters
well
is
Jacob ben
rim (Piove di Sacco, 1475), ex-
latter
were indeed persons
of high reputation,
rnav be considered artists in their
own
right.
who Not
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
45'
were
infrequently, they their training
is
originally silversmiths,
and
reflected in the exquisiteness of
Solomon Alkabez, one of the
their achievement.
superbly decorative lettering used
who
work
same period
for non-Jewish printers at the
to cut
Hebrew
which began
More
did similar
types for his press at Guadalajara,
was the
Alfonso
silversmith
Fernandez de Cordova, who not only designed
and decorations used
the types
some
in
of the
The climax artists,
work
of the
of these typographical
both Jewish and non-Jewish, was
ornamental
which were used
letters
tions of the Piove di
work
of pioneer produc-
lam Cuzi used larger
was not unusual
printing-press in Spain at this period, including
in all probability cut the
Hebrew
the
press
shall see,
he was
borders,
and
we
1489-92; as
in
also associated with the lovely
presumably
the finely-decorated
letters,
to
Soncino,
who earned
this
at
immortality as printer, both
letters in
Faro (1487), Lisbon (1489), and above
in Hijar
(1489-92). More beautiful
initial letters
find
all
still
are the
used by the Soncino family
in Italy
from 1484 onwards, with lavish use of
letters
printed in white on black, within a decorative
both purposes he had secured the services as
framework. This feature could take two forms.
word might be engraved decora-
Either an entire
cesco of Bologna, inventor of the so-called "italic"
tively as a
whole and used
the
letters
lettering,
one of the most famous craftsmen and
engravers of the day.
Guillaume
le Be,
Similarly,
the type-artist
who came from
Paris to Venice
1545, cut a very beautiful
Meir
for
he who
and others
di Parenzo,
subsequently
Antwerp. In Holland
in the
in
and
for
Giustiniani,
Italy.
Hebrew
cut
various presses in Paris
for
Hebrew type
Marco Antonio
the printing press of
It
was
tvpefaces
for Plantin
in
single
could be cut separately and
combined together
The use
as required.
ornamental headings and
common
as a heading, or else
letters
of these
continued to be
in Italy well into the sixteenth century.
Thereafter,
it
was perpetuated
in
Germany and
Poland, for some generations later, not without
sometimes
attaining
a
fairly
high
aesthetic-
level.
mid-17th century the
Van Dyk prepared successful for the Amsterdam printer these are marked bv fineness of line
Christofal
artist
Hebrew
and are highly pleasing fluence on
Hebrew
The
letters
single
to the eye,
printing of these
is
and
still
their in-
perceptible.
great craftsmen are
sometimes so aesthetically satisfying that thev are
be considered works of
art in themselves.
applies perhaps with particular force to
the types used by Sephardi printers in in the
II
type-faces
Joseph Athias;
to
We
engraved background.
Spain and Portugal, in the presses
type-cutter of Master Francesco Griffo, or Fran-
in
designs
floral
and Hebrew, boasted how
in Italian (with Latin) fo:
purpose, the letters being of
this
set in a decorative
used at
Italy,
Later
introduced inside the thicker strokes, and were
such
Renaissance
later on.
was sometimes
ornamental form, with animal or
also
our information becomes more precise. Gershom
this practice
designed for
doubt
without
initial
When we come
press.
splendid types used in
Hijar
at
beginning of
letters at the
the paragraphs and so on for decorative effect,
on, a special decorative lettering
Valencian Bible of 1477-8, but also
the
Sacco press of 1475, Meshul-
and
great
in
as headpieces
pages or to mark the beginning of para-
for the
most memorable productions of the non-Jewish
the
the interior
Toledo.
graphs. Already in the
to function in 1476.
significant
in
embellishments of the El Transito Synagogue of
pioneer Spanish printers, for example, commissioned that same "Master Pedro"
458
This
some
of
Amsterdam
seventeenth century, which reproduce the
The most
beautiful feature in the earlv
Hebrew
printed books, from the aesthetic point of view,
was
in
decorative borders, some of
superb works of
Hebrew
themselves.
The
earliest
printed books, following the model of
manuscripts like
had no
in
art
them being
all
title-pages.
books produced
at this time,
Instead, sometimes, the
first
page (and occasionally other outstanding pages further in the book)
—
was
—
again like manu-
impressive calligraphy of the medieval Spanish
scripts
manuscripts and have close analogies with the
on which the utmost attention was lavished, highly
enclosed in fine ornamental borders,
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
459
\rop n^om
nm WDK>inin> pk
cjrnifca»i
460
onmz s«&
nwn^r^nin^nn^x
did >S
to n> rrai
od nm
>?j/
mn>nonSD^»Kmrv
tddi
«o?
DpnwSTnrjjnarorvD
tfjiorayottw
n:n mw mrv yw
-po>
o—inn *]nw roi nrai
1
*
tpfet
o>ik
pnn
it^pjioS^x^nnnfTi^n
rwv
-pop
a»ou3Tj»^
idd 020 ta> dSs
•ok
ok
nr-iJODTKi
T03jiSi3f03nTTo>cD>nonn
—h
m
tdkS
nonn iK£>p
lONSonSStrpSnK
o>Su
4>pk cpi» 3>in
<>-nnoi^mnonnpn« nato D>D3nn&ip6Sr T0C07TTO
ns«0)
224.
A page from
a Bible printed in Hijar, Southern Spain, about Border bv Alfonso Fernandez de Cordova.
capable and sometimes eminent
ployed
among found
to
artists
being em-
design and engrave them. These are
the most beautiful features that are to be in early printing,
works are productions
illy f
up
and some used
in
Hebrew
to the standard of the finest
the period. There are a few spe-
cimens
in
early
H86/
examples
(
J.
of
Spanish
printing before the expulsion of
1492.
Hebrew One, of
remarkable delicacy, appears around the Song of
Moses and elsewhere Eliezer ben
Abraham
in
the
Rible
printed
bv
Alantansi at Hijar in Southern
Spain, about 1486/9, with beautiful traceries and
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
461
462
•W kryoa ?5>P/
% ag
Jki y^ ftPD » J tod heJwj "pap PmunDW o»w
ia p pro*
p p 'WBpjvaAjwxw h dobApp txd ">w*
w
i*w ftare pj v jrwro WPD WPOT WPP »^K> &OTP 0#PB WDO PODP pj?J Pm* vw 7399 -pp wr& *pw pJi riw oatp ftp p) 07) -30 ih»o to?
W
h\ ypr>c]t*
tw
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pw pv Twuwft
5
jp i?tt»*)T» pn»
D *""^jl W* PW flWIh TO3 IPJDJp "Wft A? wJp stiripipQ oaro^j p^faftppTjfc&p^jpxfo 8->bw fcj^w^Jpjp^n^op^DmdGrftPD^D '
P7MP Cd)p "WW rKo TO) TPft onWQ CJTOPJnP ^25D»p"5J9ft 'JpTpWpJpffsrc^uiD CDnT^^Tpppj^t^ir^Cib yr?Pi2i) TOpWlfc) w*) TonTwJc* oJ pp w* *p Tft e&np b pwaaxi ^Jp D P*5DPP |*OT WPjfe "5OTJ ftBJ»)ftW aa> TMJPJPI* r^PPft* Tfil^GpJ jft^PP^jpjPslpJD^ftP ftp ^IDPj^TOD
'
'
'
225.
A
page from
a
Ritual Code, Leiria,
Portugal,
1495,
By Samuel d'Ortas.
charming animal figures
(fig.
224). This
is
ascri-
bed, as has been indicated above, to the silver-
smith and tvpe-cutter Alfonso Fernandez de Cordova,
and
who was
at
verv active in printing at this time
one period produced non-Jewish books
in
partnership with Alantansi's partner, Solomon Zalmati.
The border
to
which we have been referring
was used by de Cordova
in
a
Latin liturgical
work, the Missal according to the ritual of Sara-
FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
[EWISH ART
463
which appeared
gossa,
The whole question
time.
of the inter-relationship
very complicated, and there
is
into
it
about the same
at Hijar at
here in detail; but
no need
is
may be
it
he has been suspected of belonging
The
family.
said that de
so closely associated with
Cordova was
Jews that
Mariano
to a
later history of the lovely
we have been discussing
border which
remarkable.
is
go
to
It
was
apparently taken to Portugal, and was used by
couple of works produced
Eleazar Toledano in a
Lisbon in 1489. After the expulsion of the Jews
in
from Portugal,
it
was somehow brought
and there employed
tantinople,
to
Cons-
in several other
disporting themselves in the lateral margins and
supporting a blank space
to
be
tical
border occurs time after time in works pro-
duced by the same they were,
printers. Generally speaking,
seems, originally designed for non-
it
Jewish works, the blocks being subsequently purchased, after use, by the
were
it
also
used
in various sixteenth-century
works as decorations between
Whereas some mystery
the different sections.
attached to the
is
ori-
Hebrew
printer; or per-
haps he acquired them from a wandering
man, before 226).
When
crafts-
had been used by non-Jews
it
(fig.
the border was designed for a non-
Jewish book, an obvious
of
the bottom for
by hand. Not infrequently, the iden-
filled
The normal
indistinct. Portions
left at
the owner's family or personal badge, which was
by now
worn and
and white, with cherubs
lavish contrasts of black
works produced between 1505 and 1509, though increasingly
461
difficulty
presented
itself.
position for the engraved border at
the beginning of a
work was around the
first
page,
which would be on the recto side of the
where the
title-page
was desirable
in
is
margin
gins of this decorative feature, another used in a
it
Hebrew production
wider than the inner. But the outer margin
period
this
ship. This
of the Iberian Peninsula of
almost certainly of Jewish author-
is
the heavier and less satisfying border
is
around the opening page of the Ritual
Code ("Tur")
of Jacob
by Samuel d'Ortas and tugal in 1495
to serve as
is
ben Asher, produced
for a Latin book,
The somewhat
were by way of
it
it
on the
printer wished to
his sons at Leiria in Por-
225).
(fig.
book
is
part of the
first
primitive
and animal tracery here has been adapted
floral
Hebrew book Italian
illustration to the
cate in
the
for
leaf,
modern books. Obviously, outer
left,
whereas
to the right.
make use
be
to
in a
in a Latin or
When
Hebrew
a
of a border prepared
he was hence faced with a
deli-
problem of adjustment. This might be solved
various ways.
He might
and use the border of the
regardless
simply disregard
it
in the conventional position,
unaesthetic effect created by
Rabbinical aphorism quoted at the beginning of
having the narrower border outside; or he might
the text which
forego
it
encloses:
"Be thou old
as a leo-
pard, light as an eagle, fleet as a deer, and valorous
do the
as a lion, to
will of thy
Father
in
Heaven."
(with some others)
Accordinglv, these animals
insert
its it
use at the beginning of the volume and
at
some convenient place
haps on the verso of the conscientious,
first
later
page;
on or,
— perhighly
he might have the entire border
are depicted in the border, an escutcheon at the
recut, at considerable expense, to suit the require-
top enclosing the leopard with the legend in Heb-
ments of the Hebrew books;
rew (often misread): "Bold
of Face". This
was
assuredly then designed and executed by a Jewish artist;
his
and
in
view of the fact that
in
colophons to
works Samuel d'Ortas speaks so much of the
technical ability of his sons eldest (?),
—
Abraham
that this achievement
Naturally,
it
was
are to be found in
The Soncino
—
in particular the
seems
likely
must be ascribed
home
to him.
bar-
he might cut the border into four pieces
and rearrange
it
with the wide margin outside.
All of these expedients
were
tried at
one time or
another by the printers of the Soncino family.
We
can trace, for example, Joshua Solomon Son-
cino's various
experiments with the most
rable of the borders
which he used
—
memo-
a superb
achievement, which had been cut by some ex-
borders
tremely able artist-craftsman and was originally
as in general tvpogra-
employed by the great Neapolitan printer Fran-
and most
Hebrew,
enough
somewhat
of superior
in Italy, the
printing, that the finest
phv.
it
barically,
or,
artistic
family, especially,
made
lavish
cesco del
Tuppo
in
his
magnificent edition of
use of this decorative feature, from 1487 onwards.
Aesop (Naples, 1485). In 1487, Soncino used
Thev had
unaltered in his Rashi edition, on the recto of the
a
special
liking
for
a
tvpe showing
it
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
465
•pia
"
yn iw J3 S"" "n^ 2 r v ,V1 ,ait< Na,ri f 3 O'Dtoio -pas pyi wyS nta iuii 'aya
umV? iiwia sin iha <3 mayn
Hiwn'wya nsiu>
ms <)s nyi w naion 1
?
mxsnS lntirw SSsni (a Sy wiwia lvssiicnnisitasnaion '.Wi usti pS owns u yifl'o iiyjrs tith war kSi siwi.no fry fay'it) •noy ? »vo laavnoisnT-iyia'i'na )-»i wo' os <]si itnia miay ? ipaa
lian 1 ktoi nioya
•j-nS
M
1
v
t 33 'TOynTKia.x )
w nl law iruipo nya* sS piyi
oipb rty
,l
TyD sin s.t sr.'n©n myonns snn*> miymaamiyriymiostfiaa-
,
I
rs>v
,
3» DSp» ,
m ism
«/ /nyeS
V> ipai iis
m
pato onpow o aasi aio naj [.lis jinowai Jiuncaw
© .iVm nVSn
I
l
<jio
7inS' 3nnt)
iarj sin
ci niaisn
n Sy nyv
pa
,I
Jip
irtsi
w
ivon iwso u pyn'wi sin *j3 two tm 'a yi3 nsiD fyyowywio)^
l
j»'jio JJ.
Ira onpn 'jam nsaw
'isiip
ima ji'anpivn
'"731
nnw 6ns SSsniP rnflrfl)
Vffi Sspjvn nanpi myi
n
,
Mflb irunn
iSai
sS* B.13 J113ma .131)33 OyO n icyi pnnw-ifli mpynnwifi loi *
romi tohx on»So SySSana rm.iy n Sy Tjnyo a'na 'aamnios non
1
nSiyn
jioifl'pja nua-ipn
wna
aios
A
226.
wisi 'nam
here, in his editio princeps of the
of the effect,
it
volume, but inserted
all it
on the verso of the page,
1
13 ins losi 13S on 1.3 ins tosi a'Sivt
ovmrwomo'otanroD)
pyai .Ton
atabrmyVwiou'V W>'
page from a Ritual Code, Soncino, By Moses ben Isaac.
page. Apparently, disliking the aesthetic effect
(1488), he did not use
in [3i lyiv aw ! yhnv tAm
w '3 rjionna >aS pans lata u'yoai TBI rUT133
first
ioin aSm nsii pymu 'luyn nS'nn
aSi "U13 'issnaiiaNipiounvpyon aSa NTi iiarr snart rnaya miaii 'a tua 'ay a vi iDMijmaya laS pmjiw
nm pnm
naion ins oipan
,
m
1
'Jin pnnn"?
nMn ^Sfa
1
j&lw
nrysiuai J31VnK-VyO1fwn
"wfii -vyo'JK intf
OTp
pyi
O'ayaomraipjy'jiaiswnpi on tf"3n w,Taa'riT'onsn uaD w^jiddtk ^^yo rynw Tntn p iy'n, «ii3.T J£)a ri'y in ins pi won »hn ouVjoi iuj «jk 'i3S sSi ooSo Tnnya rraisi pnna tm mown pa rrnai qna fW'a TDisi vSy 'l'y'ia 'a ^s tqiSi imins nwA inis no'ii pyn isi i»3 i\wa hp
*?3jn
n psi
™
11P3 K11B3 D3 iy D'O^ N""0 tWltf
•jnoao 'ioyn -ps bsSfP 3 i^i"1
'©.
V3is tna
'flS
•?
1
^
o""13 "'
sou ry3 rn/vn yon ots o'BVflw laYnunHn miaya yS dts 'J3 'jso nniujy yjaai myo a ToflnwbiYwip'jyiv'iypryW myai niwy'in yjon *!«) D'J'ySon ina n %-p vro'inSvur p pnrpnnbH p» 3 Sni Sta svro
'j
jiipi
466
Hebrew
at the
Bible
beginning
with magnificent at the beginning
of Joshua. This, of course, involved the inconve-
nience that the
1490.
first
ornamentation of left
plain
this sort
was most
into
was
four and interchanged the
and left-hand margins,
Talmudic
in place,
and unadorned. Later, therefore, Soncino
cut the border right
page of the book, where an
tractates
as
we
see in various
which he produced
in
1489-90.
467
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
2
2~
Title-page of Bahya's
Commentary on
the
Bible. Naples.
1492.
468
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
469
From what has
been
just
there follows
said,
was the work
an important corollary, which has an intimate
superb
bearing on the problem of Jewish art and
at the
period of the Renaissance.
in the
If a
artists
border of
470
of a Jewish craftsman, obviously of
being produced by him originally
ability,
commission of a Jewish printer and for a
Hebrew
publication.
type has the wider margin on the left-hand
this
good reason
side, there is
to believe that
it
was Ill
prepared
originally
for
conceivably by a Jewish
symbolism and
even though
artist,
seem
style
Hebrew book, and
a
be
to
its
non-
specifically
There
is
one exceptionally lovely border of
this
which was used by both Jewish and Gentile
and was subsequent-
printers at Naples in 1491-2,
taken to Turkey and figures there in various
ly
works between 1531 and 1532. tinctly
pagan
Its
motifs are dis-
in character. It comprises within a
branch-work a fanciful repre-
setting of profuse
sentation of a hunting scene, showing
them mounted on
rubs (one of
on a
given up, and their place was superseded by
title-
The Hebrew printed books
16th
pages.
Jewish.
type,
In due course, the use of engraved borders was
stag,
hunting
and a
down
winged che-
a horse, another
third blowing his horn),
hounds
deer and hare, and a peacock stand-
of the
century do not yet possess title-pages. As in the
manuscript period, in the incunabula a blank or
page heads the volume
body
place of printing, etc.
title, its
found at
— which does — every book evidences the work's Only the colophon
of the text.
not occur in
Hebrew work
in a
Fano
A
in the
title-page
Rokeah printed
not usual in printing in those days, and even the title-page just
ment.
A
mentioned
woodcut
in the
without any adorn-
is
form of a
real title-page
(shaar or gate in Hebrew, symbolizing as
within a circle a shield which
the entry of the reader into the book)
The
coat-of-arms.
bed is
as
style has
left
blank for a
been variously
descri-
Hispano-Mauresque and Neapolitan. There
something of a mystery attached to the origins
and authorship which (i.e.,
of this border
was used.
it
and the sequence
It figures in
the Gentile form
with the wide margin on the right) in the
Italian
work,
L'Aquila
produced
Volante,
Aiolfo de' Cantoni in Naples in the
1492
—
(fig.
appeared some months
227). But,
at this
Soncino. There
therefore,
used also
time
left)
is
(Tammuz
volume the
Naples about 1492).
printer, Azriel
work by
his brother-in-law,
Moses ben
in
Isaac,
"a wise and expert artisan, skilled in wood-engraving
in
connection
counsel." There
is
with printing, marvellous in
thus
the lovely panel which
some reason
to believe that
we have been
considering
in
themselves. In the second half of the sixteenth century very
much
use was
made
baroque columns Peter's in
Rome
for this
in the
purpose of twisted
form of the
derived from the Temple in Jerusalem
was probably through the influence
Italy, that
came
Later,
it
(fig.
of this,
lavishly outside
the symbol of the twisted columns be-
common
on so extremely
later
in
Jewish
every description in Northern Europe.
ritual art of
became usual
frontispieces
add
to
some vignette
character whose
thor, the patron, or
stance recorded
is,
to
to the
engraved
illustrating the subject-
matter, or else an allusion to the lical
pillar in St.
which, according to ancient tradi-
which before long was imitated
Bahya's com-
title-
pages which became miniature works of art
228). It
to ima-
were
in the
more and more care was lavished on the
Jewish form
Gunzenhausen, informs us that he was assisted his
used by Daniel Bomberg
in the Bible
8th 5252=July 3rd
In the colophon of this
first
it
seems to
Jerusalem Talmud, Venice, 1522-23. Later on,
tion,
the earlier. More-
also printed in
have been
had already
some reason
in the edition of
mentary on the Bible this
of
same place by Joshua Solomon
is,
gine that the Jewish form it is
it
earlier in the
(with the wide margin on the
produced
summer
by
one of the loveliest productions of the
Neapolitan press
over,
in
is first
but generally speaking such was
in 1505,
ing on a hare's back; the bottom panel embodies is
folio
in order to protect the
life
of the Bib-
name was borne by the the printer. The earliest be
auin-
sure, in a Christian anti-
Jewish production of the Jewish polemical work,
Rabbi Yomtov Lipman's Sepher ha-Nitzahon dorf,
1644)
:
here the
above, and below
it
name a
of the
man
Almighty
kneels;
is
(Alt-
seen
Moses and
471
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
11351 '3X3
TV TOD *7J31
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228.
A
page from
a
Ritual
Code, Augsburg, 1540.
=e/
o
472
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED ROOK
473 Aaron appear on each
debating with a Jew.
is
missionary. Rut later the
The motive here was Jews followed
and underneath a
side,
Christian holding a Rible
474
^5 t w
Delicately executed
this tradition.
copper-engravings, for example, adorn the
title-
aiaiS Tin®
(Amsterdam, 1666),
page of Tikkun Sopherim
constituting illustrations to the crowns of the To-
Good Name,
Kingship and a
rah, of Priesthood, of
and portraying David and
his son
Solomon
in atti-
The
tudes appropriate to the crowns concerned.
Meah Berakhot (Amsterdam, 1687)
title-page of
229) has delightful copper engravings of the
(fig.
performance of those commandments requiring (the sounding of the shophar,
benedictions
cir-
cumcision, etc.) and of the verse "and Isaac
sowed
and the Lord blessed him" (Gen. 26:12),
in ho-
Aboab da Fonseca, then rabbi of community. The artist was Renjamin Senior
nor of Isaac the
Godines, well-known in his day also as a scribe
and
copyist.
On
the
other
1602)
name
signed on
is
Hans
by
is
its
frame
the
I
book Mizbah ha-Zahav
of the title-page of the
(Rasle,
hand,
upper
!
IIS
whose
Holbein
part. This,
s^r
however,
jfNym trjyg nato "te r m pxa ims* ynri
is
not so surprising, since the printer was in this 229.
case a non-Jew, although working for the Jewish
Title-page of
Meah Berakhot, Amster-
dam, 1687, Copper engraving by Benjamin
market. Fine copper engravings for the title-page
Senior Godines.
by the
of the Venice Rible of 1746, published
Rragadin Press, were executed bv the Christian
pearing from the clouds. This, which throws such
Riblical drawings also
a remarkable sidelight on the attitude towards art
artist
Francesco
Griselini.
appear on the title-page of the Yiddish book
(Amsterdam, 1688-9), showing
Meilitz Yoisher
Moses receiving the
on Mount
tablets
Mi-
Sinai,
of pious Jews in riod,
riam on the bank of the Nile, Elijah with the false
Hebrew pictures of
and other themes. The drawing
tials
is
ini-
"J.V.H." finely engraved on copper, probably
but not certainly those of a Gentile noteworthy, too,
page
ravens
of the
signed with the
is
the engraved
Highly
artist.
(second)
title
to the scientific text of the Rible entitled
Minhat 1742/4: before scenes
Shai this
each
which is
appeared
repeated
section
from the
of
lives
of
thrice
the
Mantua
in in
Rible.
Moses,
(as has
been mentioned alreadv
in
figure of the
at this pe-
most memorable
in
printers
had a
particular affection for
Moses and Aaron, who are
to
be found
innumerable different forms on the title-pages
of their books, especially in
Germanv and Holland,
from the seventeenth century. This motif finds
its
way
art (see fig.
way
onto sacred vessels
and
238). Particularly memorable in their
are the frontispieces of a
other works produced in
few
liturgical
Amsterdam
at the
of the
which Sabbetai Zevi, the pseudo-Messiah,
Solo-
this last
the introduc-
Almighty ap-
on
his throne,
The
and time
Messianic ferment in 1666, in some of
book,
shows
Joshua,
later
into religious
It
work) showing the resurrection of the
dead bones, with the
the
the
mon, David, Esther, Daniel and Ezekiel,
tion to this
in
among
productions of the sort extant in Jewish books.
prophets, his ascent to heaven in the fiery chariot,
bringing bread to Elijah
some environments
therefore
is
is
seen
surrounded by his adherents.
services of Gentile craftsmen continued to
be used sometimes tion as an
for
such work.
One may men-
example the exquisite title-page of the
Amsterdam Pentateuch
of 1726, with vignettes of
^
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
475
volume has been devoted
to
476
Some
them.
of
them
may be counted
are exquisitely executed, and
as
miniature masterpieces of Jewish book-art.
IV
The earliest
Jewish
book containing
illustra-
is known (but it must be rememmany of the early products of the bered Hebrew press may have been completely lost
tions, so far as
that
owing
up
to the ravages of time
most
the
in
and
of hatred) links
and
distinct
manner
definite
with the tradition of the medieval book-illumination. 230.
Printer's Italy,
badge of Gershom Soncino. 1497/8, woodcut.
The only medieval Hebrew of animal-fables
and
so
on
entitled
ho-
(in
who
nor of the three patrons of the work,
work
which had a consistent tradition of illumination
was the book the lives of Moses, Samuel and David
literary
"The Easterner's (or Ancient) Parable", of the bore thirteenth-century Spanish author, Isaac ibn Sa-
French
artist
Bernard Picart, whose
illustrations
hula.
It
has
been
told
briefly
another
in
of Jewish life in Holland at the beginning of the
chapter,
among
eighteenth century are
that
the
author
the
illustrated
ori-
the finest artistic
those names). This was executed by the eminent
records of the Jewish
enough
likely
were invited sort,
of former days.
life
It
is
that the services of non-Jewish artists
many
for
other productions of this
besides those mentioned above, but the vast
majority of the work in question
is
naturally ano-
nymous. In
the
period,
early
the printers
often
used
symbolical badges to represent name, family, or occupation, with the incidental object of adorning
and beautifving rious:
their books.
The
motifs are va-
the priestlv blessings; Biblical personalities
(as a sign of Levitical family);
rjllfe
musical instru-
ments; the seven-branched candelabrum; and so on.
The
earliest printer's
from Spain. The appearing
at the
first
is
B8 <ws
badges known to us are of a lion within a shield
end of the book Tor Orah Hayyim,
«
1
1
^-*
Hijar, 1485, the shield being printed in red ink.
The same
flag
is
printed on several other occasions
within a black shield. Especiallv interesting printer's
badge
is
the
Gershom Soncino, which ap-
of
^
pears from the vears 1497/8 and subsequently
with several changes. Here
we
see a decorative
frame containing a wall and tower flanked by guards. There are
name
of the printer
is
written on each side
in
Hebrew books
is
so great that
an entire
«£l
yj.
(fig.
230). The variety and interest of these printers
marks
x
two birds on the wall and the
231.
"The
Easterner's
Parable"
Soncino, Brescia,
1491.
\\l
\ **
5
"C"**
—
"fTPj^Y 7£<&-<&GZ2:
by Isaac ibn Sahula. woodcut.
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
477
manuscript
ginal
he
interest of youth, as
work
the
of
us),
tells
and that almost
the extant medieval manuscripts of the
all
the
attract
(to
478
work
contain illustrations apparently following on the
When
general lines of his original.
work
at Brescia in
therefore
included in
this
woodcuts of
Soncino printed
1491 (2nd ed. 1497/8) he
more than eighty
also
it
high quality illustrating the
fairly
story (fig. 231). Their authorship
was
unknown.
is
It
one time believed that they must be of
at
non-Jewish origin, being perhaps transferred to this
work from an unidentified and untraced non-
Now
Jewish source.
we know
that
232.
these illustra-
of
followed a well-established tradition, this
tions
may be
hypothesis gin in
Kindling the Sabbath lamp. From a book Minhagim (Customs), Venice, 1601.
was confirmed
one of the
The
discarded. as
Christian ori-
seemed by the
it
monk
illustrations a
— something unimaginable
a crucifix
production.
It
has, however, since
in a Jewish
been established
was a
that this last embellishment
fact that
seen wearing
is
practical joke
Hebrew
played by a Christian scholar on the great
bibliographer, Moritz Steinschneider, having been
added by hand
cown
!
Later editions of the work also,
to the eighteenth century, contained illus-
trations,
based on these, as was the case also
with some other fable-books
Kuh Buck, There
is
the Yiddish
as well as the
and German turies.
chapter
classical
antiquity
in
Jewish
it
has
—
printed
been
the Christian era
—
it
was usual
but they also include
illustrations,
ing lulabs.
It is
probable that
all
these drawings
are taken from similar non-Jewish books.
The
books of Minhagim
illustrated printed
first
or customs contain pictures like those in the hag-
gadoth (for which see below) with the addition of
months and holidays. In the
pictures for the
1601,
we
in
Judeo-German printed
find,
in
Venice
In
rative pictures of the giving of the law, the burn-
in
ing of the Temple, the sounding of the shophar,
to
embody
the sermon on the Sabbath of Penitence the benediction of the
Amsterdam
presses
new moon, and
inserted
(fig.
ing, a circumcision, etc.
emerges. The
work
secular
first
—
representation
Immanuel" by Immanuel Later
it
is
found
of
became customary
Rome
rite in
(Brescia, 1492).
day of the Feast
ver,
when
of Tabernacles
hymns included
tion this astronomical feature.
which embodied crude dish pseudo-Josephus Zurich, 1547,
Ash-
the prayers for rain recited on the
last
the
a
to include representa-
tions of the zodiac in the praver-books of the
kenazi
in
the licentious "Compositions of
and
for Passo-
in the service
men-
Another early work
gim for
of
1723 included
Hoshana Rahhah
of
weddThe Amsterdam Minha-
the Feast of Tabernacles, Purim players, a
tradition re-
this
The
further pictures
a representation of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
a thousand years,
232),
so on.
Now,
after
in
beside pictures of Passover, nar-
how
the mosaic floors
in
e.g.
and 18th cen-
books.
seen
synagogue of the early centu-
of the Palestinian
of Biblical
numerous Dutch
drawings of Jewish peddlers and other Jews carry-
Minhagim
another
in
reveal the obvious influence of the
Fox Fables
a curious link with the oldest Jewish
became common
women's compendium
editions of the 17th
They
new
one decorative feature which
ever-popular composition,
Tzenah u'Reenah
history, the
Frankfurt on Main, 1687, etc.).
pictorial tradition in
ries of
(e.g.,
of that
editions
later
a picture of a headless
man
233), illustrating the
(fig.
le-
gend that a man who did not see the shadow of his
head on
this night
would
die during the year
—
a very interesting illustration of Jewish folk-art,
traceable as far back as the
13th century, and
paralleled, of course, in general folklore.
Especially
notable
are
sheets of Jewish content
the
illustrated
which begin
in
broad-
the 15th
illustrations
was the Yid-
century and occur sporadically in the 16th, 17th
("Jossipon")
published at
and 18th. Only a few have survived, owing
which served
as the
model
for
manv
to
the general fate of loose sheets, which are difficult
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE ACES TO THE EMANCIPATION
479
tory
up
which the
in
reached
the other hand,
links
it
most direct fashion with the beloved
in the
work
On
considerable.
is
480
Hebrew
art of the
printed book
supreme achievement — the
its
ritual for
the domestic service on Passover eve.
The
printed
first
published,
it
believed,
is
haggadah
illustrated
These show two woodcuts: ple sitting at the
Constantinople
in
about 1515; onlv two pages of
it
have survived.
drawing of four peo-
a
Passover Seder, and another of
Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. The drawing
gadah appear
also
the
in
Headless of
to preserve.
man
Hoshana Rabbah from Minhagim, Amsterdam, 1723.
The
earliest to
book
a
for
Hasen", giving the
have survived are two
known
and dated
at
about 1480,
Here are seen
in a solitary copy.
plague of darkness and the death of the
first,
the
—
with the table
beside which staffs
to
in their
six
set for the
Passover meal,
Jews stand with girded
hands
(fig.
234). There
suppose that there were sheets of
for everv festival
and
probable
the
that
its
loins
and
reason
is
this
relevant topics, and
craftsmanship
was
Jewish holidays:
are
known
also
the lighting of the
as talismans for the protection of the
childbirth, marriage contracts,
most of them were printed
the 17th and 18th centuries.
the order of benedic-
experiment.
It
was only
by way
was
of
later that the real tradi-
tion began.
We may
begin by indicating the nature of the
which recur
illustrations
rious
illustrated
editions
in almost all of the va-
of the haggadah,
numbering more than three hundred. which may be termed
those
are
now
Firstly, there
introductory:
eve of Passover, the various stages in the ritual
illustrating
Hanukkah
woman
in
and Amsterdam
From such
far
so
What
manuscripts.
Jewish
mentioned
as in
is
it
non-
and wedding songs;
in Italy
German "Jagd der
these illustrate the search for the leaven on the
lamp, of the Sabbath candles and so on, as well
in
been
has
and
so on.
In Ashkenazi editions,
seventeenth centurv, sheets
Bir-
sort
Jewish.
Individual
in
initials of
German
medieval
first-born,
and secondly, the slaughtering of the Passover sacrifice,
of
here see a
tions at the outset of the Passover meal,
wood-block engravings on the subject of Passover, attributed to Venice
We
another illustration shows
it;
the hunting of the hare 233.
hag-
and the members of the
table set for Passover
family eating around
edition
first
the
of
Passover
the
in
ha-Mazon (Prague, 1514).
kat
style of
Drawings
Oriental-Spanish.
is
found subsequently
sort
was
isolated
the
traditional
The main
we
down
to the
stage also
find
at
this
representation
of
the hare-hunt.
part of the text
is
illustrated
by the
story
of the
Exodus from Egypt and the events leading
up
it,
to
sometimes beginning with the story of
the Patriarchs and going on to the Giving of the
Law
at Sinai. After the meal,
of the service changes
when the atmosphere
and concentrates on prayer
sheets stems to have developed an entire series of
rather than on narrative, the illustrations, too, take
drawings which
on a Messianic tinge, and
special
Most of
the books devoted to
its
find in very
many
cases a representation of the Messiah, sometimes
crudely-sketched material, however,
with Elijah as his harbinger, and of the Temple,
particularly
can only be placed in the category of folk-art,
though
we
minhagim books.
occasions, this
illustrate
importance for social and cultural
his-
as
known
in
engravings.
some medieval manuscripts and
early
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
181
The
234.
slaughtering of the Passover sacrifice and the table
set
the
for
482
Passover meal
Wood-block engraving Venice, about 1480.
The Prague Haggadah of
of
1526
is
the prototype
of the noble series of illustrated Passover
all
haggadoth that have appeared
down
to our days
lettering, its
(fig.
over the world
235). This, with
ornamental
and decorations, and
all
initials, its
its
its
splendid
marginal cuts
superb borders around
three of the most important pages,
is
among
the
productions of the 16th century printing
finest
press in
any language. After the sanctification, the
usual scene of the hare-hunt follows. In the margins there are cuts, sometimes repeated
showing the householder
more than once,
lifting the
cup of bene-
diction or reclining for the service in the of freedom, or his servant pouring
manner
water for the
ceremonial ablutions, or the slaves in Egypt making mortar, or the 'four sons," cuts at the his
and
so on. Larger
bottom of the pages show Pharaoh
in
legendary bath of children's blood, the hurling
of the at the
Hebrew infants into the river, or Red Sea. But the greatest glorv
the triumph of the
book
the head of Holophernes below the latter. At the
bottom
is
kingdom of Bo-
the coat-of-arms of the
hemia. Within the framework
we
of the Messiah, riding on his ass a traditional motif.
The Hebrew
see the advent
— once
letter shin
again,
appears
on the robe of Moses holding the rod and again on the figure of Moses standing beside the Red Sea.
bv
The Bohemian letter
this
coat-of-arms
robe of King David three pages
pose that
this alludes to the
Havvim Shahor, one
who
is
also flanked
which appears once more on the
in this case
Some
later.
name
of the printer,
of the partners in the press,
was the
artist or
engraver;
perhaps more reasonable to suppose that indicates
the
father of the
name
sup-
of
it
it
is
merely
Solomon Ha-Cohen, the
two brothers who were partners
in
the printing of this haggadah. In the Prague
Haggadah
tions follow those of the
first
of
1590 the
and some with modifications;
exactly
illustra-
Prague edition, some but the
are the three borders (at the outset of the entire
drawings here are very rough. The type-faces,
volume, at the beginning of the actual Seder
borders,
vice,
and
after the
Grace). The
last
most impressive. Here, the border with
Adam and
gates of
is
is
ser-
perhaps the
flanked above
Eve, with Samson bearing the
Gaza below the former and Judith with
and illuminated
are also different.
new
woodcuts
letters
in
this
edition
For the 1606 Prague edition
were
made,
such
as
the
sermon on the Great Sabbath, the blessing of the candles and so on.
The Prague drawings
of
483
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
unrcn feQHftQ
155.
A
page from the Prague Haggadah of 1526. Printed by Solomon ha-Cohen's sons woodcut.
484
— THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
485
The
236.
of Israel
battles
1624 are taken from the 1606
in
Canaan,
issue. In the
illustration
Prague
printing of 1706 appear woodcuts from the pre-
worn
vious Prague editions, and even
dah
cuts deriv-
Augsburg Hagga-
ing from the 1526 issue. In the
of 1534, although the influence of the
printing
and the printer was one
recognizable,
is
Prague Haggadah,
of the printers of the
Prague
we
tradition
of
brought southwards over the Alps to Mantua, a
which always stood
city
in
close relations with
An
German and Bohemian Jewry. haggadah was produced here though
shows
it
a
illustrated
1550 which,
in
Italian
definite
Haggadah, Venice, 1609, woodcut.
Mantua
the
spirit,
arrangement of the pages by
in the
However,
editions.
Amsterdam
the cutter of the
as the artist
drawings came around, as
A new
tradition,
dav,
precision, the
out in the printing the
wrong way
in a mirror.
doth produced
own
and
edition copied the
Mantua drawings with the utmost
on the cycle of
Prague Haggadah was
the
a
drawings and
see
drawings of quite a different character.
The
from
486
which had a great influence hagga-
illustrations in successive
in the
appears
Sephardi world
down
to our
the edition published in
in
many
Venice in 1609, "with
pictures regarding
the signs and miracles which were performed
all
for our ancestors in Egypt." This
of all the editions
was the ancestor
which appeared subsequently
influ-
in Venice, as well as later in Pisa and Leghorn; in
ence of the original Prague edition. The hagga-
these cases the illustrations were newly engraved
at the
same time demonstrates clearly the
dah printed here
in
1560
arrangement and
spirit,
Prague edition; even of the
Prague
issue.
is
much
influenced in
by the 1526
colophon resembles that
its
an entire
series of illustrations of the history
Abraham down
and the
Italian stylistic
dus, sometimes at the foot of the printed text and
Abraham
boat crossing the river
into the
—
in this case a
Promised
drawings
in
the
sits in
gondola
while a second stands behind to steer the earlier
figures
In these Venetian haggadoth there
of the Israelites, from
Land, only one person instead of two
The
artistic level.
here, however,
prominent. In the engraving represent-
ing the migration of
but did not reach the same high technical and
The borders
are completely different,
manner
is
illustrations
—
craft.
the book showing the
baking of the matzot, the Passover meal,
etc.,
are
sometimes above tion
we
tures a full
236). In the Venice edi-
later
first
time,
view of
two
fea-
on become almost invariable
page towards the beginning with
of vignettes, of of
(fig.
moreover, for the
find,
which
it
to the Exo-
a series
some importance from the point
social
history,
stages of the Passover
showing the various
meal with the participants
very primitive; the later drawings appear to have
naturally dressed in contemporary costume
been executed by another
237), and another, further on, depicting the Ten
artist
and
their artistic
Mantua
issue
Plagues.
of 1568, the printer utilized the engravings of
1560
scenes and buildings; while in the historical
standard
and its
is
this
distinctly higher. In the
issue
arrangement.
dam
in
1662
is
closely
resembled the former
A haggadah
in
printed at Amster-
influenced throughout both in
its
trations
are
The
initial letters
(fig.
comprise drawings of illus-
the magicians standing before Pharaoh
shown
A new
as
Negroes (nigromanti)
style
!
and a new method of
artistic en-
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
487
David kneeling
picture of Spirit."
has
It
in
now been
•1SS
prayer to the "Holy
established that these
copper engravings were made after the engravings
Matthaeus Merian
of
map
a
is
of "all the journeys in the desert
to the sharing of the
This was the
Israel." Venice,
names
1609; woodcut.
are
Haggadah
be
to
found
in
and
fa-
Abraham ben Jacob
who came from
Amsterdam
adopted
the Rhineland
about
Judaism
His dealings with Jews, mainlv
the year 1689.
way
on
full
prose-
and
portraits
Venice edition of 1609 was the proto-
as the
greater extent.
1712, with
and now,
working
of
It
many
was reprinted
therefore, omitting the
was imitated
selyte illustrator. It
Of him and
bach
skill
it
is
stated
fore
a
our
Jacob
person
exalted
of
caused
father
cut and engrave with tools
Abraham son of him to draw and
upon
a sheet of copper,
when
previously the forms were cut in wood, and
there
was no beautv.
now
All will
see with their
Offenbach
name
and
1721
of the pro-
in a large
am Main
edition,
number
1710, Sulz-
1755,
Fiirth
1762, and so on).
knowledge and fear of God
of
spirit
the
in
1711,
in
additional or improved features,
of later editions (Frankfurt
of his craftsman's
Amsterdam
in
them taken over from the Venice
copper-plate title-pages until approximately 1738.
on the second title-page of the haggadah: "There-
be
to
type of those in the Sephardi world, but to a far
Jewish religion, which he embraced as a
continued
of
This haggadah became the prototype for those
some
He
map
first
word)
(in the full sense of the
published in the Ashkenazi world, in the same
with printers and compositors, attracted him to the
Ivte.
the tribes of
all
be printed with
to
published by a Jew.
of 1695, printed "according to copper-
a Christian
to
Amsterdam
the
by the youth Abraham ben Jacob of the
mily of our Father Abraham."
was
map
Hebrew, and perhaps the
in
Palestine
plates
among
land first
down
Vignette from a Haggadah.
237.
gravings
Icones Bihlicae printed
in his
1625-26. At the end of the haggadah
Basle,
at
In
the
copper
engravings
the
of
haggadah
(published in Metz in 1767), a clean attempt was
made, however,
the
eliminate
to
influence
Christian art from the illustrations:
drawings of the Giving of the
of
e.g.,
in the
Law and
in the
whence the Holy Spirit has The illustrations reappeared
picture of King David,
own
eyes that the forms engraved in copper possess
been
the
same
without change in vast numbers of cheap hagga-
superioritv as light has over darkness in
their beautv,
and
will
forever over this
rejoice
innovation of craftsmanship bv an artist
by
his
fellows
one of the highest
as
ability, as a practised
and
skill
craftsman in the art of draw-
ing and engraving seals
and pictures of evervthing
was the
earth." This, then,
known
and
all
that first
is
plans, in
models
heaven and
printed haggadah
containing engraved copper-plate illustrations.
The decorative pictures of lical
title-page contains, beside large
Moses and Aaron, miniatures
events such as
Adam and
of Bib-
Eve, the Tower of
eliminated.
doth, published in
Europe and America
19th and 20th centuries. ly
They were copied
on various Passover dishes, such
illustrations
whole
of a
illuminated haggadoth produced
manuscript
of
in the eighteenth century.
There were numerous of the
model
of hand-
all
over
Central
later illustrated editions
haggadah which could well receive men-
tion here,
and
fuller
treatment
Babel, the Flood, the Destruction of Sodom, Abra-
fically
Basle edition of 1816, with
(fig.
lavish-
Seder plates as the
series
Europe
artists
the
by an important
school
ham and
Melchizedek, and Jacob at Bethel
as
and Kiddush cups. And they served for the
in
devoted to
this
in
a
work
speci-
subject; for example, the its
twelve illustrations
238). Fourteen pictures of the Exodus and the
depicting various episodes of Biblical history; or
keeping of the Passover, as
the
are included a
in
marked Chn
in
the Venice editions,
important Trieste Haggadah of 1864, verv
this
haggadah. All of them show
popular in
ian
influence, most of
conceived copper-plate illustrations bv C. Kirch-
all
in
the
its
day, with
its
58 delicate and well-
489
THE JEWISH ART OF THE PRINTED BOOK
238.
Title-page from a
Copper-plates by
Haggadah, Amsterdam, 1695,
Abraham ben
Jacob.
490
JEWISH ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE EMANCIPATION
491
mavr,
still
showing, however, the influence of the
Venice edition of 1609. In the 20th century
while
in
contemporary
Israel
there
492 have been
Zim-Zimberknopf, Jacob
splendid editions of
I.
manv important haggadoth have appeared, such
Wechsler and
These
as those illustrated bv Jacob Steinhardt, Joseph
duction introduce us, however, to a later stage
Budko, Albert Rutherston, Arthur Szvk and so on;
of the
also,
others.
artists
development of Jewish
art.
and
their pro-
Marc Chagall. The Shehjiina ("Divine Presence"), 1917.
PART THREE JEWISH ART FROM THE :
EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
JEWISH ART
the
In
Middle Ages, two
centuries of the
first
ROTH
CECIL
by
meet a
tragic end) appears together with that of
activities of the Jews, especially in
Europe, into
Domnulus — and — name on a coin issued
narrower channels than heretofore.
One was
about 555
tended to drive the cultural
processes
parallel
the
a certain
(fig.
this, too,
at
239). The
was a Jewish
Chalon-sur-Saone in coins minted in
first
growth of Christian religious prejudice, which
the Eastern Caliphate in the second half of the
aimed at the complete exclusion of the Jews from
seventh century, to replace the Byzantine and
The other was the
Gentile societv. of the
sway
intensification
Talmud which, while making
of the
community more and more
the Jewish
a
Persian coins, which
had formerly
were
circulated,
engraved bv a Jew named Sumair.
Numerous
self-
contained society, emphasized that the only proper
was the study
intellectual activity
and
same time
at the
of the Torah;
stressed the anti-artistic or
some
rather iconoclastic attitudes implicit to
At
tent in the rabbinic approach.
over — and down — vast proportion a
siastical,
fact
participation that
much
of
artists
did
was anonymous.
eccle-
Jewish
restricted
mean
not
was
art
We
Jewish
that
was whollv absent, but it
when
the stage
which again
This
participation.
European
of
more-
this time,
post-Renaissance period
to the
a
ex-
it
did
mean
thus approach
the existence of Jewish art and
has to be demonstrated, less from actual
objects than
from scattered
literary
In previous sections of this
seen that Jewish
work
allusions.
has been
it
some specimens
artists,
of
whose
Coin struck by the Jews Priscus and Domnulus
239.
production have survived,
were known
Roman Empire,
in
not
only
immediate neighborhood, but
Palestine
the
and
Diaspora as well. This tradition was strengthened subsequently, as the Jews
an
urban
and,
at
the
became more and more beginning,
an
artisan
element. In the late classical and the early medieval periods
Jewish craftsmen enjoved a high repu-
tation
—
sixth
century
e.g., in glass-
and metal-work. From the
onwards,
and well
on
into
the
Middle Ages, Jews were associated with the royal mints area. to the
all
over Europe
The name
and the Mediterranean
of Priscus
(later
Frankish King Chilperic
I,
Chalon-sur-Saone, about 5S5.
its
European
the
in
in
Court Jeweler
and destined
to
other Jewish minters are
Middle Ages, even
in
known throughout
appear with curious frequency
What in
is
most remarkable
Poland
at the
end
the
England, Biblical names
is
in this connection.
that the coins struck
of the twelfth
and the be-
ginning of the thirteenth centuries bear inscriptions in
Hebrew
rulers for
characters, giving the
whom
they were struck
names
(e.g.,
of the
"Mechis-
law King of Poland"; "Blessing on Mechislaw", or the
names
of the Jewish
minters
ben Isaac Nagid, Joseph Kalisch, There can be
little
etc.)
etc.)
(Abraham (fig.
240).
doubt that Jewish craftsmen
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
499
Europe, Jews were known
and goldsmiths, which
high degree of technical
at this period as jeweat this
was regarded
as
Museum.
gious artists of this type: how, for example, a mira-
Madonna long preserved
culous picture of the
at
time implied a
Barking, just outside London, was the work of a
Spain and
Jewish painter Marlibrun of Billingsgate "the most
ability.
In
the Mediterranean countries generally, goldsmithery
12th century, British
inscriptions,
Throughout
also carried out the technical work.
lers
Hebrew
Polish coins with
240.
500
one of the characteristic
skilful painter of
the whole world"
(c.
1290),
who
subsequently became converted to Christianity.
Jewish occupations. This was to a great extent
Whether there
the outcome of the fact that Islam forbade Mos-
tale
lems to engage in such work, which until recent
various lands provide us with cases concerning
years was left in the countries of N. Africa, for
example, wholly that
among
age,
which
the
in
A
a reliquary for the
of this
Augustinian Priory of Barcelona; while at Huesca
some must be
three years later two Jewish goldsmiths contracted
anonymous productions
to inevit-
ably minimized Jewish collaboration in artistic
so
much
siastical
articles
his
art
in
intention.
For a Jew to manufacture
religious
of Christian religious use it
made
eccle-
was thus pre-
was through the medium
his
of such
name known, and worked up
Nevertheless, the fact that
clientele.
In
and
the artist or craftsman obtained his
preposterous existent.
that
European
that
practice,
life
of
posterous; and
work
has been mentioned above —
was
does not
imply that
it
it
was
was non-
1415, the anti-Pope Benedict XIII,
then resident
in
provide a crucifix before the ensuing Christmas.
Nor were those who executed such commissions only the ignorant or the religiously indifferent;
one
official
Samuel
of
document
tells
us
with a royal safeconduct
in
in his
Rabbi
a certain in
1378
company of Jaime whom, presumably,
the
Sanchez, sculptor imaginum,
he assisted
how
Murcia travelled about Spain
work. The sources introduce us,
moreover, to a number of persons whose scope
was in
secular.
When
Francis of Assisi was in Spain
1214, a Jewish sculptor
his likeness;
smith
is
said to
and we know how
in
have executed
1345 a
silver-
named Moses Jacob was summoned from
the making
ornamental work for his clocks. These instances
chalices or crucifixes.
in
Similarly, in
1480,
Queen
Isabella of Castile appointed a court painter,
whose duties was
to ensure that
one
"no Jew or
paint the figure of our Lord and Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, or of Holv vious! v,
Solomon
certain
Perpignan by the King of Aragon to execute the
of ceremonial objects for Christian use, such as
Moor
1399
in
Spain, issued a bull in which
he forbade the Jews to be employed
of
records in
Barbut manufactured
There was, of course, one factor which
at this time. It
official
which there can be no doubt.
it is
workmanship.
of Jewish
a kernel of truth in this strange
certain
Jewish hands; and
excite our admiration,
is
cannot be determined. But
Mary
the Glorious."
then, such professional activity
unknown. Anecdotes are
Ob-
was not
told about Jewish reli-
assembled almost
Jewish
were
had no objection the round
random, demonstrate that
Europe
certain parts of artists
at
in
the medieval period
familiar,
some
to depicting the
of
(more objectionable by
as
we have
whom
human form far
in
from the
point of view of strict rabbinical law than painting,
in
mere
seen above), or even to
manufacture of Christian religious
objects.
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
501
502
N^
241.
by
242.
Juan
A
caravan on the road to China. Detail from the Catalan Atlas Crescas, 1376/7. Bibliotheque Nationale. Paris.
Abraham and Judah
de Levi. The story of Santa Catalina. Aragonese school, 15th century.
243.
Meir
of the
Jaffe.
Binding of the Pentateuch
Nuremberg
City Council,
1468.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
503
That painters,
Jewish
art of this
to
be found
there-
is,
One important specimen
self-evident.
fore,
were
too,
period
— though —
tance was not in the artistic field
of
is
the famous
Catalan Atlas (now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris)
Abraham Crescas
executed in 1376/7 by
Majorca and his son Judah for the King of
of
who pronounced
Aragon, that
to
it
he had ever seen. In
details are
emphasized and
of castles, animals,
be the
map
fairest
the geographical
this,
by drawings
illustrated
symbolic figures and so on,
Middle Ages. Here emphasized. While
who
painters
mentioned
are
in
contem-
Abraham ben Yomtob
a single point only it is
that their authorship
a
few which are
open
is
certainly the
names are preserved. Thus,
artists;
who
example, Meir
has just been mentioned, book-illuminator
skilled
a
as
is
known
well
to us
book-
as
the Kennicott Bible in Oxford
binder;
so
whose
of Jews,
for
was the
achievement of Joseph ibn Hayyim; Nathan ben
Simeon executed a superb codex
Moses ibn Forma
Code
(1438). Nor can
of these
to doubt, there are
work
de Salinas (1406) with his son Bonastruc; and of Saragossa
be
to
is
some
certain that
were executed by non-Jewish
illuminations
Jaffe,
sional
will
and while the vast majority are anonymous,
as
porary documents include
work (chapter IX)
this
deal with Jewish manuscript-illumination of the
able verve and dramatic effect
241). Profes-
period.
Another chapter of
executed in color, and sometimes with consider(fig.
works of the
of other distinguished
same tvpe and
chief impor-
its
number
also a
504
at
Cologne
in
1295; Joel
Maimonides'
of
ben Simeon created
one dismiss the hypothesis that the two brothers
a series of illuminated haggadoth in the late 15th
Guillen and Juan de Levi, whose productions are
century in
beginning to attract the attention of students of
on.
the
newlv-revealed
fifteenth-centurv
Aragonese
Germany and Northern
made
that he
name seems
Kadmoni (1281) by including
imply
242).
(fig.
Middle
Ages which demanded
tions,
a high degree of artistic,
those
as well as technical ability
we
in the
was book-binding; and even
find records of Jewish book-binders,
the papal court at Avignon.
The
Pope Benedict XIII, which
also forbade
in
bull of the anti-
Jews
to
bind volumes containing the sacred names of Jesus
and the Virgin Marv, shows how were associated with
this craft. In
Jews
closely
Germany, they
are said to have been expert in the difficult type of leather-work
of
damped
known
as cuir cisele, with the use
leather as a basis for carved designs.
Specimens are extant of the work
known a
copy
of
1468 he was commissioned the
Pentateuch
Council of Nuremberg.
ment (now preserved nich;
see
fig.
Meir
243)
This
for
to
splendid
in thin tendrils.
human
ent-
boughs, terminating in
Hebrew inscription name. One authority, who
heads, and there
giving the craftsman's
is
The back cover shows an
intricate pattern of thicker
terms him "a supreme
is
a
artist,"
ascribes
versions.
where knowledge
shown
is
follows
It
—
productions
some
that
especially
cases
in
of Jewish ritual or Jewish tradi-
— may well have been the work
Jewish craftsmen
also.
A
point to be noted
is
most of the persons mentioned are known
of
that
to us
only by a single production. Obviously, they must
have been responsible
much
of their
remains unidentified
perhaps
more than
this,
and
—
or indeed,
is
to
or
be sought
non-Hebrew manuscripts, unobtrusively
in
produced
for far
work must have been destroyed
for Christian patrons or placed
on the
general market.
to
II
Mu-
decorated with the civic
is
printed
anonymous
manuscript
subsequent
in
achieve-
the State Library at
in
bind
appeared
that
and
tion
a series of illustra-
which presumably provided the patterns for
City
the
coat-of-arms supported bv a deer which
wined
Jaffe,
and manuscript-illuminator
also as a scribe
of merit. In
of
so
a point of increasing the attraction
of his
to
and
famous book of parables, the Meshal ha-
school of painting, were of Jewish birth, as their
Another branch of craftsmanship
Italy,
Isaac ibn Sahula, the Spaniard, informs us
him
In Italy, in the period of the High Renaissance,
Jews participated
in
almost every form of the cul-
tural activity characteristic of the age.
were
artists
ately,
very
among them little
is
That there
certain; but, unfortun-
of their recognizable production
has survived. Moses de Castelazzo (d. 1527) son
of
a
—
German immigrant named Abraham
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
505
Jeshurun Tovar. Housewive's casket.
244.
about 1460-
Italy,
Bezalel
506
Museum.
Jerusalem.
Sachs,
beni to
and himself the
when he
first
patron of David Reu-
day.
He
d'Este,
—
arrived in Italy in 1524
have been a person of some
seems
note in his
slight
designed a portrait-medal of Ercole
Duke
of Ferrara;
I,
he was on terms of easy
Bembo,
friendship with the Cardinal
for
whom
he worked; he executed, or began to execute, a series of illustrations to the
Pentateuch, which he
intended to have engraved on artists like himself,
for this
wood by
his sons,
receiving patents of copyright
from the Council of Ten
in
Venice and
from the Marquess of Mantua. However, nothing of his production can is
now be
identified.
The same
the case with Master Isaac of Bologna, gold-
smith to the Court of Naples in 1484, and Graziadio of Bologna, for
worked
as
a boy.
whom
Benvenuto
Cellini
There are extant some very
beautiful specimens of Jewish ritual art in precious metal
—
silver
and gold — dating from the
Renaissance period (they are dealt with in extenso chapter XI of this work), but there
not.
Perhaps the only identifiable signed object of
Jewish domestic use of his age
now
casket
bearing finelv
in
the Bezalel
representations
executed
in niello
of
Jewish
ra
named Jeshurun Tovar (fig. 244). One Jewish craftsman only of the age eminence
ficient
more
who
to
specific sense.
of suf-
This
is
Salamone da Sesso,
1487 entered the service of the Duke of
in
Ferrara and shortly after accepted baptism under the
name he
years courts
was
—
Ercole dei Fedeli. For the next thirty is
found working for various
Italian
Mantua, Pesaro, Ferrara, Rome.
He
especially noted for the magnificent swords
and daggers which he produced
(fig.
245). These
are not vulgar instruments for self-defense but
superb
articles of
encrusted
with
adornment, the scabbards being
pagan
(never
Biblical)
scenes,
symbols and nude figures in the spirit of The most famous of his productions, spe-
classical
and frequently
cimens of which are to be found
were
is
enter into art-historv in the
the age.
a high probability that they
ceremonials
work, apparently executed
hardly
is
an exquisite
about 1460-80 bv a master-craftsman from Ferra-
any positive evidence that the makers were Jews,
in
is
Museum, Jerusalem,
in
most of the
507
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
508
great collections of Renaissance art,
weapon fashioned
exquisite
the sinister,
is
Cesare Borgia,
for
which has been designated the Qneen of Swords.
Towards the
close of the sixteenth
from
who worked
Verona, named Giuseppe de' Levi, with
collaboration
close
—
Rossi
in
de
an almost characteristically Jew-
in Italy
name, corresponding
ish
Angelo
certain
a
we
century
find a gifted but unoriginal artist in metal
Mordecai min Ha-
to
Adumim. That thev were both
Jews, notwith-
standing the ecclesiastical productions with which
they were associated,
is
enough; but
likelv
it
re-
mains unproven. Painting introduces us into a somewhat different sphere, closely associated with that of manuscript-
which has already engaged our
illumination,
There were certainly Jewish painters
tion.
attenin
Re-
naissance Italy; two of them, Angelo (= Mordecai)
and Giacobbe
d'Elia
(= Jacob ben Hav-
di Vitale
vim) were even admitted
1507/8
in
member-
to
ship in the painters' guild at Perugia. Neverthe-
known
paintings of the period virtu-
less,
of the
ally
nothing can be ascribed to Jews. Giovanni
Battista Levi
(c.
tent altar pieces
1552-post 1605), some compe-
whom
by
may have belonged metal-worker,
Giuseppe
name makes
certain that
jew.
A
it
certain
Ostiglia,
case,
of Florence
fired
vear,
who
1675)
(d.
is
said to
painting only in his
in
when
thai of Jonah
is
his
imagination
He now
was
obtained access to one
same master's canvases and
of the
in
first
he was not a professing
by seeing someone copving a painting by
Salvatore Rosa.
on
like the
but his
Levi;
de'
however,
have become interested thirtv-seventh
have been preserved,
Jewish familv,
to a
tried his
hand
Soon he showed considerable aptitude and
it.
the end grew into Rosa's style to such an extent
we
that,
are told, their works could hardly be
distinguished apart. Perhaps
it
is
for that reason
that nothing of his production can
We
today.
salons of
at
identified
know, however, that he decorated the
some
of the Florentine nobilitv,
he did landscapes excel
be
(like
figure-painting)
his
and that
master, he did not
for
some
fellow-artists
such as Bracciolini and Giusti. It
is
obvious that both the social and the
Salamone da Ses.so (Ercole dei Fedeli). The Sword of the Gonzaija Familv, Louvre, Paris.
2-15.
reli-
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
509
gious impediment disappeared
converted to Christianity,
number
and there were presum-
by
the
Jewish
addition to the hypothetical cases mentioned
Jewish
above. In the seventeenth century, two of these
above mediocrity. One of the busiest church
rose
was
painters in Venice in the seventeenth century
Roman Roman artist
Francesco Ruschi, son of a converted
A
sician.
pupil of the popular
seppe Cesari, known as
the earliest
to
of
space from Pietro da Cortona, whose Venetianism
he emphasized. life
It is
said that he breathed a
younger generation of
into the
new Ve-
artists in
and may thus be considered the forerunner
nice,
of the
minor Renaissance there
century. It
Old Testament
dilection for
Christian allegiance different
Pietro
in the
eighteenth
noteworthy that he showed a pre-
is
subjects; possibly, his
was not
so profound.
type of person was his
(1614
Liberi
— 1687),
A
very
contemporary
baptized son of a
laduan Jew, who after an adventurous career (he had been in turn soldier, merchant, and slave Tunis) settled as a painter
Vienna and
He was
eminently success-
specializing in altar-pieces
and church deco-
then in 1659 in Venice. ful,
in
first
much
ration,
His painting
of is
which
still
is
be seen there.
to
described as easy and clever, with
strong medieval reminiscences. His reputation
was
be
can
David
only
with
identified
who
Lodi,
de'
competent
produced
he learned the dramatic potentialities of
The
1492.
engravings
contributed historical
a
to
work on Cremona, Cremona nobilissima
Giu-
and shade from Caravaggio and those
light
some
work produced
a
in
the period whose work in a non-
publication is
in
Naples
in
artist of
certainty
is
known Jewish copper
citta,
said to be
engraver.
production in which
artistic
Jews were engaged
Italian
He
that city in 1585.
in
Another branch of
Cavaliere d'Arpino"
"II
latter
phy-
(whose objectionable mannerism he was able avoid)
in
the woodcuts which figured
of baptized Jewish artists,
ably quite a in
Jew became
a
if
510
in the
Renaissance and
post-Renaissance periods was ceramic manufac-
We
ture.
know
again
— none
in 1629,
work
of his
members
and Azulai families who were
down
was
It is
to the
at
Jewish
of the
Cohen
work
in
the
middle
from
Ancona,
Pesaro,
centurv.
licen-
— once
identifiable.
is
the like) were produced by
sixteenth
though
some merit (Passover plates and
ritual objects of
Padua,
who was
of a Lazzaro Levi,
ced to work at Mantua
Faenza, of
middle of the eighteenth
natural to suppose that their
work
entirely confined to Jewish ritual production.
Probably, therefore, some unsigned pieces those
ticularly
(par-
Testament
Old
bearing
or
Apocryphal scenes, which might have been tended for Jewish
in-
are to be ascribed to
clients)
them.
Another aspect of
be taken
which must
artistic activity
into consideration
is
architecture.
A
se-
parate section of this work (chapter VII) will deal in detail
with the synagogues of the medieval and
such that he was able to build for himself what
post-medieval periods. Here,
was subsequently the Palazzo Moro on the Grand
to consider to
Canal, and received the dignity of Count of the
Jewish architects. In some cases, certainly, they
Holy Roman Empire. In the history of
were
he played an important role
tian art
and
earliest Prior, of the
Vene-
later
as the founder,
College of Artists.
printed in Hebrew,
was obviously
in
a separate
category. Highly ornamental elements, sometimes,
presumably are
to
be
emanating
from
found
Hebrew
in
Jewish
books
masters,
almost
from the beginning of printing, and some books (see belov^, chapter XIII)
from certain
the
end
of
Moses ben
the Isaac,
were illustrated already fifteenth
century.
specifically
A
brother-in-law of the
Neapolitan Jewish printer Azriel Gunzenhausen, stated to have been
sible for the is
it
Engraving, which could be applied also to books
is
associated with
and the names
not,
certain,
it
necessary only
is
what extent thev were the work of of the Gentiles respon-
work are recorded. In some instances however, that
it
was
carried out
bv
Jews. Thus, for example, though the former ascription
of
Synagogue
of the Transito
fictitious
Toledo
to
a
Cordova (1315) was apparently constructed
by Isaac Moheb. The Hebrew synagogue of Trani makes tect
was "a man
Oporto )
sive,
,
the
it
tablet in the former clear that the archi-
of understanding,
ber of our bodv". (
at
Meir Abdeli cannot be maintained, that
The synagogue
ruins
of
of
which are
Monchique still
impres-
we know, from similar direction of Don Joseph ibn
was constructed,
evidence under the
honored mem-
as
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
511
and
religions
512 and were
bars,
thus able to participate in certain aspects of artistic activity
Southern Europe
in
me-
the
in
and Renaissance period.
dieval
For such participation, though indeed
not
for
art
itself,
a
more favorable atmosphere
far
emerged
the
in
century
seventeenth
certain
in
Protestant
On
lands of Northern Europe.
the one hand, religious preju-
here dwindled, and the
dices ft* -
new communities which began
rw 3s< "3 -p~ ^r
emerge
to
-4f
in
such
cities
as
London and Amsterdam were economically, and to some ex-
On
tent socially, emancipated.
the other hand, art lost cif! call v
and Salom
Aryeh "the
Italia.
officer
who
Engraved border
for a Scroll
supervised the work".
of Esther.
The
epitaph of Judah Goldsmied de Herz in the Old
Cemetery
Prague
of
states that
was according
it
to his plans that the Pinkas Synagogue and part
Synagogue
of the Meisel
in
though according
structed;
that citv
a
to
were con-
contemporary
Jewish chronicler, the main responsibility for the latter
to
is
Wahl. So,
be attributed to Judah and Joseph
too,
some
of the Eastern
European syna-
gogues have attached to them the names of Jewish architects such as
Simha Weiss (Nasielsk), Ben-
jamin Hillel of Lutsk
These names are
were
architects
at
(Lutomiersk)
sufficient to
work
in the
and
so on.
prove that Jewish
Middle Ages and
thereafter, before the age of emancipation. Their
of
buildings
which may
ascribed to them. In this case, too, that
their
definitely
be
we mav assume
work was not necessarilv confined
to
the religious sphere, nor even to a Jewish clientele.
connotation,
it now became possible who did not belong to
for
the
Christian church to take his part without straining
Moreover, the
conscience.
his
were
to a great extent
in
had followed the same walks and continued
bors,
engage
in the
at places
to
new communities
dependent on the Marrano
element who, as Christians
Spain and Portugal,
of life as their neigh-
have the same
same occupations
where thev could
and
tastes
after they arrived
freely profess their re-
Simultaneously, Ashkenazi practitioners of
ligion.
various forms of art began to emerge in the envi-
ronment of the semi-emancipated court Jews the various
German
states,
spreading
later
in
else-
where. Thus, from the seventeenth century, Jewish artists
become
A
achievement obviously extended well bevond the handful
one
religious
spe-
its
working
relatively
point
that
in a
European milieu begin
common. emerges
time
after
connection with the persons with
have to deal at
the
tion.
is
outset
that
their
incidental
They did not become
an inner urge, but, livelihood, they
to
in the
time
in
whom we
will
activity
was
artistic
their
main occupa-
artists in
order to satisfy
to
course of earning their
found and developed
their artistic
Ill
bent. The journeyman seal-cutter develops some
We
have been
dealing, thus far, with scattered
names and random episodes naged
to elude or break
of
Jews who ma-
through social prejudice
competence
in
medal-engraving;
the
pewter-
engraver becomes an expert in copper-plate; the calligraphist
expands
into
the
miniaturist;
the
JEWISH ART
513
AND
ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION 246) as well as
(fig.
which he
ment
engraved the
in
well-executed, quite
alive
1642,
in
247).
It
tably has
Italia's
haunting
eves; a
man
Italia's
portrait,
1636, with the
in
but bearing on his shoulders
responsible
Israel's
rather
the
for
all
also believed to
is
— executed no doubt
nasseh ben
inevi-
years younger than the scholar of
six
been
unfor-
work
and the heavy-lidded
face
the weight of the ages. Italia
have
not
same individual which Rembrandt
van Rijn painted and etched
etchings
but
bear comparison with the famous
to
portrait of the
brooding,
achieve-
perhaps
is
tunate that this specimen of
Israel
technically
age:
valuable,
historically
(fig.
ben
dull
a
the
of
spirit
included the
Menasseh
of
portrait
attached to
is
This
production.
non-religions
well-known
ketubbah. In the pre-
for a
more importance
sent connection, his
514
hastily
—
clumsy
Me-
to
Piedra Gloriosa of 1655. These
replaced in the published edition the famous series
prepared for the work by Rembrandt,
originally
which included a representation Salom
247.
Portrait of
Italia.
painter on porcelain
Menasseh ben
and was presumably rejected
becomes a painter on ivory
the author
and thereafter on canvas; the tobacconist even,
in
as the result of
amateurish
producing decorative snuff-boxes,
ultimately builds
There
is
up
a reputation as a miniaturist
— nor
not as yet
in
tions of the time could there
of the
on
view of
social condi-
be — anv question
young Jewish enthusiast boldly embarking
lomon)
take as our starting-point Salom (So-
Italia,
a
member
of the
when
themselves,
well-known
Italian
the plates
Italia's
when
Godhead,
became worn. Passable
etchings
they
bv
for that reason
are
are
clumsy and
compared with the
master's mystical interpretation of scriptural pro-
phecy. Another well-known portrait by Salom is
that of
Italia
Rabbi Jacob Judah Leon, called Templo
— himself
(1603-1675)
owed his name
art or painting as a career.
We may
of the
Israel.
a border-line artist,
to the representations of the
which he not only reconstructed also painted
in
who
Temple
model form, but
and subsequently engraved
(fig.
248).
family of printers of that name, -- -
who may have of engraving
learned the art
in
the
ancestral
business in Mantua. Perhaps as the result of the temporary expulsion of the Jews from that city
by the German troops
1629, he
where
came
to
in
Amsterdam,
for the next thirtv years
he was very active.
We
know
only of his work in a definitely
Jewish connotation. As will be described below, he produced the engraved borders for
noteworthy
Scrolls
of
two
Esther
248. Rabbi Jacob Judah Leon (Templo). Reconstructed model of Solomon's Temple, 1670.
•
—
-r*
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
515
516
Estevens, painter of a dignified likeness of IJalumt
David Nieto
at his
desk
—
specimen of
a typical
— which was
earlv eighteenth-centurv portraiture
engraved bv the English engraver McArdell
1727
(fig.
portrait of
Haham Moses Gomes da
of
London, engraved bv
Among
is
J.
Faber,
woman
painter
who was
— Catherine da Costa
not without
— 1756)
who
artist,
woman artist preserved. Member
Jewish
first
specimens of whose work are of a cultured
(1679
known Anglo-Jewish
not onlv the earliest
but also perhaps the
the
Mesquita,
1752.
in
the Sephardi group in England there
emerges one ability
in
249), or Solomon da Silva, author of a
and wealthy family, and
a pupil of
famous drawing-master and mezzotint en-
graver Bernard Lens, she was responsible for an interesting group of familv miniatures traits,
some
of
which show
that of her father; Dr.
teenth-centurv fashion
David Estevens.
249.
David Nieto, London.
Portrait of
his tenth year
was
Besides
Moses Belmonte (1619-47); he both drew and
engravers
Among
the
first
of the 17th century artists
own
(1714,
these,
we
associated
charm
—
e.g.,
Fernando Mendez, formerly
phvsician to King Charles
miniature of her
a naive
and por-
II,
dressed
in full eigh-
(1721); and the son, fig.
Abraham da
livelier
Costa, in
250).
find
with
a
number the
of
lewish
title-page,
of
etched a portrait of his mother, Simha Vaz Bel-
monte,
her extreme old age, who, with her hus-
in
band Jacob
Israel
Belmonte, had been among the
founders of the Jewish settlement in Amsterdam.
To be
drawing and painting were part
sure,
of
the accomplishment of any well-to-do familv at this
period
and
it
—
of the female
members
especially
only to be anticipated that the Sephardi
is
magnates of London and Amsterdam dabbled
them of the
—
like their neighbors.
Thus,
in
in
the collections
Henriques da Costa familv of Amsterdam,
dispersed
in
eighteenth
otherwise
1895,
century
there
figured
drawings
unknown members
numerous
and paintings of that
and
of
allied
clans.
In the course of this generation, for the rabbis of the Spanish
it
became usual
and Portuguese com-
munities of Northern Europe (as well as some of their
Ashkenazi colleagues)
to
have
their
like-
nesses engraved, so that thev could be available to
members
artists as
of their flock.
A
large
number
well as the engravers were Jews.
of the
We max
view persons, such as the Danish Jew, David
250.
Catherine da Costa. Her son Abraham. Miniature, 1714. Jewish Museum, London.
.
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
517
works printed
Amsterdam
number
who
this
period.
o-tNn bs rtr *3 tob*
A
vnwo nso to* o
of expert calligraphers,
embodied
generally
drawn
London and
in
at
518
I
finely-
*—vflfc-"
r-tf^w>
title-pages in their pro-
•
V
-yr-vt
S*y
-pro tyv
m» o* v r-tn 3*r
*>*kiv
-tn
r/vW" .-w
cm
ductions, are of interest in this
These
connection.
with
greater
in
dealt
are detail
else-
where, together with the revival
period
this
at
manuscript
art,
high
expectedly
Jewish
of
reaching an un(see
level
chapter XII )
Some Jewish engravers of this circle are known to us also by productions a
in oils,
showing
somewhat wider competence.
Thus "Ar de Chves," who en-
Benjamin Senior Godines. 'Memento mori', panel, 1681. Jewish Museum. London.
251.
graved the elaborate symbolic portrait-group which figures in
Miguel de Barrios' Imperio de Dios (Brussels 1670-3 or 1700),
Aaron de Chaves
is
(d.
c.
presumably identical with
who
1705),
painted a con-
ventional panel of Moses and Aaron for the Se-
He shows
phardi synagogue in London.
competence
in a Scroll of
a greater
Esther which he ima-
ginatively illustrated in 1687.*
We
encounter
will
calligraphist
table
name
the
also
Benjamin Senior Godines (see
of
229), a no-
fig.
and capable engraver, who
both edited and engraved the frontis-
inter alia
Hebrew and Spanish Orden de Be-
piece for the
(Amsterdam
nediciones
1687).
He had
some
wider ambitions, and at least on one occasion em-
barked as a painter
London has by him
in oils.
1679 and 1681
in
The Jewish Museum
Aboab
Isaac di Matatia
for his friend
of
the
life
and patron
Amsterdam. One
tribute to the artist's patron) in
in
a series of morality pictures executed
illustrates
(a
episodes
of the patriarch Isaac; the second, a
symbolic scene of the virtues of justice and charity;
and
finallv, a
memento mori executed
showing the dandy (attended bv vant)
and
the
A. Rubens, ascription of the
,-/
tie
corpse
that
he
his is
in
1681
Negro to
be;
serin
Jewish Iconography, p. 91, doubts the Barrios frontispiece (engraved by Christ-
Chaves, but it is accepted by J. Meijer, Encyclopaedia Sephardica Neerlandica, who illustrates his arian
Hagen),
tistic
activity
to
from other sources.
the background, the Jewish cemetery of Ouderkerk,
Van
after
well-known picture
Ruvsdael's
(fig.
251). This same subject was used by the
artist
again in another picture for the same patron
in the following year.
The
than Jewish in inspiration, tural
and
Jewrv
in the
spiritual
his forte.
atmosphere
Some
oil
the' close of
The
Amsterdam artist
artists are
unknown.
the eighteenth century the Jewish
met decorated with
had the room
in
which
a series of paintings repre-
senting the pious functions incumbent on bers.
shows
other morality paintings of this
Burial Societv at Prague it
of
painting was clearly not
period are preserved, but the
At
typical of the cul-
seventeenth century.
some ingenuity, but
more Catholic
series, is
its
mem-
These charming genre paintings are almost
certainly the
work
of a Jewish
artist,
to judge
from the close acquaintance with Jewish practice that thev show.
Environmental influence
may be
traced also in
another incidental aspect of art which received
its
pale reflection within the Jewish community.
A
few caricatures are extant from
different countries
which show that the Jews appreciated and were able to use this characteristic eighteenth-century
weapon of argument. A controversy which raged in London in 1749 regarding the newly-established Sephardi Hospital, Beth Holim, was the occasion
.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
519
The Jerusalem
252.
Infirmary. Caricature by
for the publication of a print entitled
lem Infirmary,
Jerusa-
same
title
252). This, satirizing mordantlv the beha-
(fig.
vior
The
illustrating a play of the
and weaknesses
management
of those associated with the
abuses in
alleged
peared
anonymously,
tributed
and emphasizing
of the institution
certain
among
its
with
management, apauthorship
the
various impossible
names
dis-
(inve.
Ribi Tarfon; Pinx. Ribi Zadok. Scup. Ribi Bag-
and
bug)
is
it
that the artist
Modena
not
was
in Italy,
certain
(though probable)
from
a Jew. In 1777, a scholar
Zechariah Padova, after a quarrel
anonymous
520
1749, London.
artist,
ning of the eighteenth century, besides dealing in
works of
painted there portraits and his-
art,
torical scenes,
none
at present readily identifiable.
Raphael Bachi of Turin (1717—1767) settled Paris as a tobacconist
beginning
and snuff-merchant, and
decorate
to
snuff-boxes. Ultimately this pation,
and
then
to
became
his
later
paint
his
main occu-
due course he developed
in
in
into a
fashionable miniature-painter, his clientele including the families of the
Prince de Conde.
Duke
He was
Modena and
of
often
the
employed by the
court for painting portrait-miniatures on the snuff-
with the leaders of his community, caricatured
boxes which were presented to foreign potentates
them
and notables,
in
seated
an etching,
in his
in
which he depicted himself
study and his elegantlv-dressed oppo-
them
—
bodv
(
nents advancing on him, one of terest
The
enemy
— having a
artist's self-portrait is
Notwithstanding
this
dog's
in this field.
A
253
)
its
it is
intense aesthetic still
produced
rabbi of Zante,
Abraham
Cohen, was apparently the author of the poor classical portrait prefixed
to his Birkat
Avraham
Venice 1719). Jacob Carpi (1685—1748) of Verona,
who emigrated
to
Amsterdam
worse than that of the average miniature-painter of the dav. Clearly, this
at the begin-
could be expanded,
list
but not with any outstanding name; and the fact
demonstrates
unusual achievement,
sense and strong artistic tradition, little
fig.
noteworthy.
curious that Italian Jewry, with
so
his bit-
work being neither better nor
his
Jewry was
how
strangely
retrograde
Italian
in this respect.
Above, attention has been drawn from time to time to various
been converted
artists
to
Christianity.
take into account the opposite
emerges
who had
of Jewish birth
We
must
at this time, of Christian artists
came converted some eminence
to Judaism.
One
— the English
also
phenomenon which
who
of these
was
beof
miniaturist Alexan-
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS REFORE EMANCIPATION
521
522
der Cooper (1605—1660), brother of the more
who
distinguished Samuel Cooper,
considered
is
perhaps the most gifted of English miniaturists.
Cooper
Alexander
Amsterdam himself to
as
and
subsequently
a Jew;
where
Stockholm,
Abraham and was
emerged he
in
called
referred
constantly
and there can be no doubt that
he had become a convert
Towards the end
to
Judaism
(fig.
of the century, a certain
pastor likewise became converted and
254).
German
settled in
Amsterdam, where he was known by the Jews under the name of Abraham ben Jacob. to
He seems
have become a professional engraver, among productions being a
his
map
of Palestine with
Hebrew lettering, an amulet, and the to the Amsterdam haggadah of 1695 artistic
merit
fashion
(
fig.
— 238 )
which .
There
him
the
Isaac
Aboab da Fonseca
engraving
thereafter
of
is
also
illustrations
—
of
some
set
a
new
ascribed
Abraham
Alexander
Count Magnus Gabriel de
la
Cooper. Garde,
1647.
to
Haham
a
portrait
of
Amsterdam, painted
of
254.
by the otherwise unknown Jewish it
artist
was
(or
a brother-proselyte?), Joseph ben Abraham.
Except for the one or two early instances that
we do
have been mentioned above,
name
to
nineteenth
the
until
natural
ascribe
to
the
century;
traditional
which was especially strong against There
know
anv Jewish sculptor, good or bad,
of
land
not
is,
in
a
the
any fact
prejudice
plastic art."
however, one aspect of sculpture with
which Jews were
closely associated,
and
in
which
Jews were probably personally engaged; and necessary to devote a few deration of
this.
moments
it
is
to the consi-
Jewish tombstones in the Middle
Ages were simple, owing any
thev
artistic effect
possessed entirely to the inscriptions, which, on the other hand, were sometimes very rudely engraved.
From rary
the Renaissance period,
monuments began
artistic
ible
for
lay
in
merit;
more
artistic
fune-
to emerge, occasionally of
sometimes the craftsmen respons-
them were Jews. In Italy, the beautv the form and incidental decoration,
though sometimes coats-of-arms and family badges
were added. In Germany and Central Europe for
example,
in
(as,
the famous cemetery of Prague)
The only recorded exception to this generalization is Bourig Meyer (1630 1710), said to be a Portuguese Jewish sculptor of Frankfurt who collaborated with a non-Jew in
—
Roman emperors in porphyry (cf. Thieme-Becker, Ktienstler Lexicon). But the name is obviously not Portuguese, the first name is non-Jewish, and there is no evidence that he was in fact a Jew, though he may have been of Jewish extraction.
carving a series of busts of
253.
Zechariah Padova. Caricature of his opponents Modena, Italy, 1777.
was
there
Hebrew
a greater elaboration, the heavily carved
characters being used with magnificent
and svmbolism lavishly added
decorative effect
Among and
the Sephardi communities of Holland
dependencies, an important school of fune-
its
and
rarv sculpture developed in the seventeenth
eighteenth centuries. Here the inscriptions on the
recumbent marble tombstones were principally
Hebrew being used
Spanish,
Thev were decorated of
reliefs
They
onlv
than Dutch
in
incidentally.
many
very
in
remarkably high
a
Italian rather
by
cases
standard,
artistic
and execution.
in feeling
generally depict scenes associated with the
commemorated:
Biblical prototvpe of the person
the death of Rachel, the triumph of Mordecai, the sacrifice
and
of Isaac,
calling of Samuel,
apparently
In another case
Curacao
we
of
Indies,
scene,
deceased
the
see even a re-
Deitv
the
of
West
depicts the death-bed
bust
in
himself.
together with the
high
in
the tombstone
relief.
sculptors of these verv able works
But there
unproved.
(the
(1726), from the Dutch colony the
in
In one case
on.
so
commemorating Samuel Senior
Texeira of Amsterdam, 1717) presentation
That the
were Jews
is
there
is
good
reason
sculpture
of
authorship as
it
of
was
for
imagining
may have been in object
and
that
this
Jewish
in
in inspiration.
to guild-control,
A wholly
different
productive
—
— and
engraving,
thereafter
trait-) painting.
The
in
more
medal-
designing,
to
pewter
its
(or at a later stage por-
art of the calligrapher-scribe,
progressed from the writing of sacred books
to the
production of decorated and then illumi-
nated codices untimatelv led also direction.
new
was within
It
school
Jewish
Jewish
of
artists
began
velopment. Hence,
some
and
—
a whollv un-
a group of
artists
among the Ashkenazi Jews than among
retrograde
the
professional
of
merit arose earlier
little
same
that
slow and hesitating de-
due course,
in
the
in
context
this
art
its
expected result ensued
of
socially-
the cul-
turally-advanced Sephardim.
Let us take, as an
illustration the
at this
period of the "modern" Jewish
record
of
different
ways
artist,
in successive generations. In
the in
Ans-
mid-eighteenth century a
in the
named Samuel
son of Pinhas (Phi-
from Lehrberg, who earned
,
emergence
one gifted family which excelled
bach there lived
of
his livelihood
copying
Torah-
run more
from that of the
and codices
style.
He
(1727
— 1793)
English and Dutch Sephardim was emerging meanin the
for example, to
engraving
to
making and miniature-
who
—
and hence
sense,
specific
in
Competence
occupation naturally became ex-
to other spheres
by the honored profession
to art
itine-
became very wide-spread
the neighboring lands.
in this exacting
tended
scrolls
approach
being largelv carried on by
tury, this occupation
Germany and
neas ) in the long
was not subject
it
rant craftsmen. Thus, from the seventeenth cen-
Torah-scribe
IV
while
normally had no
it
and thus was exempt
applications
ecclesiastical
524
which arose naturally from
activity
dealing in precious stones;
nothing exactly similar
is
the art of the environment at this time, and
school
branch
from theological inhibitions; and
summit.
at the
of
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
523
sphere of the Ashkenazi communities
in the traditional calligraphic
Low
Pinhas
pious calling,
which
brought up his son, Judah
same
to the
the latter developed in conventional fashion, copy-
and Eastern Europe. These found
of Central
principal
their
many respects to the general bourgeois population, who at this time played so prominent a role in German Jewry, One of the characteristic Jewish occupations in this geographical area, going back for many cen-
Jews, socially assimilated in
turies,
ing sacred books and illuminating
them by hand,
common
At the age of
patron in the circle of cultured court
was
seal-
in
the style
thirteen he wrote
at this time.
and decorated a
and a Passover haggadah
Margrave of Ansbach arranged perly trained. In due course,
voung
artist
and gem-engraving. This was a
was now
mainly anonymous, but it is reported that at Cernauti (Czernowitz) it was carried out by successi\e generations of the families of Picker and Steinmetz, the communal grave-diggers. is.
of course,
of the higher aristocracy
family,
was
him
to
be pro-
Leo Pinhas
(as the
called)
painter. His production, This work
Scroll of Esther
so elegantly that the for
became
which includes
and
his court
portraits
of the Prussian royal
of considerable merit.
He had
pro-
bably studied with the distinguished Berlin minia-
!
[EWISH ART AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
525
whose
Friedrich Konig,
turist
two men
stvle of the
some
he copied: the
style
any case so similar that
in
is
ascribed to the latter are in
portraits
probability the
all
of his Jewish disciple.
Leo
— 1837)
was
work
Salomon Pinhas (1759
Pinhas' son,
526
brought up to the same profession and similarly
became court painter
Prince of Bayreuth, his
and
of Prussia
some
sides
nature,
a
also executed, be-
of a purely Jewish
portraits for a Jewish clientele,
devoted to the members of
series
Napoleonic king-
Consistory of the
the Jewish
dom
of
tures
began
book
illustration
Westphalia. In later
which
in
He
work
calligraphic
to
later to the
including the King
sitters
his family.
numerous
including
and
in Cassel
when minia-
life,
go out of fashion, he turned to
and
Masters,
he
showed
occupation
ungrateful
some competence.
copying Old
to
His
son
Hermann
turn,
in
Hirsch Pinhas (born 1795) followed the same pro-
more "modern" fashion and achieved
fession in a
distinction as a copper-engraver, the fourth professional artist in direct line of descent.
We
see
Hebrew
through
scribe-calligraphist
The
Jcremias David Alexander Fiorino.
255.
here the straight genealogy from
father.
artist's
the traditional the
eigh-
mention here more than two of them
— Johann
who succeeded
teenth-centurv miniature painter to the conven-
Joseph Christian Treu (1739-99),
tional nineteenth-century artist.*
his father as miniature painter at the petty court
Another outstanding family of miniature-painters
who worked
same environment, but unlike
in the
of
Bamberg; and Johann Nicholaus Treu the
86),
and
eldest
most
important
(
1734the
of
the Pinhas clan did not remain true to Judaism,
brood
—who
served in a similar capacity in the
was
sister-court of
Wurzburg. The last-named achieved
that
of
Nathan (son Jew
Treu.
originator
Its
of the affluent
Bamberg) who
to the Prince-Bishop of
youth
under
fell
baptized,
too,
generation,
graduated into the so
like
and
this
in
court painter in his native
work included
also
still-life
and even a number
pieces. Six of his children
daughters their
day
in his
under the name of Joseph Marquard
of miniature-painting,
scenes,
Joel
and became
influence
Jesuit
Treu (1713-96). He,
of this
was one
Wolf Nathan, court
—
also
is
other Jews
capacity
became
Bamberg. His
later
compositions, genre of rather
heavv
— including
attained
as artists. It
manv
art
some
slight
altar-
his three
note
in
unnecessary, however, to
something of a reputation for his altar-paintings, as well 'as for a portrait of the unfortunate
Jews
G. C. Pinhas, who in 1780 executed a portrait of Rabbi Saul Levy Lowenstam of Amsterdam (later engraved), was apparently not a member of this family.
was
It
onlv
two
generations
from the davs of the court Jew who had founded the familv
— but how
The most this
circle
removed
far
in
atmosphere
distinguished of the Jewish artists of
was unquestionably Jeremias David
Alexander Fiorino (1797
— 1847)
who, trained as
a porcelain-painter, achieved brilliant success
and
decorated a famous Meissen service for the Saxon roval family. In rests,
due course he extended
his inte-
building up a distinguished clientele as a
artist-son of
—
Rome.
of
portraitist
Salomon Pinhas was Jacob Pinhas (1788 1861) who, however, gave up painting and became an influential liberal journalist. The Dutch Jewish artist Another
Pope
Pius VI, oppressor, in his days of power, of the
Dresden.
and being appointed court painter
He
is
at
considered one of the most brilliant
miniaturists of his
day,
work being preserved
many specimens of his important German
in the
collections (fig. 255). His
nephew, Alexander Fio-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
527
much Lowe
MODERN TIMES
oi2S
same environment was Moses Samuel
the
(1756
— 1831)
who,
up
Friedrich Lowe, built his portrait of the
and miniature
Michael
as
Johann
a fashionable clientele,
Empress Catherine
of Russia
II
Kant being very
of the philosopher
well-known.
A
approach
different
fessional
to the career of the pro-
converted the Jewish pewter- or
artist
metal-engraver to a line engraver and etcher
when
the period
tvpe of
this
in
work was
artistic
particularly flourishing. In the eighteenth century,
number
quite a
names are attached
of Jewish
engraved portraits produced
European
said to
is
various Western
been seen
countries, as has already
the foregoing pages.
witz
in
A
to
in
certain Zevi Hirsch Leibo-
have engraved a
series of
no fewer
than 165 portraits of members of the Radziwill family in Poland between 1746 and 1768. Berlin at the close of the eighteenth
century attracted a
number
and gave them an
of such practitioners
outlet for their talents. Thus, Benedict Heinrich
Bendix (1768—1828), a native Berliner, learned the
engraving
of
art
cient,
and became
very
profi-
besides being a fair portrait painter; his
sitters
manv
included
of the Jewish intellectual
leaders of the time, as well as military and political
.///?/
His solitary mezzotint, of Aron Beer, the
figures.
Hazan In
of the Berlin
as his ability. d.
1829;
Wilhelm, The
256.
brothers Henschel. Patce from 'Der Heilis; Krie?,' Berlin.
was
rino.
eminent
1815.
Jewish
miniaturist
Lippman Fraenckel (1772 Mecklenburg boy
to
this
of
— 1857)
Another
was
period
who, born
of a Polish father, emigrated as a
Copenhagen, where he was apprenticed
a goldsmith
and
at the
Academy. From 1797
same time studied 1805 he was
to
Sweden, where he found portraits
of
in
his
many members
at
at the
work
metier and
to
in
made
of the nobilitv
and
gentlemen of the court; afterwards he returned as
court miniaturist to Copenhagen.
tures,
most of them on
ivory, are of
workmanship, and show a
lively
four brothers Henschel (August,
d.
1837;
d.
1865) arrived
but always
from Breslau
in their craft,
and
in
works
collaboration, signing their
"the brothers Henschel."
Thev produced, besides
successful pastel portraits
and miniatures, a num-
ber of engravings that were at one time extremely
popular
throughout
Germany,
especially
their
"Scenes from the Life of Goethe" and their portraits of
such celebrities as Fichte and the singer
Catalani, patriotic illustrations
(fig.
256), theatrical
scenes, even plates of military costume.
Academy
of Arts
esteemed the
impeccable
the
in
1862;
d.
while seemed to show great promise,
His minia-
who worked
Moritz,
in Berlin
about 1806, already proficient
and Wilhelm highly enough
though restrained
sense of color. Yet another artist
The
Friedrich,
for a short
also a portrait-painter of merit.
synagogue (after the portrait
his loyalties as well J. C. Frisch) demonstrates
title
of
academic
ability of
to grant
artists.
The
But
them it
Berlin
August in
1812
seems as
though August provided most of the force and the genius behind the
little
family group; for after his
.
AND
[EWISH ART
529
death
own hand
at his
ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
1829, the three surviving
in
brothers returned to Breslau, where they spent the
A
process
similar
which
that
to
developed
Jewish metal-decorators into etchers brought about
As we have seen above, Jewish mint-
medallists.
known
Ages
as far
in various countries of
back as the Dark
Europe, but their pro-
duction was utilitarian rather than aesthetic in intention.
A
Benjamin
mysterious medal bearing the
son
— obviously an
Beer
Elijah
of
name
of
Physician
the
Italian production of the Renais-
sance period (1497 or 1503?)
— seems
be of
to
his
own
co-religionist
Moses
Mendelssohn. These are certainly as good as any this
tvpe produced at this period, the
delicacv of execution compensating in part for the
absence of imaginative force.
the metamorphosis of Jewish seal-engravers into
masters had been
forgetting
examples of
days in obscurity.
rest of their
course,
530
the earlv vears of the nineteenth century
In
was carried on bv competent
the tradition
men
successive
in
crafts-
such as the Dutch Sephardi familv of Elion generations;
Henri Simon (1752-1834)
army
officer
or
Relgian Jean
the
who had
served as an
under Napoleon and whose gems
in
the classical style were so competentlv carried out
were mistaken
that thev (as
we
shall
see),
for antiques; or later on
Jacques Wiener, who, after
Jewish authorship, to judge from the impressive
Hebrew
inscription
it
bears (the significance being
conveyed by a long and involved acrostic), but is
impossible to be more precise about
the earliest
known Jewish
exact sense
was probably
who
it.
Hence
medallist in the Joel
it
more
ben Lipman Levi,
carried out a crude portrait-medal in honor
ben Samuel Schmelka
of Eleazar
Brody when
of
he was appointed Rabbi of Amsterdam
fig.
(
257 )
It is
a poor piece of work, chiefly important because
of
the
heated rabbinical
which
controversy
aroused (see Responsa of Jacob Emden, In
Germany and
it
170).
an entire
adjacent areas
the
n.
257.
school of Jewish engravers and medallists emerged,
however,
the course of the next generation
in
Samuel Judin and medals one
ing
1730-1800)
(c.
who
:
commemoration
of
the
victory
of
Poltava; Aaron Jacobson, appointed in 1750 en-
Abraham Aaron
graver at the Danish court;
1744-1824)
who worked
ben
Lipman
satisfactory
at the courts of
medals
(c.
earliest
,
Belgian
tradition linked
postage-stamps.
up with
in the classical stvle,
—
the most gifted was one of the earliest Jacob Abraham (1723-1811), who was followed by his son, Abraham Abramson 1754-181 1 The former, )
of Polish birth,
emerged
to
under Frederick the Great, several coins dals to first
a
Jew
medals
to
become
of Arts in
tellectual life,
for
somewhat
commemorate
Academy of
and
whom
member
— issued
in Berlin
he designed
florid series of
his victories.
a
.
prominence
Thus the
old
a tvpical nineteenth-cen-
tury form of art."
Mecklen-
fashionable at the time; and several more. Perhaps
(
Portrait
achieving reputation as a medallist, engraved the
V
burg and of Stockholm, and was responsible for
some very
Levi.
struck coins
for the court of St. Petersburg, includ-
in
Joel
medal of Eleazar ben Samuel Schmelka of Brody, Amsterdam, 1735.
The son
Meanwhile, with tunities in less
than
somewhat ampler oppor-
almost any other European country, the
handful of newly-immigrated Jews produced quite a noteworthy succession of professional
and semi-
professional artists, working in a general sphere
and
for
the general market
(even though thev
me-
— the
*
In Paris, a few Jews are described as "engravers" in the
official
of the Prussian
a fine classicistic series
honor of the leaders of German
in
the
England, where social prejudices were
in-
from Kant downwards, and not, of
police-registers at the
middle of the century.
Among
them was Tobia Baer, formerly of Metz, and resident in the capital from about 1759 onwards, whose cameos were famous and of a high quality. Among his works was a portrait of Henry IV. He is believed to have painted miniatures
also.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
531
who ex
also
libris
produced several engraved
and was
a
successful
portrait-painter, enjoying in his
Dutch
of
traitist
for
both
miniature-
and and
(1757-1839).
(connected perhaps with the por-
birth
Abraham
mediocre
portraits
day a considerable
Solomon Polack
reputation.
local
532
Isaac Polack,
and
drawing etching
of
who was
engraving
Saul
responsible
1764
in
rabbi
Levi,
Hague), exhibited numerous pictures
at the
a
The
at
Roval
Academy from 1790 onwards, engraved the titlepages to some Hebrew books printed in London, and published several engraved
portraits of un-
even value. The adventurer Casanova records how
when he visited England in 1763 and wished to have a memento of one of his mistresses, he requested a friend to put him in touch with the best
Benjamin Levy of Portsmouth. Mendes, 1746.
258.
Ex-libris for Isaac
(The
known
earliest
London "and he
miniaturist in
Jewish book-plate).
sent
me
a
who was working here at and whose name suggests Jewish origin.
possibly, Jeremias,
—
Jew"
the
may have included one or two co-religionists among their clientele). They painted dutiful and dull
time
Hanoverian-style portraits; thev exhibited at the
by Solomon Yomtob Bennet (1761-1838), who,
Academy and
Roval of
competence
very soon
—
if
similar institutions, a proof
not of genius; and thev were
for the
most
part, deservedly
—
for-
in
born
close link with the Continent
in
was provided
Poland, worked with some success as an
engraver
in Berlin,
signing his works there Benet
Solomon, B. Salomo, rick
gotten. It is
A
William
II
(his portrait of Frede-
etc.
won him
a
government prize). In
noteworthy that many of them were active
designing and engraving book-plates: obviously,
a direct consequence of their
makers
or
as
engravers
competence
on
as seal-
which
pewter,
in
turn could naturally lead on to
more ambitious
work. This, too, ran
was the case on
in families, as
the Continent. Thus, for example, the founder of
community
the Jewish
Benjamin
Lew
(d.
of Portsmouth in
1747 was
1784) originally of Wiesba-
den, who, by profession a pewter-engraver, exe-
cuted some decorative book-plates for both Jewish
and non-Jewish
clients;
these
included what
is
reputed to be the oldest Jewish ex-libris known,
which he made
Mendes
in
for the
1746
(fig.
Sephardi magnate Isaac
258). His tastes were
herited and extended by his sons,
were
also
professional
engravers
two
—
designed a number of book-plates and view
s.
and
production
Isaac,
who
with
another Jew,
(later of Exeter),
collaborated
in
of
in-
whom
Elias,
who
many
local
book-plate
Moses Mordecai
twenty of whose products are
recorded. At Exeter, too, lived the versatile silversmith.
Ez
kiel
Abraham Ezekiel
(1757-1806),
259.
Isaacs. Portrait of David Tevele Schiff, Chief Rabbi of London, 1765.
Martha
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS BEFORE EMANCIPATION
533
Charles Towne. Cattle Fair. Williamson Art Gallery, Liverpool.
260.
he removed
middle
life
artistic
activity
appetite for
to
London, where
was obscured bv
his
insatiable
his
quarrelling with everybody, from the
Chief Rabbi downwards; his literary and exegetical
534
work, too, was of some importance, his treatise
bv a Sephardi
co-religionist,
Joshua Lopez. Con-
temporary with Barlin was the Burrell", in
who
exhibited in
the
eighteenth-centurv
Ashkenazi
bv a magnificent and erudite engraving bv
achieved some degree of success a
intimate English svnagogical en-
vironment emerged at
min
Barlin,
is
in
exhibited in
and
— Martha
in
who
Isaacs,
miniaturist,
who
London from 1771 onwards and sub-
sequently went to practice her art in India, where
Chatham
she married out of the faith into a military family.
exhibited at the Royal
Among
her earlier works were portraits of David
1802 and 1807. His best-known work
Tevele
Schiff,
who
a heavily-impressive oil portrait of the Chief
Rabbi Solomon Hirschell, Gallerv,
portrait-painter
artist,
this time Frederick Benja-
son of the reader of the
Jewish community,
Academy
prolific
one
too,
painters
woman
England there was,
his
Jew named
painting to Sir Walter Scott. In the circle of
on the Temple of Ezekiel (1824) being illustrated
own hand. From the most
"little
1801-7 and gave lessons
London; while
typically English in
its
a
now
in
the
more elegant
courtly posture
London
(fig.
Rabbi
of the Great
259), who,
it
is
Synagogue
in
interesting to note,
National
apparently did not have any objection to sitting
likeness,
for a
and back-
De
woman. (A Sephardi woman painter, named had exhibited a flower-piece at the
Castro,
ground, which he painted of the Sephardi Hahain,
Royal Academy
Raphael Meldola, was engraved and published
person of Jewish birth to do so).
in
1777, being possiblv the
first
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
535
Royal Academy
536
age of sixteen and
at the early
displayed great promise, but afterwards became
an armv
A
officer.
is
who, born
that of
at
away from home and
wandering came
England. Here,
about 1761
at
due course, he received the
in
was brought
royal patronage,
be mentioned
to
Johann Zoffany (1725-1810)
in Frankfurt, ran
after a period of to
name
highly-distinguished
point
this
.
into fashion,
and was
among the foundation members of the Royal Academy in 1769. From 1772 he worked in Tuscany, and from 1783 to 1790 in India, where he
executed some of his best work, thereafter returnHis portraits and conversation
ing to England. pieces are
among
the most urbane representations
of eighteenth-century English
life.
His biographers
suggest that his parents were Bohemian Jews, and it
in
is
recorded that
when he
penury he lodged
Among
ciety.
in the
had some
Certainly, he
first
came
to
London
house of a kindly Jew.
inclination for Jewish so-
his portraits
is
that of Jacob (James)
Basevi-Cervetto, the gifted Veronese Jewish Johann Zoffany.
261.
Portrait of Jacob Basevi-Cervetto.
sician
A
emerged or
family
prolific in
England
Jewish
of
father of the clan
mav be
it
fame
between
and
birth,
The
notoriety.
was Francis Town
presumably of German
on the
said,
(
1738-1826),
who was endowed
with the same decorative ingenuity as other Jews
was "the inventor
of this time, boasting that he
He had
of the art of painting on velvet."
whom
sons, all cf
whose of his
steps
activities
imitated his example. Benjamin,
same
"art",
exhibited
gifted,
British Institute
distinct ability as
with
marked
which was
at
the
Academy
He had
an animal and landscape painter,
vogue
the
to at
this
Norwich
school,
period cf
British
work shows a deep sympathy with
the English country scene Cattle Fair, depicting the
—
for
example, his
Norwich marketplace
260). Another son of Francis
Edward
for
(1781-1854),
Royal
from 1806 onwards.
affinities
in
painting. His
(fig.
father's
which he taught
to ladies of the aristocracy. Charles
and
his
in
and achieved somewhat of a reputation
his proficiency in the
more
three
were curtailed when he went out
mind, faithfully followed
(1790-1870),
who
Town was
exhibited
(fig.
Town
time was that of
at this
Towne, which hovered,
borderline
which
painters
at
the
who
introduced
the
into
cello
mu-
England
261).
The
case of Zoffany
admittedly, dubious.
is,
On
the other hand, there was one extremely eminent artist of this
in is
period
who
we have
too,
was not
a figure
in artistic history of his time
Once
again,
for a time
about whose Jewish origins there
England,
no doubt, though he,
Jew. In him
worked
also
we
a professing
whose
significance
was immeasurable.
are dealing, as so often, with a
hereditary tradition and influence. Ishmael Israel
Mengs (1688-1746), German by by residence, and
was converted ly
originally
to Christianity
abandoned Judaism
—
—
Danish
or else informal-
early in life
court painter in Saxony; a
and miniatures,
birth,
an enamel-worker,
number
and became
of his canvases
of fair competence, are preserved.
His son, Anton Raphael
Mengs (1728-1779)
—
brought up indeed as a Christian, and probably
* It is important not to confuse the members of this family with the highly, distinguished English artists Charles Towne (d.c. 1850), the animal painter, and Francis Towne (17401816), landscape painter. The work of the two Charles Town(e)s showed a marked and most confusing affinity broader touch of subject and style, though the Jew had than his Christian namesake, whose minute handling even
—
-
in
his largest
works bordered on miniature.
JEWISH ART AND ARTISTS REFORE EMANCIPATION
537
mixed
of
and
— was one
birth
the eighteenth century.
came
at the
of the
most celebrated
in
European painting
An
infant prodigy, he be-
figures
influential
age of tvventv-one
538
of
painter to the
first
Elector of Saxony, and five years later, Director of the Vatican
Academy. Subsequently, he worked
Russia and for a time in England, where he
in
executed a celebrated altar-piece for All Souls' College, Oxford. Charles III of Spain twice sum-
moned him
Madrid, and pensioned seven out
to
when he died in Rome, in age of fifty-one. The reputation
of his twentv children
povertv, at the
which he enjoved far
beyond
his
savior of style
was an
in his
was the
first
as
painter.
on the theorv of
art.
Even
his
more pedantic
He He
(e.g. that if
rules of
to recognize in the
one hand
in a portrait
shows the palm, the other must be turned
were meticulously observed by
wards)
the
authoritative person to recognize the
which he professed
Old Masters
hailed
and Europe's greatest
genius of Gova. painting,
He was
deserts.
influential writer
— and
day was immense
his
in262.
fol-
Anton Raphael Mengs.
Portrait of the
lowers
(fig.
262).
He
left
p ession on the history of painting as the founder of the neo-classical school, which was to reach its
climax in the generation after his death.
Enough has been
said in the foregoing pages to
demonstrate that, contrary to the generallv-held opinion,
Marquise de Laan.
moreover a lasting im-
Jews were not entirely divorced from
the field of aesthetic achievement, even in the orbit of the figurative arts, in the pre-emancipa-
tion period.
and episodic
This account
—
is
—
inevitablv sketchy
necessary in order to under-
stand the background of the remarkable develop-
ments
of the nineteenth
and twentieth
centuries.
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION ALFRED WERNER
by
Time
a merciless eliminator.
is
It
erases names,
once highly regarded, from the honor
human made bv
endeavor.
Occasionally,
of
rolls
are
revisions
which re-evalnates deeds,
a generation
books, and works of art in a spirit different from that of
its
parents or grandparents, and such revi-
sions are justifiable
is
On
and even necessary.
whole, however, what
forgotten after
is
fiftv
the
years
gan
to follow the pattern of that of their Gentile
neighbors
each nation. Jewish family
in
work
general
movement
ever,
began
it
Jewish family a
demand
so
life,
Going through the standard Jewish work
surprising that
manv
had recourse,
at
artists,
recommended
latives.
Jewish
between the French
born
Revolution
and the
Crimean War (though oddlv enough, the greatest of
Camille Pissarro,
all,
there!). Today, very
be found
in
is
few
not even mentioned
of these
current handbooks of
fewer samples of the works of these on exhibition
in galleries
names are
artists
remain
and museums. Yet during
their lives, all of the painters
and sculptors men-
tioned in the Encyclopedia received prizes and honors;
and
paintings
their
sculptures
were
acquired by public collectors, and some of these artists
of
all
were even granted
titles
of nobility. Nearly
skill
—
in
friends or re-
of miniature-painting
field
order to include portrait-painting, and later
Nor did these Jewish
painters
portrait
themselves to reproducing the features of this class of
once made
Jewish community soon attract-
in the
ed Gentile patrons
we
Central Europe, the
new Jewish
Throughout Western and
too.
find
few major
portrait-painters;
these pioneers of Jewish art are
—
some
as
man-
inferior,
men
and
of real vision as
artists
among but manv of
talents
interesting
still
in
initiative,
From
Jewish colleagues
ing these bourgeois artists graduated, as
acceptance, changed their Jewish names to more
more ambitious
Gentile-sounding ones, and quite a few, at the
canvases so popular
the
assimilationist
trend,
abandoned
Towards the beginning tury, a considerable in
Europe,
in the
of the nineteenth cen-
improvement could be observ-
most countries
will
number
Judaism for Christianity.
ed,
As
of
Western and Central
standard of living of broad sections
be
all
in that age.
it
were, to
projects, including the historical
seen,
in
the nineteenth
a
disproportionately
Germans
events studied at
pursued
portrait paint-
century. large
Age of EmanGerman origin, or German academies and
of the Jewish artists of the
cipation were at
no wax-
to the majority of their non-
the dealers and their customers; many, for court
of
new
Jewish patrons. As had happened earlier
ner approved by the academies, and preferred b\
peak
limit
in the case of the miniature-painters, a reputation
the conventional
them were conformists, working
with admirable
of Jewish
services
them by
to
not
is
Jewish art patrons
genre-painting too, within their activities.
to
and even
art,
in
to the
It
fairly
thus emancipated themselves
artists
from their traditional
—
new
of the
first,
astonish-
is
soon became
wealthier classes.
the
entries about artists
century, the Jewish Encyclopedia, one
ed by the large number of
of re-
years of this
many features of nonthat, among other novelties,
for family portraits in
Now, how-
of emancipation.
adopt
to
wide-spread
first
which had preceded any
of the earlier era,
rightlv forgotten.
ference published during the
had
life
long been restricted within the cultural frame-
their careers in
since this
or of
Germany; inevitably
was the country
in
which
at this
so,
time
of the Jewish communities. This soon led to an
Jewish intellectual emancipation made the most
improvement
startling
in
their cultural life too.
which be-
progress.
It
is
worthwhile
to
deal
at
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
541
Philipp Veit.
263.
some length with two still
Fruitful Years. Fresco. Formerly in the Casa Bartholdy,
who
characteristic figures,
count prominently
the major works
in
German
nineteenth-centurv
The Seven
art:
on
Philipp Veit and
Eduard Bendemann.
The his
less
successful
(1790-1854),
Veit
brother,
and
(1793-1877) Johannes
or
Jonas
of great interest to the Jewish
is
To them,
porary classicism.
which had found
was
its
in
Rome.
was
art
a
religion
purest expression in the works
Quattrocento
pious
of
turned
Philipp
of
story
542
masters
whom
to
order to work in the same
spirit.
thev Theirs
a very spiritualized, anti-sensual, noble art,
expressive of the romantic sentiments of the era;
much
today,
of
it
disappointingly
looks
poor,
historian, as well as to the general art historian.
with unctuousness of themes, hardness of con-
The brothers were the
tour,
sons of Dorothea, eldest
daughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn,
and
a
Berlin Jewish banker,
Simon
Veit.
Intel-
lectually superior to her uncultured
husband, and
unhappv
left
in her marriage,
meeting the gel.
Dorothea
brilliant writer, Friedrich
Veit after
von Schle-
In order to marry him, she turned Protestant.
Roman
Six years later, the Schlegels adopted the
father
tried
to
educate his sons
Jewish tradition. But thev rebelled against finally
went
end of her
with their mother,
to live
was
life
who
to exert a profound
in
the
it
and
to the
and not
always healthy influence on them. Deeply attract-
ed bv Christianity, Philipp embraced the
its
Some
of
however,
it,
composition
perfect
and delicate workmanship.
The Nazarene movement found
generous
a
patron in the person of Jacob Salomon Bartholdy
(1779-1825), one of the of great Jewish patrons of the
collections
long line
earliest of the
who were
Old and the
to enrich the
New
World.
A
Roman
the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, he,
had embraced Protestantism
too,
He engaged Rome, with
followed
frescoes to
1830, Philipp lived in Rome,
a group of ardently Catholic German who became known as the Nazarenes the only German painters between the Renaissance and the Expressionists to contribute a new and
joining
—
artists
original style to
European
art.
The theory
of the
Nazarenes expressed a rebellion against contem-
Veit and his friends to adorn his
frescoes. Veit
was the
first
to revive
the long-abandoned technique of painting directly
on wet
suit.
voung man.
as a
house, the Casa Bartholdy in the Via Sistina in
Catholic faith at the age of seventeen; his brother
From 1815
of color.
grandson of Moses Mendelssohn and an uncle of
Catholic faith.
The
and aridness
remains memorable for
plaster. Significantly, the
theme
for these
was taken from the Old Testament
the storv of Joseph, from his sale
down
—
to his
recognition bv his brethren. Veit painted Joseph
and Years in in
Potiphar's
263).
(fig.
1819, a
The Seven
Wife
and
When
the pictures were unveiled
festival
of
German
artists
Fruitful
was held
Rome. In 1887 the house was torn down, and
the frescoes, bought
bv the Prussian government,
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
543
Eduard
264.
were then transferred
F.
J.
Bendemann. Jeremiah
to the National Gallerv of
became
After his return to Germany, Veit tor of the Staedel Institute at
Of the
the Fall of Jerusalem.
at
Oppenheim,* who had contacts with the Naza-
Rome, but
renes during his stav in
Berlin.
direc-
Frankfurt-am Main.
pictures he painted there, the most impor-
the latter
was
director of the Staedel Insti-
The Jewishly-orthodox Oppenheim was sad
tute.
The
Germany by
Saint
household, especiallv
in
Boniface. In the center stands the allegorical figure
lived with the familv:
"When
the
is
mural
large
for
the
Introduction of Christianity into
of Religion,
one hand placed on the Holv Scrip-
resisted their
influence, tells of his meetings with Philipp Veit
when
Institute:
tant
544
notice the
to
came
strict
to wish her
Catholic spirit in the Veit
good
the
mother,
artist's
who
her grandchildren...
night, she gave
them her
dues borne up by an angel, the other hand hold-
blessing with the sign of the cross; this,
ing a palm-branch, the svmbol of enduring peace.
from the daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, made
While
a painful impression
St.
Boniface
Germans the good Teuton, hatchet
proclaiming to the heathen
is
tidings of redemption, a
in
hand, waits to cut
voung
down
the
pagan god Thor's oak.
Many
Rome and Germany and
Austria,
and he decorated several cathedrals with
frescoes.
churches
in
The
figures
in
he drew
in
the anti-naturalistic vein
of the Nazarenes often appear
and
stiff,
and much
expression of her Catholicism, her children, cer-
no
somewhat awkward
of his religious art
The
be found
still
is
marred
He left some and manv excellent
Duesseldorf
verj
several
self-portraits.
Of
who was
not
of his brother Johannes,
productive and died
much
younger,
little
is
recorded except an altar piece for the cathedral at
Liege, an Adoration
Catholic church
in
of the
Berlin,
Shepherds for a
and several pictures
his
memoirs,
the
painter
Moritz
Daniel
1811 and died
in Berlin in
1880, shows that in nineteen th-
Bendemann held
at the
all
man had
the honors,
were available
when he
to
an
him.
He was
only
professorship
a
Dresden Academy. Shortly
was commissioned
aban-
to
the distinc-
all
artist.
attained
thereafter,
he
to decorate the palace of the
King of Saxony. In 1859 he became director
of
He was
a
the
famous
Duesseldorf
Academy.
knight of the Prussian Order Pour there
was hardlv an available
of the Virgin In
Friedrich Bende-
doned Judaism every door was open
twentv-seven
among them
in
Julius
centurv Germany, once a gifted
very delicate pencil sketches
work
remained undemonstrative."
Eduard
mann, who was born in
tions that
portraits,
pious,
less
storv of
by an overdose of sentimentalism.
the
on me." Oppenheim adds:
"Ostentatiously pious as was the mother in the
tainly
of Veit's easel paintings can
coming
*
See pages 552-55 below.
le
Merite, and
distinction that
was
1EWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
545
not bestowed
upon him, hardly an
546
institution that
make him an honorary member.
did not
works
Yet, of his countless
—
including
The
(a once-famous
Arts at the Fountain of Poetry
canvas), the imaginary portrait of Emperor Lothar for the historic Roemersaal in the ancient
town
hall
of
— not
portraits of celebrities
life-size
a single one
fame
Bendemann's
remembered.
numerous
the
Frankfurt,
is
on
rests
now two
canvases on Biblical themes: The Mourning Jews in the
Babylonian Exile and Jeremiah
Jerusalem
of
Crown and
(fig.
264),
Prince of Prussia.
1836,
the
commissioned by the
They were made
in
before,
years
three
first
at the Fall
1832 the
second a year after Bendemann took an important step
—
conversion to Christianity.
In the
neath a
first
tree;
painting, four figures are seated be-
one of them, a bearded
man
in the
In the second picture, a similar bearded man,
up emotionally express
supposed
be the Prophet Jeremiah. In the foreground,
to
there are a few fragments of architecture, while
mann
among
and
century.
The sorrow displayed by
tableau.
no more
real
his failures
German masters
the best
carefully arranged as in a
is
the figures
is
than the landscape in which they
have been placed.
These pictures are typical
of the Duesseldorf
inability to
Bende-
must not make
of the nineteenth
II
Veit and Bendemann were two major figures in their day.
But thev did not stand alone; and
may be
some
were
that
example, was a Jewish
Schadow, one of the Nazarenes,
whose
stylistic
it
of their less-known colleagues
Eduard Magnus (1799-1872),
as gifted.
School which had been founded by Gottfried von after his return
The
us overlook the fact that, as a portraitist, he ranks
tic
canvas. Everything
But
to the end.
background contains some of the most romanappeared on a
or aesthetically.
genuine feeling remained with
ihe
theatrical ruins that ever
Portrait of
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
flanked by groups to his right and
left, is
Eduard Magnus.
265.
center holds a harp in his chained right hand.
considerable talent,
artist of
more
evolution reflects most of the
German
for
from Rome. Thev have the cold coloring, the
significant aspects of
smooth monotonous
Beginning as a follower of the Nazarene Brother-
of this school,
finish
characterizing
and succeed bv
works
hood,
two
so important a part,
than by
artistic merit. In
"line of
beautv" turned the figures into bloodless
these
whose evolution Philipp Veit had played
story-telling rather
paintings, the
in
shadows and washed-out puppets. But the two
enced Ingres,
When,
to
finally
adopted a more
less idealistic style as
was
Bartholdy
there, perhaps even greater than before.
man had given now made the more ma-
But the quiet passion of the voung
way
to a virtuosity that
ture artist produce a figures, in
the
huge canvas with over
tumultuous and wild.
same way
as a
bad
It
film,
is
effective,
fifty
but
catering to the
sentiments of a Victorian crowd that never grew
influ-
some extent bv the French painter
and
forty years after The Mourning Jews, Bendemann returned to a Biblical theme, in the The Jews Led Into Captivity in Babylon, the technique still
Magnus subsequently deve-
loped a kind of Romantic neo-Classicism,
pictures have a
disarming nobilitv and dignity.
painting of his age.
he advanced
realistic
and
in years.
He
enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter,
and has
left
us likenesses of Felix Mendelssohn-
(fig.
265)
and
of
the
singer
Jennv
Lind, as well as some charming genre-paintings that
record
the
more romantic aspects
travels in France, Italy
of
his
and Spain.
Julius Muhr (1819-1835) was another wellknown German-Jewish painter; the son of an
outstanding
champion
of
Jewish
emancipation,
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
347
Geskcl Salomon. Lighting the Sabbath Candles.
266.
he painted, among other subjects, a Mass Sistine
in
Chapel which attracted considerable Nathaniel
tion.
Sichel
(1843-1907),
the
atten-
another
most successful pupils of the great Ingres, to
whom
murals for public buildings pictures for churches,
came famous through
his
historical
composition
celebrities as Liszt,
representing Philip the
Magnanimus
at his Wife's
another
Dreams
of Pharaoh,
after
won
Sichel the
which he specialized
in
Rome
historical
Prize,
his cold
#
sitions.
i j
Towards the middle
Hermann Nelke was
of the nineteenth century,
active as portrait-painter at
the court in Hanover.
Among
his pastels,
which
reveal considerable sensitivity, a portrait of his
shows us a
mother-in-law
striking
example
of
Jewish womanhood, whose features express both
Hamburg produced Leo Lehmann (1782-1859), who was known for his
energy
and
portraits.
kindness.
His
two
sons,
Heinrich
and Rudolf (1819-1905) followed footsteps. after
his
(1814-1882)
in their father's
Henri Lehmann, as he called himself early removal to Paris,
was one
of the
painted
many
devotional
Paris,
portraits of such
Chopin, Meverbeer, and, of
Among
his pupils
were
and Seurat who, however, revolted against
Pissarro
compo-
in
and the
course, his master Ingres.
the
Explains
Joseph
picture,
He
he was piouslv devoted.
Munich graduate, was only twenty when he be-
Grave;
548
skill.
Julius Jacob
(1811-1882) studied
in
Duessel-
dorf and under the fashionable Romantic master
Delaroche
tween
in Paris,
trips
Germanv
then returned to
be-
throughout Europe, North Africa and
Asia Minor, from which he brought back genre scenes
of
exotic
life
and romantic landscapes.
Gustav Herz (1805-1875) has
left
us an interest-
ing portrait of Leopold Zunz.
In
Austria,
(1825-1901), paintings.
One
there
was Friedrich Friedlaender
widely
known
for
his
historical
of the co-founders of the
Societv of Artists, he was granted a
Emperor, and was then known
title
as Ritter
Vienna
by the
von Mal-
heim. In France, Benjamin-Eugene Fichel (1826-
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
5 U)
1895) painted small genre-compositions after the
was the
first
Sweden, Geskel Salo-
Europe.
His
manner
of Meissonnier. In
mon (1821-1902) was
professor
holm Art Academy, well-known both and
as
an art historian; he has
esting genre-paintings which
Jewish religions dinavia
(fig.
1853),
of
a
266). In
a
had
Samuel prizes
engravings after paintings
in
of the Renaissance, especially
promience even
was
new
which
submitted
he
a
he submitted
that
good that the judges questioned
so
in
Belgian
a
his
au-
second
design within a few days; the award was refused
day
in
his
for
Italian masters
Raphael and Fra
the
the eighteenth century,
after
Between
him.
here.
1850 and
medals on
series of
1860,
for the Belgian mint.
a
number
He was
of pieces of statuary
Moses as
he designed a
historical themes, as well as
more than one hundred and
also the author of
and some panels
Samson Breaking
Child,
a
different coins
fifty
in
his
Bonds and the monumental marble group commemorating the Van Evck brothers
Charles
Venloo, on the Dutch-German frontier,
Jacques Wiener
design
the
piece;
as
honors
Wiener family deserves particular attention in
1847 Leopold participated
competition for the design of the five-franc
Leopold Wiener. Hans Memling.
Born
careers
their
Jesi
which several Jews had attained in
(1823-91)
(1832-88), began In
pupils.
relief:
field, in
two brothers, Leopold
and
Bartolomeo. In this
his
of
thorship,
which attained
his
by the
and Charles
be issued on the continent
to
(1788-
medal was even struck
He was famous
honor.
US a few inter-
illustrate aspects of
for his works,
wide popularity;
his
Italy,
Correggio,
upon him
lavished
as a painter
nineteenth-century Scan-
in
life
left
the Stock-
at
550
Wiener.
Aristide
Maestricht.
in
Astruc.
CharJes Wiener, the youngest of the three bro-
became
thers,
assistant
London and,
engraver
of
the
Roval
at first
in
mint
where he specialized
in
signer at the mint in Lisbon. In 1867, he returned
engraving and modelling. In 1839, he settled
in
to Brussels,
Aachen,
later
His
Brussels.
(1815-1899) studied Paris,
in
first
in 1841. In 1845, series of
medal was struck
Belgium
in
he was the author of a famous
medals representing
interior
and
exterior
views of a number of Belgian churches and other
monuments; these medals are outstand-
historical
ing examples of the kind of art that the Romantic interest
years,
in
to
the
past
other
was suggesting,
Western-European
in
artists,
those too.
in
in
1864, chief medal de-
where he devoted
all his
time to the
The coins which he then designed can be numbered among the most beautiful of Belgian mint.
his age.
of Sir
Among
his
medals are excellent portraits
Moses Montefiore and
of the Belgian
Grand-
Rabbis Loeb and Astruc. The activity of the three
Wiener brothers
illustrates
which was popular, neo-classical era
in
the transitional style
this
field,
and the modern
between the
(fig.
267).°
Between 1850 and 1865, Wiener designed 41
more medals, historical
representing
monuments
of
some
Europe.
He
of
the
main
also designed
and engraved the Belgian postage stamp which
* It has
frequendy been claimed, though without conclusive the outstanding French animal-painter Rosa Ronheur was of Jewish origin.
proof,
that
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
551
number
III
ed Jewish artists were meanwhile beginning
contemporary Jewish scene and the
cover the
everyday
of
potentialities
artistic
to dis-
Jewish
Genre paintings are found on the walls
life.
and Etruscan tombs, on Greek and Roman
tian
and
vases,
From
in the art of Asia.
the Christian
Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, however, this
was generally held
of painting
sort
esteem bv the high-born patrons cf art
low
—
the
church dignitaries, who, apart from
aristocrats or
between
portraiture, gave the artist a choice onlv religious,
in
or
allegorical
subjects.
historical
Yet,
even during the feudal period genre painting was practiced, though on a
books,
of
trators
adorned
manuscripts
scale,
by the
otherwise,
or
who
harvest
miniature
with
illus-
homelv So
activities.
and other unheroic
occupations too,
as
shown elsewhere
is
in this
volume, the Jewish scribes frequently adorned Passover haggadoth and Scrolls of Esther with naive representations of the more pleasant aspects of ghetto
life.
had
its
came
to the fore,
Low
Countries, genre painting
patrons.
The bourgeois preferred
especially in the also
class
pictures showing himself
and
his
kind
in situations
to
was the
first
new
created a
after
the
French
of art patrons
class
Revolution
—
lawyers,
traditional
training but also sent him to the gymnasium and. when he gave evidence of talent, to the local art school. The bov was then taken up bv members of the local nobility who invited him to their castles, where he was allowed to make copies of
what everyone believed Raphael, other
of
da
and
Vinci,
Old Masters.
to
Munich and
Rome where he was
Oppenheim
Paris,
remain for four
to
There he worked conscientiously
years.
Lucca Academy.
St.
Leonardo
Correggio,
After studying in
went
be genuine works by
to
The Return
When
decided
give
to
Son was about
to
in a competition, the jury
was a German Jew and
artist
Academy's award
the
The Danish was a member
the
at
Oppenheim's drawing
of the Prodigal
be granted the prize
to
Italian.
sculptor Thorwaldsen,
ever,
of this jury
in
in
an
how-
and resented
change
decision; although unable to
to
class
him the
to-do parents not onlv gave
or even satirical vein, but always a simple storv.
middle
at
1799 (1800?)
than-fleeting success in the field of art. His well-
heim and succeeded
the
in
unbaptized Jew to achieve a more-
mind, Thorwaldsen voted
and economic maturity achieved b\
who was born
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim,
Hanau near Frankfurt-am-Main
told a story in a didactic, sentimental, romantic,
political
to follow
the need.
fill
and moods that he could understand, pictures that
The
yet develop-
own, but did not care
of art with a "Jewish motif." Soon, Jewish artists
learned that the
But wherever the middle
had not
of middle-class Jews
a taste of their
were available
portrayal of burghers in the pursuit of
scenes, their
modest
religious
552
the general trend, and were ready to accept works
Egyp-
of
MODERN TIMES
its
his colleagues'
the favor of
Oppen-
having the prize awarded
no one.
Oppenheim's drawings and
oils of
Testament episodes, made during
and shortly
after his return to
Old and
New
his stay in Italy
Germany
in
1825,
businessmen, bourgeois political and civic leaders.
were once widely appreciated. Todav, one can
These
still
all
needed portrait-painters
ners of genre pictures. also
to
be a market for the
satisfy
A
new
little
as well as lim-
historical
nationalist
Meanwhile, the Jewish-born
and
there
later,
was
canvases to
patriotic trends.
artist
discovered, to
his great delight, that the Gentile patrons did not
discriminate against
done
a
hundred
\
him
—
ears earlier
as they
—
might have
as long as
he gave
them what thev wanted.
fortunes,
whose
tastes
were
who had
as conventional
as those of their Christian competitors.
A growing
its
grouping; but modern taste revolts against
the theatricality of the scenes, which exhibit the
kind of banal emotionalism that already marred so
much
eighteenth-century
Oppenheim's trayal of the his era.
talent
was
Ten drawings
painting.
Italian
better suited to the por-
world and of
men and women
for Goethe's idvll,
u nd Dorothea, thus earned
Often, his earliest patrons were Jews
made
admire the excellent composition, with
skillful
of
Hermann
Oppenheim the aged
poet's extravagant praise.
Six years later, in series
1833, the
which gained him
artist
lasting fame.
began the
The Return
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE A(;E OF EMANCIPATION
553
268.
of a Jewish Volunteer to his
a
Family, which
moment when
Moritz Daniel
from the Wars
made
well.
carrying his right
of Liberation
timelv appearance at
the enfranchisement of
Jews was being debated, reasonably
Oppenheim. The Wedding. Jewish Museum,
tells a story,
Wounded arm
in
battle,
in a sling, the
German
and
tells it
and
young
still
officer
obviously has just arrived at his parental home.
The pious
father, an
open Hebrew book before
him, regards the decoration on his son's chest with
it is
York.
but also with some uneasiness,
paternal pride, since
New
554
shape of a
in the
cross.
Encouraged by the success of Oppenheim composed in the course teen
other
canvases
costume of the back
some
fifty
late
on
Jewish
eighteenth
years
in
picture,
this
of years nine-
motifs
in
century,
history
(fig.
Eventually he was asked to repeat these grey
gouache
(grisaille)
in
order
to
the
going 268). oils
in
facilitate
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
555
photographic reproduction. The painter undertook
imposing task with
this
brilliant results.
These Bilder aus dem Altjuedischen Familien("Pictures
Life")
went through many
shown
in
an infant
A
editions.
compositions
several
family
celebrating
svnagogue; a Talmud student
Scroll in
the
the
pictures
middle-class
and enjoyed. They
to detract
from the
bound himself over
Two
the
to
years later, he
was another Jewish-Hungarian painter of Beck began
superior
soliditv
lithographs.
Willy Beck (1844-1886), a pupil of Alconiere,
manv other genre paintings of the period, because Oppenheim never permitted a preoccupadetail
humorous
died in a Vienna hospital.
to exhibit
talent.
genre paintings at the Buda-
pest Salon, but soon attracted attention
to
tion with
After
Vienna, earning a meagre
in
duct of his peculiar industry.
Jew then understood
are, unquestionablv,
compositions.
of
police before even attempting to circulate the pro-
Sabbath dinner. These were the kind of
to the
number
large
a
genre
exotic
bank-notes, but
feit
invited
is
or
556
In utter destitution, he even set about to counter-
held up to touch the Torah
is
Romantic
painted
also
livelihood as the author of
is
an old rabbi questions a young-
various festivals; ster;
of
He
1850, he was mostly
Old-Time Jewish Family
leben
painting.
MODERN TIMES
the
as
author of some striking portraits. After completing his studies abroad,
of
he returned
and was
to Pest
bv publish-
form and from the completeness of the over-all
forced, for a while, to earn his living
concept.
ing a humorous periodical in German, the Zeit-
which he contributed
geist, to
IV In the
first
where he edited the Charivari
third of the nineteenth
suspended
century, a
of
artists
Europe came from those areas
in
career as an
The second
artist.
The
third of the
1902), was
was
confines of Eastern Europe, at later in
In
be
the
was towards the middle
it
noticed,
this
coinciding
with
less eventful
and more
successful.
he painted the
as a student in Paris that
It
fine
(one of them
now hangs
that
Hungarv, where he exhibited
to
to
Hungarian
other
Hungarian-
in
the
Budapest City Museum. In 1848, Adler returned
of the
began
Ilhi-
group, Moritz Adler (1826-
perhaps Adler himself)
that a greater artistic activity
to return
to paint while
important
third
double portrait of two painters
Hungary,
Poland, too.
Hungary,
century
in
first
in
the
Jewish painter of
number
and trained
of
life
century witnessed the appearance of an increasing of Jewish artists born
him
strierte Zeitung.
West where the Jew was alreadv accepted in societv and where almost no obstacle impeded his
until police action
publication and forced
contributing drawings to the Leipzig
also
the
its
Hungary. There, he continued
to
majority of the more gifted and successful Jewish
the prose and
all
the cartoons. In 1849, he returned to Vienna,
all
composi-
still-life
and genre paintings that were among the
tions
His Apotheosis of Baron
manifestations of a will for political and cultural
most popular of
autonomy. In the
generation of consciouslv
Joseph Eotvos, celebrating the champion of the
number
emancipation of Hungary's Jews, was purchased
first
Hungarian painters,
a'
Jewish
of
artists
his age.
achieved real distinction. The most striking figure
by the National Museum, and the great
among them was surely Theodore Alconiere, real name was Hermann Cohn (1797-
has recorded for us the features of
his
whose
1865).
After
receiving
his
training
artistic
in
Vienna, he spent several years in Rome, where
he acquired the dramatically Romantic characterizes the
work
of a
number
of other suc-
cessful painters of his generation. His
success then came. when Alconiere
court portraitist to the
Duchv
of
stvle that
first
major
was appointed
Parma. Towards
,
portraits,
societv of that era,
talents
in
their realism, all
Budapest
of
whether Jewish or Christian.
came
later
than
in
Hungary.
Maurvcy Gottlieb (1856-1879) was deeply rooted throughout tions of
an
his
brief
text
raries.
of his
A
life
in
Romantic
earlier generation, so that
suitable to discuss his
1848, he returned to Hungary, where he painted
Romantic
academic
In Poland, the emergence of outstanding Jewish artistic
equestrian portraits of Hungarian aristocrats, which arc interesting examples of this kind of
slightlv
series of
work here than
it
tradiis
more
in the con-
Impressionist and Realist contempo-
native of Drohobvcz,
Galicia,
he was
raside in the atmosphere of the Haskalah
move-
IEVVISH ARTISTS
557
269.
Maurycy
OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
Gottlieb. Jews at Prayer
on the Day of Atonement. Tel-Aviv Museum.
ment, and the elder Gottlieb proved his enlighten-
tasted bitterly the
ment bv not objecting
Poland.
to
his
son's
558
receiving
He
shame and humiliation
painted
scenes
from
glorious past
The unusually gifted boy was onlv sixteen when he went to Cracow to study at the Academy
Gates of Kiev), portraved himself dress of a Polish aristocrat,
under the greatest Polish master, Jan Matejko.
patriotic
The teacher took an ardent
Polish-Jewish intelligentsia.
interest in his
Jewish pupil, and transfused his patriotism
into
the
latter's
of the ill-fated Polish
soul.
young
own exuberant The memory
1863 uprising against the
hated Russian rule was
still
fresh,
and Gottlieb
poems
He was
in
instance,
of
only twenty-two
Atonement (1878) now
(fig.
in
the
gala
and wrote fervently
German, the language
most famous work, Jews
proud
nation's
Boleslav before the
instruction in drawing.
(for
of
his
of
the
when he painted his on the Day
at Prayer in the
Tel Aviv
Museum
269). There was something mawkish and
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
559
sentimental
Oppenheim's portrayal
in
of
Jews,
while in Leopold Horowitz' once celebrated pre-
a
charm
MODERN TIMES
of coloring strongly reminiscent of that
French master.
Warsaw Jews there was too much much gesticulation at the expense
sentations of
560
V
theatricality, too
and
of inner feelings
of real emotion. In Gottlieb's
painting, on the other hand, the figures are not
they
posed, gestures
convincing.
are
shadowing
his face
The Hebrew
coming
Jewish
as
Jewish
in
as a genuinely
it
paved the way
it
for
European
Eastern
of
showed
it
them, as well as
to
and educators,
parents
Gottlieb him-
sensation
a
generation
artists,
their
to
is
press hailed
Jewish masterpiece. Indeed, the
in
with his hand.
The painting caused circles.
men
beauty of the
Oriental
Jewish women. Among the men self,
their
In rich yet restrained
earnest, dignified
the
of prayer,
act
expressions,
their
real;
he showed the
colors,
the
are
that
and
art
Gottlieb
was unbelievably work by
prolific, as if
to
early death.
His Jesus Preaching
was
an
as
in
the it
German, a
Italian, a
had been done by
he had
a presentiment of his
a revolutionary piece in so far as
shows Jesus as
artists before,
Temple
no longer Pole, etc.,
but as a Jew,
preaching to a crowd of interested Hebrews. In
man embraces
Shylock and Jessica, the old
daughter as
he were anticipating her
if
seems to cry from the depths of
my
Jessica,
child!"
Finally,
in
loss,
his
and
his soul: "Jessica,
the composition
called Ahasuerus, one finds a self-portrait which,
instead of the earlier one,
him
reveals
where the
artist
himself as an aristocratic Pole,
tinguished
as a Jew,
sadness in his exes
dreamy and with
(fig.
a
dis-
now deep
hospital,
Though
his art
had
tuberculosis
of the
fate
been kinder
to
in
the history
of art in general as well as cf Jewish art.
we
value above
in
all
an era that vied
sitters.
his portraits.
gems
attain-
him, Gottlieb has
earned himself a niche of honor
brandt, thev are
larynx.
did not reach the degree of com-
and maturitv that he would have
pleteness ed,
of
Today,
Like those of Rem-
of psychological penetration
in beautifying
Gottlieb probably never
can truly be said to have constituted a Jewish school or
movement
interests
common
ly
formulated doctrine. The most gifted
rather than a school with a conscious-
among
them was Morits Leon (1838-1865), a painter
who
cf Sephardic extraction
died too young to
He
give the full measure of his talent. in the
Municipal
synagogue
Law,
for
Museum
The Unveiling
interior,
reveal
a
has
left us,
The Hague,
in
a fine
of the
Holy
which he was posthumously awarded
Some
warmth
of his rare water-colors
and a
color
of
a
brilliance
of
technique that might well have earned him an
among
outstanding place of this
The
the Romantic masters
medium. productive
painters of
among
nucleus
The Hague
is
to
the
be found
Jewish
in the Ver-
veer family, where three brothers acquired considerable reputation.
(1813-1876) in oils
is
Salomon Leonardus Verveer
remembered mainly
and water-color,
of typically
as a painter
Dutch views,
including landscapes, sea-scapes and street-scenes.
Among
the latter, his paintings of Amsterdam's
Jewish market and of other aspects of the
though
his
city's
quarter deserve particular mention,
old Jewish
views of the Dutch sea-shore and of
his compatriots.
more generally appreciated by
He was
also the author of
some
popular lithographs. His younger brother Moses
Leonardus Verveer
(1817-1903)
was
active
in
Holland as a pioneer photographer, but also helped
Elchanon Leonardus Verveer youngest of the three,
and genre
scenes.
in
(1826-1900), the
painting some landscapes
The last-named was indeed a number of
very popular painter, leaving us a great
works of these two categories;
its
he often selected
of
treated in a
folkloristic
in his
genre scenes.
themes, which he
somewhat sentimental manner. His
wood-cuts were ciated.
and
and
in
falsifying
lightness of touch
though thev remained
in art,
a group of friends with certain ties
men have
and
group of Jewish painters who
first
Corot. Yet his portraits cf girls and elderly woa delicacy
there
that
appeared, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, the
saw the work
and
The Hague,
Holland, at
in
fisher-villages are
270).
Gottlieb died at the age of twenty-three in a
Cracow
was
gold medal in 1865.
Judaism need not be antagonistic.
been driven
It
also,
at
one time, much appre-
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
561
270.
Maurycy
Gottlieb. Self-Portrait. Zagayski Collection,
Moritz Calisch (1819-1870) was another painter of his group,
who
specialized in portraits, as
well as in genre scenes inspired by his observations of daily life;
of paintings a
few
now
among
the latter are a
on Jewish themes.
historical compositions. in
example
Amsterdam's of
the
A
He
number
also executed
Mother's Blessing,
Rijksmuseum,
is
a
somewhat limited scope
good that
Calisch imposed on himself by over-stressing the
New
562
York.
anecdotic element at the expense of those more painterly qualities
which Jozef
Israels
was
later
destined to revive in Dutch painting. In his portraits,
however, Calisch achieved fame as one of
the most objective and dignified Dutch artists of his generation.
The
David Joseph Bles (1821-1899),
painters
well-known
for his genre-scenes,
(1825-1873),
a
pupil
of
and Joseph Bles
Salomon
Leonardus
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
563
Verveer,
have
historians
of Jewish art.
been
generally
by
neglected
As a master
Dutch
of
"Biedermeyer" Romanticism, David Joseph Bles is
museums
represented, however, in most major
to 1863,
he was professor
Royal Academy, and subse-
of painting at the
London
quently, until his death in
in
Hart's
crowded with
canvases,
large
of
News
of
and usually
of eighteenth-century "bourgeois" sentimentalism.
English history
He
the Shipwreck and Death of his Son;
scenes
us
left
some water-colors representing
Jewish religious and family
of
life,
all
revealing a rather charming quality of intimacy that
he
with
shares
Moritz
Oppenheim.
His
Searching the House, representing a police raid in
an eighteenth-century Dutch home,
example of
is
a fine
more anecdotic and documentary
his
tion of
illustrating (e.g.,
Henry
Receiving
I
The Execu-
Lady Jane Grey; Wolsey and Buckingham)
are done in the formal, dignified "academic" style
matured
that
the Regency period.
in
However
celebrated these paintings were a hundred years ago, they appear to us
now
stiff
with over-posed figures. This
and overfinished,
also true of Hart's
is
works on Jewish themes, such
manner.
figures
some famous episode
situated chronologically in the past, have a flavor
has also
1881, he
served there as librarian.
most of which are
of Holland. His genre-scenes,
From 1854
years later.
564
Mother
Hannah, the
as
of Samuel; Isaac of York in the Castle of
Front de Boeuf; The Conference between Menas-
VI
seh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell; and The Ex-
The existence
of a small school of Jewish artists
pulsion of the Jews from Spain.
England
the Hanoverian period, has only
the
in
in
recently been brought to the notice of students."
school
comprised painters, engravers, and
miniaturists,
none indeed of any great importance
This
in himself,
though some of them exhibited time
after time
at
Academy. In the
the Royal
emerged
Victorian era, however, there at last three
Jewish
artists
who were
in
early
England
of outstand-
Law
demic
is,
with
all
tradition in
The Elevation
of
the faults of the English aca-
which
rooted, a highly im-
it is
pressive work; a feeling of great dignity emanates
from Scroll
of
it,
as the reader of the
Torah unrolls the
on the bemah and bearded old men, most
them with prayer-shawls covering
gather around him. Analogous impressive,
their heads, dignified,
his
is
and highly romanticized canvas repre-
ing ability, though time has blurred their reputa-
senting the procession of the Scrolls on the occa-
tion.
sion of the Rejoicing of the
The most
distinguished in his day
was Solomon
Alexander Hart (1806-1881), the son of a Ply-
mouth to
silversmith,
London
in
who moved with
his
family
1820. First apprenticed to an en-
Solomon entered the Royal Academy
graver,
as a
student in 1823 and three years later exhibited a miniature portrait of his father.
He
continued
Synagogue
at
Leghorn
(fig.
Law
in the Ancient
271).
Abraham Solomon (1824-1862) was outstanding among a group of His younger contemporary,
Victorian genre painters
neglected
in
spite
mostly because so
of
whose works were long excellent
their
many bad
lessly classed together
painters
qualities,
were
care-
with them. Solomon
is
he saw the
for a time to paint miniatures for a livelihood, but
typical Victorian artist in so far as
showed
world through rose-tinted spectacles, mirroring
his first oil at the
1828 and, two years
later,
also called Interior of
Time
of the
British Institution in
Elevation of the Law,
a Jewish Synagogue
Reading of the
Law
Synagogue
London), a painting which eventually came Hart became an associate of the Royal Acaas early as 1835,
and
a full
member
an age of order and
five
He was
Sec chapter XIII.
self-control, of
the son of a well-to-do
chant, Michael Solomon, the
first
London mer-
Jewish freeman
of the city in the nineteenth century. His mother,
dabbled
in
painting,
younger brother, Simeon and
his sister,
distinguished themselves as his first picture
•
in
material prosperity and external graciousness.
Kathe, had also
into the possession of the Tate Gallery.
demy
his paintings
(apparently de-
picting the interior of the former Polish in
at the
a
in
1843.
In
artists.
and
his
Rebecca,
Abraham had
accepted at the Royal Academy
the
'forties
he exhibited
"period
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
565
271.
Solomon Alexander Hart. The Rejoicing of The Law in the Ancient Synagogue Oppenheim Collection, London.
by the works
pieces" inspired
Moliere, but he
had
of
Goldsmith and
his great success in the 'fifties
widowed mother leaving by train to Australia. The social implication of in
thousands of chromolithographs on both sides
to
of the Atlantic.
a
Waiting for the Verdict showed
scene in the anteroom of a court, with the
prisoner's family anxiously awaiting the result of
the
trial;
tal.
The
social scene
pair of pictures,
new conveyance, in
a
version,
first-class
and
insecurity
a
Solomon
manship and
railway compartment.
which was sharply
asleep, a fact
traveller's flirtation.
In the original
criticized
gentleman
which
because of
in the corner
facilitated the
young
Third Class: The Departure,
the companion picture, shows the
young son
of
distress.
group with which his brother was closely asso-
First-Class:
a pretty
while the
Familiar with the work of the pre-Raphaelites,
the railway train.
young man meeting
friends,
passengers are plagued by economic
third-class
ciated,
a
the pictures
who are wealthy enough move in an atmosphere of
and make pleasant
a relatively
this impropriety, the old
was seen
revealed in the second
travel
in
The Meeting shows girl
is
showing people
to emigrate
simple enough: those
security
The Acquit-
the companion picture was
of Leghorn.
a
with two pairs of paintings that became famous in
566
pictures, brilliant
are
still
small in
as
also resorted to meticulous crafts-
observation
close in
color,
scale,
careful
of in
nature.
His
detail,
and
are so well painted that they
glowing and radiant as
when they
were produced. Abraham Solomon died thirty-eighth year, on the very
Associate of the Royal
The most
gifted of
in
his
day he was elected
Academy.
all
mid-19th century Anglo-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
567
and
Simeon was only seventeen
to paint draperies.
when he
Two
Academy.
The Finding
("Two
showed
first
568
drawing
a
at
the
Royal
years later, in 1860, his picture
of
Moses was attacked by a
women
ugly
ludicrously
looking
critic
at
a
dingy baby don't form a pleasing subject"), but
was warmly defended bv the
who thought
drawn and composed. The
finely
it
Burne-Jones
painter
said
that,
pre-Raphaelites.
artist
drawings while an under-
Solomon's
of
opinion,
his
in
among all the Oscar Wilde, who had collected
Solomon was the greatest
many
novelist Thackeray,
graduate at Oxford, said towards the end of his
were among the treasures the
that these
life
loss
which he most regretted.
of
Solomon's work was uneven, but the best of it
was unsurpassed
in
sition, especially in his
beauty of line and compo-
drawing of
whether
faces,
he drew the sensitive faces of young rabbis or the Simeon Solomon. Pharaoh's Daughter. Oppenheim Collection, London.
272.
more sensuous ephebic countenances
youths.
The most graphic
drawing
is
"There
and
certainly the
Jewish
artists,
figure
among them,
younger tragic,
restless
pattern
Abraham
was
Simeon
brother,
most interesting Solomon's
(1834-1905),
whose
followed the self-destructive
life
contemporaries Baudelaire, Rim-
of his
baud and Oscar Wilde. Simeon Solomon's work, bv Victorians, who resented the
rarely appreciated
ways and often
artist's
well, in
is
now
choice of subject as
gaining more and more importance
the eyes of connoisseurs.
Solomon,
Brotherhood, which the group of
Rome
in
self-taught,
fell
at
spell of the pre-Raphaelite
many
respects, resembled
German Nazarenes which emerged
thirty
years
serious, dedicated
earlier.
young
artists
Here,
who
too,
were
loathed the
conventionality of the art sponsored by the aca-
demies; here, too, was a re-discoverv of early Italian
art,
appealed
Rossetti's
frequent and
studio,
welcome
but equally unstable
Simeon Solomon was a visitor,
sister
while his gifted
Rebecca,
1886, was employed bv Millais to
or in field, the air
of their beauty has something in
of the strange: hardly a figure but has
though never so delicately
of satiety,
slight, either of eager-
some note
ness or of weariness,
some semblance
of expectation or
of outlook or inlook:
but prospective or introspective, an expression is
whether
it
is
not pure Greek, a shade or tone
of thought or feeling tion;
it
some touch,
beyond Hellenic contempla-
be oriental or modern
and derive from national
in its origin,
or personal sources. This
passionate sentiment of mystery seems at times to 'o'erinform its
impress
itself
tenement' of line and color, and
even
upon the sense
to perplexity
of the spectator" (fig. 272).
Solomon's most important work was a canvas,
(1884),
The
inspired
Gladiators.
Had
bv
a
contemporary
the theme been taken
by one of the more celebrated Royal Academi-
sophistication of the Cinquecento.
At
and carriage
novel,
far
in their faces,
appeased. Always a
chamber
feast or sacrifice, in
more than the
groups
wonder
stirred, a delight as of thirst
Habet
both
a questioning
a fine joy and a faint sorrow, a trouble as of water
the simplicity and purity of which
to
Greek
by the poet Swinburne who wrote:
is
there which
who was mainly
an early age under the
in
his
of
description of Solomon's
who died in make copies
cians,
it
would have revealed
a pre-occupation
with archaeological details, whereas Solomon was
more
interested in giving expression to the play
of emotion
and character on the faces
of
Roman
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
569
ladies
gazing from the gallery into the arena,
where
a gladiator,
about
is
having
whim. Some
less
opponent,
fallen to his
to lose his life, the victim of their merci-
of Solomon's
canvases depict
Jewish themes, such as The Scrolls of the
Law
voung man carrying the Torah),
Isaac
(a
Offered.
He
also executed a
number
of wood-cuts
depicting scenes of Jewish religious
But
his best
work
be found
in his
colored
himself
now
is
considered one of the more interesting English
Some
artists of his era.
and
dramatic, sensitive,
subjects,
among
are to be reckoned
commonly
rich
color,
in
what
the best of
is
called Jewish art, notwithstanding the
the
that
fact
of his paintings of Jewish
early
artist,
in
had become
life,
fervent Catholicism.
in
who
one
as
Solomon
heart-failure.
converted from nominal Jewish orthodoxy to a
life.
revealed
and sorrowfulness,
his tenderness
all
to
where he
drawings,
chalk
is
or
he died of
after
570
VII
and yet was not part
lived in this world
of
it,
especially in his drawings of single heads or of
two heads facing one another,
e.g.,
Jesus and
Mary Magdalen, or The Virgin and the Angel of Annunciation. Then there are his beautiful pencil drawings, illustrating the Book of Ruth and the Song
which have the subtle charm of
of Songs,
But for circumstances and a basic weakness of
Solomon
might
have
accomplished
more and won
for himself a
the annals of
Swinburne apparently introduced
him
to
some account
of the remarkable outburst of Jewish
media
artistic activity in all
in the present generation. It
is
desirable, therefore,
devote a few pages here to
to
One
nings.
modest begin-
its
— but names
two names
or
United States
in the
only
—
survive from the late eighteenth centurv and the
mystical music.
character,
In a later chapter of this work, there will be
art.
homosexual and
bv
tales
celebrated bv the poet and his friends;
and unstable, Solomon participated
in
The
practices.
sadistic
Victorian world was shocked
name
brilliant
of orgies
handsome
in the exciting
and drugs.
fare of art, sex, drink
nineteenth.
early
almost
all
It
is
interesting
for
activity
artistic
note that
were associated
of the artists in question
—
with Charleston, South Carolina leisured South constituted a
to
clearly,
the
more favorable
soil
than the harsh, commercial
Among these were Joshua Canterson (Canter), who had studied at Copenhagen and
North.
was
at
eighties;
work a
America
in
John Canter
the
in
seventeen-
(1782-1823), probably
for exhibition at the
Roval Academy. At one time,
who helped to establish the South Carolina Academy of Fine Arts; Lawrence L. Cohen,, who went to Duesseldorf to study and
he was almost
popular as Millais, and his
later
For a number of years, nevertheless, Solomon
worked adequately, and regularly sent canvases
as
black-and-white drawings were widely sought bv
a
he then took to save
He few this
to prison.
to drink
him were
of
no
to
each are extant to allow us to form an opinion of their
avail.
What works
cheap dealers.
of
most
end the
retained his astonishing talent. At one time,
matches
as
a
pavement
artist
in the streets to obtain
— drink and
by police on the
drugs.
street,
to his "lodgings" in the
One
two
jail,
ing faces, which indicate that to his very
he worked
are better informed about
Efforts of friends
period have survived show emaciated, brood-
artist
we
Fortunately
other early painters, Theodore Sydney Moise and
continued to draw, selling his work for a
shillings
War; and perhaps a few
Solomon Nunes Carvalho; and enough works bv
Released from
and drugs.
in the Civil
for
and there was an unsavory charge
in,
which he was sent
fought
more.
magazines. But, before he was forty, deterioration set
relative,
and even sold
Moise was born
merits.
Charleston,
in
in
1806 and received an elementary knowledge of painting from his
training,
only
aunt,
We
"Sunday painter."
that
Penina,
a
know nothing he
had
a
poetess
studio
Orleans from 1850 to his death in 1883. described bv
contemporary
a
as
and
of his further in
New
He was
a "fashionable,
what he wanted
day, he was found
unconscious.
He was
*
Of
the remarkable landscape-painter Albert Sonntag, one
of the masters of the
taken
work-house where shortly
enough
is
or not he
known was
to
American Hudson River School, not
make
it
possible to determine
of Jewish origin.
whether
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
571
many
dashing, and improvident genius,
were executed
portraits
whose
of
to cancel debts."
he travelled through the ante-bellum South,
Moise executed portraits of the rich landowners, even their horses
their families, their personnel,
and dogs. Occasionally,
it
is
impossible to distin-
many
guish Fowler's work from that of Moise,
whose
some painted
portraits,
with Fowler, are
New
mansions.
still
in old
many
Orleans has
of
collaboration
in
be found
to
which he both wrote and
account,
Southern
of his works:
an equestrian portrait of General Jackson
in the
West, was published'
from
subjects, deriving
and war-horses.
the
New
lized that his sitters tations.
wanted
its
fully rea-
records, not interpre-
So did Solomon Nunes Carvalho,
York portrait painter, Jacob H. Lazarus
who
(1822-1891),
Henry of
(
1815-
a silver
Svnagogue,
fire.
Intercession of
analogous
to
his
Moses
— now
for Israel,
Moses
still-surviving
time.
There
is,
charm and tenderness
in his
portraits.
hundred years ago,
an American
tation to
make
artist
—
Before
melodramatic composition
a
its
lost
but no doubt
the taste of
for
In 1852,
medal was awarded him bv the South
the Amalekites,
A
his
interior of the building
Carolina Institute for his painting
The
was
when he made from memory,
been destroyed bv
just
in
however, great
as today,
it
was
graphy
to
without an enormous repu-
valho was therefore engaged in taking and processing daguerreotvpes,
as
artist
and
and even made some techphotographv. In 1853,
daguerretvpist,
he
accompanied
Colonel John C. Fremont's hazardous expedition across the United States to the
West
than
came
artist,
an
as
to the
in-
United
America, and his invention of the sand-
blast process of engraving patterns his
Coast. His
1
'25. it w.is discovered that a fine 18-43 portrait of the In statesman Henry Clay, presented to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1909. was not. as a new reading of the
on
glass,
were
major contributions. During the Civil War,
he followed the Armv of the Potomac j
as official
United States Military Commis-
His numerous etched portraits of famous
Americans are preserved
in the
Smithsonian
Insti-
tution at Washington. Rosenthal's once-celebrated
made
large altar painting Jesus at Prayer,
for a
Raltimore Protestant church, caused a brief
when
were raised
objections
stir
to the phvlacteries
on the head and right arm of Jesus.
Not related
to
this
was Toby Edward
artist
Rosenthal (1848-1917). Today, Toby Rosenthal, a native of
New
Haven, Connecticut,
pletely forgotten that in the 'seventies
difficult
a living from his art alone. Car-
nical contributions to early
the
in
rather
likeness
remembered today
ventor rather than as an
sion.
which had
continued
Rosenthal (1833-1918) a native
illustrator for the
scion of a well-known Sephardic familv, he
well-known painting of the
and
emphasizing
Max
A
for the trustees of the Charleston
studied under the American
Inman,
94), an equally solid and competent portraitist.
only twenty-three
lines.
States in 1849. His introduction of chromo-litho-
praised for
Moise
impartiality, the daguerreotype,
A
disposed of here in onlv a few
of Russian Poland,
new medium
of this period
younger contemporary of Carvalho was
of the Volunteer Fire Rrigade parading in Canal
a
artists
slightlv
character.
Competing with
of
may be
tradition
spirited likenesses of racers
Hudson River School
Other American Jewish
an enormous canvas showing sixty-four members
make
expedition and typical
nineteenth-century American landscape painting.
painter
for his ability to
this
of the art of the so-called
State Library, while the Court House has inter alia
Moise was noted
1857 (reprinted 1954).
in
Carvalho's best-known works are Rocky Mountain
City Hall, a portrait of Governor Herbert in the
Street.**
illustrated,
Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far
Associating himself with Trevor Fowler, with
whom
572
and
it
is
hard
'eighties
is
so
com-
to realize that
he was one of the
most celebrated American painters. In Munich,
where he became a pupil of Carl von learned
to
execute huge canvases,
Piloty,
filled
he
with
large groups of figures, the subjects being taken either
from
historv
or
from
romantic
poetry.
Rohenthal's Elaine, taken from Tennyson's Idylls of the King, shows, for example, that of pure love
on her
bier,
embodiment
on a richly adorned and
garlanded barge.
But neither the excellence of the painting not
1
small signature revealed, by Samuel F. B. Morse, the artist
and inventor, but by the almost forgotten Moise.
their
superb composition could save from oblivion
these impersonal
oils,
their false pathos.
which todav annoy us with
JEWISH ARTISTS OF THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION
573
A
older than
little
was the
Rosenthal
New
Yorker Gustave Henry Mosler (1841-1920), the first
American honored by the French Govern-
ment with the purchase
of a painting for the
Luxembourg Museum. The Return
of the Prodigal
Son shows the remorseful vouth finding
his
on her death-bed. Stricken with
he
his knees,
grief,
Though over-elaborate and said of The Birth
well-painted,
this
on
flag), in the
Corcoran Gallery
A Wedding
picture
is
The same can be
theatrical.
of the Flag
(Betsy Ross and
her friends stitching together the
of
falls
while a priest looks on in deep commi-
seration.
politan
mother
in
first
American
Washington, and
Festival in Brittany, in the Metro-
Museum
of
are most unreal,
New
York.
distributed
The in
figures in both
unreal settings,
though the
artist,
574
undoubtedly
in
all
sincerity,
believed he had caught the situation as realistically
and
correctly
executed
in fresh,
as possible.
Mosler's portraits,
vigorous brushwork, are super-
the rest of his work.
ior to
It is
a curious fact that, whereas in the twen-
tieth century
many American Jews have been in movement in the
the vanguard of the progressive arts,
the preceding century most American-
in
Jewish painters remained conformists, happy to gain a foothold in the realm of academic
might be said of the
whole
in their
art.
It
defense that before the end
century American art amounted on the to
little.
But among the innovators
rican painting in the last century, there a single Jew.
of
Ame-
was not
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS ERNEST
by
The
M.
artistic history of the second half of the
nineteenth century
characterized bv the most
is
NAMENYI
that
visited
bv new conditions experienced bv the masses.
profound technical revolution that painting had
Economic and
experienced since the Renaissance: Impressionism,
the formulating of
which has determined the evolution of the
hundred years
of a
in
all
movement, Jewish
In this great
Up
a leading part.
to the
by
and no work
artist
Jew can be proved
a
have plaved
artists
middle of the nineteenth
century no single Jewish art created
arts
countries of Europe.
have
to
of
defi-
contributed towards forming the stvle of
nitely
any one period. With the birth of Impressionism, however,
we
find in almost every major artistic
who
center of Europe great Jewish painters,
con-
and
and
who,
each countrv,
in
now
tiated the artistic revolution that
The
the social
crisis in
brought a decisive
abortive, life
us.
manv
1848, though
political revolutions of
them remained
of
ini-
concerns
of Europe.
The
ideals
and
achievements of the French Revolution became, in
main
spite of
setbacks, the
common
heritage
whole Continent.
of the
Meanwhile,
the
of
the
Jews
was
throughout Western and Central Europe favorable as
it
had never been before. Economic liberalism
made fied
even the
liberal
admit them
It
and
to
pursue verv diversi-
industrial
professions
freely.
disabilities that it
them
possible for
it
commercial
In
Jews
not of
where fought
in
Eastern Europe, too, the
in
generation
for
freedom, social
less
the
light
of
1848
the vanguard of the
more equitable
to
weighed upon the Jews were,
surprising,
the
and
were beginning
then seemed, beginning to be is
activities,
national order.
of
as
oppressive. this,
were
that
even-
movement which liberation
and
Nevertheless,
a
the
revolutions of 1848 were not the fruit of dreams
the heat of the
in
and an almost and
for social justice,
foreign to Jews,
in the
religious passion
ideal that has never
added
a
dynamic power
been
to this
whole philosophv. These
ideals were, of course, inevitablv destined
expression in
to find
of
in
art,
and above
all
in
was most representative
that
art
period,
painting.
The
the of
painters
Realist
of the nineteenth centurv indeed
viewed nature
as part of a universe
where man was no onlooker
from
but
the
outside,
Constable and Turner, masters;
an
among
integral
element.
the great English
Courbet, Corot and Millet
among
the
French, saw the universe as a homogeneous whole,
and the content ideas of their era.
situation
too,
were modern
though thev mav
origins,
idealistic,
of positivism
this
of the major painters
their
ideas that
sciences also gave these ideas a quality of realism
new
thev are in the forefront
new
enthusiasms that thev engendered. Progress
form
Even where
upheavals coincided with
social
in
realistic
have become
tributed from the verv start to the success of the school.
they were brought about
idealists;
and
life
its
and
among
cularly,
the
ous universe; and
of
their
paintings reflects the
The people, the working-class interested them parti-
labors,
manv it
is
elements of a homogene-
this social
philosophv that
characterizes their attitude. All these great painters
the
agreed to seek wavs and means of expressing of their age, of creating a living art with
life
lyrical
undertones, inspired as thev were by an
almost innocent sense of the majesty of mere Nevertheless, thev
contents lyrical
of
life,
managed
leaving
the
life.
only to render the expression
of
its
undertones to those painters who, around
1870, began to form a
new
school. Full of devout
humility before the manifestations of nature and of a great admiration for
these
new
painters
felt
contemporary science absolutely
integrated
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
577
within their universe, within the shifting nature. \
Imbued with
expressed
et
proached nature
them want
according to their arbi-
it
were content
to render
element that makes
now became
sensations that are authentic. Light
At
come,
like his father, a dealer in
turn to Saint Thomas, he
was thus
This led the Impressionists to formulate a
represent
to
their
own
their
new
Thev no longer wanted
with
objects
communicate
exactitude,
but
onlv
impressions of things,
so that they considered a picture finished as soon
had expressed the sensations
as they felt that they
which they had experienced.
The composition
of their
of light, not of objects,
works was merely one
as
well
as
from any representation of
a student
Ecole des Beaux Arts, at that time under
in the
somewhat despotic management painter
In
Ingress.
of the great
1850, Pissarro
exhibited in the annual Paris Salon a landscape
painted the
open
in the
influence
Salon of the
air in
Montmorency
Corot prevailed.
of
artists rejected
(Salon des Refuses), a
be careful not
in
which
the
1863
official
Salon
In
bv the
advised Pissarro to
critic
He
to imitate Corot.
for a time to Louveciennes,
and refrained from anv
became
enter the studio of Corot, he
then withdrew
where he painted He
de France landscapes — simple but unpretentious, masterpieces.
all
balanced distribution of images throughout the canvas
for a while in
France, where, after an unsuccessful attempt to
neo-Classical
to
worked
his re-
the univer-
something of eternity to the fleeting moments of
finite.
On
sent to Paris, to complete his studies.
the
life.
household goods
and ironmongery. In 1847, the future painter was
prime concern, enclosing everything and giving
conception of the
though of French
origin,
Camille was expected to be-
first,
the family business, but soon escaped back to
possible to experience
it
and remoter Mariano nationality.
of
immediate and subjective impressions
nature. In their eyes, light sal
that no longer made
in a spirit
to transform
trary notions; instead, thev their
of
painting, these artists ap-
in
itself
life
had never
a humility that
578
During fled
War,
Franco-Prussian
the
Pissarro
London, and the Germans destroyed a
to
space in perspective. Light dissolves forms and,
large
number
of his paintings. In 1874, he
by means of
back
in Paris
and exhibited
its
vibrations, gives a sense of color
that earlier painters
had neglected. The Impres-
sionists resorted to a lighter
tried
above
and
distinct
all
to
range of colors and
keep the various colors separate
rather than
mix them
to
obtain a
brighter coloring.
One
painting
is
supremacy of the French school is
in
sult
It
France that the Impressionist movement got
under way, around 1870; and the
absolute
the
in this field.
first
this occurred, for
time in centuries, not so
much
concerted efforts of a whole group of painters of
among whom
the most diligent and the
most consecrated craftsmen were Monet,
—
Cezanne and one Jew the most conand articulate among the Impressionists
Renoir, scious
Sislev,
—
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903).
the
first
school
Epernay, and was on close terms
member
(Pointijliste)
Impres-
new
seven subsequent shows. In 1884,
its
in
with Signac, Seurat and
Van Gogh. For
a while,
of Seurat's neo-Impressionist
group, but towards the end of his
settled for
good
in
Paris.
Afflicted with
an
eye complaint, he could no longer leave his room,
and painted views
of
the
boulevard from
his
window. He died on November 13th, 1903.
Among
as the re-
of the efforts of a single genius, as of the
genius,
throughout
he settled
life
in
show, remaining faithful to the
he was a
of the chief characteristics of the history
nineteenth-century
of
sionist
was
is
the major Impressionist masters, Pissarro
the one
who was most aware
of the revolution-
ary nature of the movement. At the age of sixty,
he had the face of an apostle and was always
to
be seen carrying a board under either arm,
so
that they cafe,
quarters: of the
all
said of him, at the Nouvelle Athenes
where the Impressionists had
their
head-
"Here comes Moses bearing the Tablets
Law." (See
fig.
3).
Pissarro's devotion to nature
was equalled only
II
by
Born on the island of West Indies, Pissarro was
Saint
Thomas,
in
the
of Sephardi extraction
his faith in his principles
and bv
his absolute
respect for the artistic truths which he accepted or
had discovered.
Art, in his eyes,
was something
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
579
Law, and any compromise, he
as sacred as the
was
felt,
For years, he struggled
sacrilege.
made any
poverty but never
demands
of opportunism;
concessions to the
was
yet he
He
being rigid in his principles.
in
from
far
for instance,
felt,
was more
that Seurat's pointilliste technique
in
strength and beauty of nature
he adopted
own
in his
it
painting, abandoning
only after having observed that this technique
of dividing light into
and thus
too slow
of sensation.
components was
spectral
its
immediacy
conflicted with the
Enthusiastically, Pissarro acclaimed
everything that seemed to him to represent pro-
His influence on Cezanne,
gress.
him
makes
Pissarro perhaps the
most important
individual source of the stvle of the School of
Gauguin
Paris.
considered Pissarro his master, in
sympathy or
and working
living
own
He
times.
is
thus the true father of
The graphic Pissarro's
arts
total production,
close
to
two hundred
Even today, some color
these are indissolublv
all
the
the earth, nature
bound
itself,
who
to those
till
Pissarro
had not been the
among
first,
nine-
teenth-century painters, to turn in this manner
towards the
life
of peasants.
The "Angelus" and
other works by Millet had already success;
and the Jew Josef
had
begun
met with great Holland,
in
Israels,
lacks
feel,
know prints.
but
brilliance;
that his etchings
and
litho-
graphs are of the highest quality and outstanding
The
ments
beautv.
love and perseverance with his son Lucien's experi-
and advice
in book-decoration, the criticism
that are contained in the older man's letters,
graphic
testify to his constant interest in
All of Pissarro's sons rising to the
soil.
in
with his sense
critics find fault
which, they
in their
of his paintings in the life
We
Pissarro
different
which Pissarro followed
fields,
the
more important than
that of most other Impressionists.
in
science of Impressionism.
many
all
played a considerable part
of art. Pissarro remained, indeed, the living con-
The
our
ters of the past fifty years.
nobody has disputed
the subjects of
in
a characteristic of most of the great Jewish pain-
terms
of peasants.
revolution
artistic
non-conformism that seems to have been
artistic
them apart and which can be explained
Alone among the Impressionists, Pissarro sought
the
at all times in
and which continues
of
in
remained
complete harmony with initiated
them
see
their true setting.
in
Pissarro's philosophy
which he
we
on the contrary,
pity;
drove
conceptions of the philosophv
are
these figures painted to suggest to us any charitv,
spite of the divergences of opinion that later
of their different
Nor
the whole scene that surrounds them.
influenced
quest for simplicity and struc-
in turn in his
ture,
who
within which
itself,
they are fully integrated, simple and powerful as
keeping with the findings of modern science, and
it
580
became
all
art.
Without
painters.
peaks of creative art that their father
had reached, thev inherited from him
a sensitive
nature and an
reveal the
integrity that
artistic
almost religious significance of art in the whole family's
life.
outstanding
Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944) was an post-Impressionist.
He
married
in
deeplv emotional
England, where he spent most of his productive
and somewhat melancholy compositions repre-
years and influenced the works of several English
also
to
produce
senting scenes from the
his
life
of peasants
The subject-matter of may indeed have much
and
of
In close cooperation
painters of his generation.
the poor.
these three pain-
with his father, he also produced woodcuts of
ters
in
common, but
great beautv, illustrating the legend of Esther and
Pissarro's technique, his
tent
reveal
that
forms and his real con-
was
philosophy
his
entirelv
his
does not seek to
models and knows
move
all
us but
lives
among
their tasks. His peasants
thus remain prosaic, and the natural scene that
he paints
Only
in
is
as simple
and prosaic
the light or in the colors
lyrical quality.
their
various
tasks
of
those
Lucien's daughter Orovida
is
who
till
the
soil.
likewise an artist of
considerable merit. Influenced by the styles of the
personal.
He
the
The
as is
he sees there
it.
am
vitality of Pissarro's peasants,
strength and beauty, are thus the vitality,
Far East, she has distinguished herself of animals,
where she renders the rhythm
movements with
great
Pissarro's other sons, rally
known
as
sensitivitv.
Manzana
he revived,
of their
Of Camille
Georges (born 1871), genePissarro,
mainlv for his beautiful color flowers;
in studies
in
some
is
remembered
prints,
birds
and
respects, the almost
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
581
273.
forgotten
Roch
art
of
the
Felix Pissarro
artists.
Adler.
Towing
Japanese
great
the Barge.
woodcut
(1874-1897) adopted Jean
pseudonym, but died too young
as his
much
obtain
Jules
to
Ludovic-Rodolphe
recognition;
Pissarro (1878-1952) chose to sign his works onlv
own
with his
mainly as a
given names and
fine
graphic
artist
is
and
is
known
interest
above
as
all,
of the period
(1830-1903)
Without being an
mention.
he shared with Pissarro a great
social
in
problems and
is
remembered,
a painter of scenes in the
life
of
workers and of the under-privileged. His painting in the Paris
Museum
Barge"
273)
art.
(fig.
Jules
is
of
young painter
integrity,
Germans before
his art
of
promise
he was murdered by the
had
fullv
matured. Eduard
Brandon (1831-1897), of an old established Bordeaux Sephardi family,
is
remembered
for
his
sense
of
problems
the
of
Alphonse Levy (1843-1918)
light is
and shadow.
noteworthy
as the
sentimental and good-natured satvrist of Alsacian-
Jewish types and customs.
for his fine etchings.
Impressionist,
a
and remarkable
themes, which he handled with delicacy and a
He de France
Among other French-Jewish artists we are considering, Jules Adler particular
footsteps;
Art, Paris.
compositions on Biblical and traditional Jewish
works; Paul-Emile Pissarro (born 1884)
deserves
Modern
devoted
author of the analytical catalogue of his father's
and
father's
of
remembered
as the
for his sensitive landscapes of the
Museum
582
Modern Art "Towing
the
a characteristic example of his
Adler was deeply
moved by human
Henri-Leopold Levy (1840-1904) was a successful painter of historical scenes,
works
being
commissioned
to
many
decorate
of his
public
buildings in Paris; eclectic, opulant and slightly
decadent in
his
mannered
primarily a decorative
style,
he remained
artist.
More important than
these, in the generation
of the disciples of the great Impressionists,
Lucien born
Levy-Dhurmer
in Algiers
(1865-1943),
was
who was
and distinguished himself
in Paris
misery, which he depicted with sobriety and pitv
as a fashionable portrait painter of the elegant
Brought
Parisian Jugendstil. His fine portraits of the writer
Jean Adler
Georges Rodenbach, of the novelist Pierre Loti
rather than with imagination or anger.
up
in
the
same
tradition,
(1899-1944) followed,
his
son
like Pissarro's sons, in his
and of the
politician
Georges Clemenceau are
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
583
examples of his period's delight
interesting
in
literarv allusions; for the portrait of Rodenbach,
Levv-Dhurmer chose the
for instance, (fig. 274),
Flemish
citv of
Bruges as a background. His
art
thus achieved, with great facility, an interesting synthesis of nature
and
in fashion
and
of
contemporary currents
in the decorative arts. His pastels
of
drawings.
his
In
deeply
his
Moslem beggars
painting
representing blind
Tangier,
Levv-Dhurmer revealed
of
human sympathy most
from exotic
a rare
in
quality
work
that distinguishes his
contemporary
other
moving
treatments
of
Rostand,
Henri Caro-Delavaille
belonged
to
(1876-1928) the
who,
old-established
like
Se-
phardi group of Southwest France, was a pupil of the fashionable portrait-painter,
and inherited many
Always
istics.
Delavaille
of
his
graceful
enjoyed
great
Leon Bonnat,
master's
and
character-
pleasing,
popularity,
Caro-
especially
with his somewhat sensual portraits of fashionable
women. He decorated the chateau
friend,
the
poet
27-).
Edmond
herself
a
well-known
Delavaille's
best-known painting
illustration
of
French-Jewish
"Mv Wife and
generations:
Caro-
writer. is
an interesting
social
in
life
her Sisters"
his
275)
(fig.
representing the daughters of the rabbi of the ancient
community
of Bayonne.
Less dependent on mere fashion than
more recent
styles of painting,
other
Impressionism and
post-Impressionism have continued to inspire, in our
a number of outstanding French among whom several Jewish artists have
century,
painters,
achieved
considerable
distinction.
Lew
Simon
(born 1886) has sought to develop the stvle of
North-African themes.
Brandon,
Madame
near Bayonne, and painted a portrait of
are, in this respect, fine period-pieces, as are also
some
584
Rostand,
in
Cezanne
in
an idiom of
his
lectual in his compositions,
transcend
a
too
many
of
Brilliantly intel-
he semotimes
systematic
theories. His landscapes of interiors,
own.
fails to
of
illustration
Provence and
which he painted
in
his
his fine
Belgium
between 1905 and 1910, prove, nevertheless, that he
is
and
a painter of individuality
talent
whose
draftsmanship and sense of color reveal unusual
of his
refreshment. Edouard Kavser
(born
Cambo,
Andre Strauss (born 1885) are
also to
Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. Portrait of Georges Rodenbach.
Museum
of
Modern
Art,
Paris.
1882)
and
be reckoned
Henri Caro-Delavaille.
275.
among
original
Fauvist
synthesis
balance,
French its
in
its
still-life
compositions
of Strauss achieve
post-Impressionist
of
art
sense
is,
of
moreover,
and
restraint
intellectually meditative rather than
mystical quality. Leopold
another distinguished sionist
Wife and her
contemporary
Their
trends.
My
gifted
and the landscapes
interesting
typically
and
Cezanne; the
of
of Kayser
and
more
the
disciples
an
586
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
585
school.
Long
Levy (born 1882)
artist
of the
Among
later.
Solomon
"Allegory," sion;
of
it
Anglo-Jewish painters of
idealism
and
Exchange and
ive panels.
Besides, he
demand
great
returned to France, where his qualities
fashionable
and
a
taste are beginning to obtain the
recognition that thev deserve
(fig.
Although Camille
One
Pissarro
had
lived
in
Eng-
land as a refugee from the Franco-Prussian War, the influence of the Paris Impressionists there, except in the
work
was
of Whistler, onlv
felt
much
alliance
for the
of
For Lon-
House
was
of Lords,
for a long while in
Edwardian
as a portrait-painter in society;
in
his
women and men he
portraits
revived,
of the great eighteenth-century
nineteenth-centurv Ill
the
of
with
few elegantlv Impressionist devices, the grand
manner
276).
discus-
he was commissioned to paint important decorat-
and early Georgian
now
through
of the Jewish faith.
themselves in a Western tradition of modern
of sobriety
an the
in
the ultimate world-wide triumph
generation of young Turkish painters to integrate
he has
Deeply rooted
which inspired considerable
Jewish
don's Royal
art,
era,
this
remains
(1860-1921)
personality.
'illustrates
post-Impres-
where he helped a whole
Arts, Paris.
Jewish religious tradition, he created a painting
Christianity
academy
Modern
of
Solomon
J.
outstanding
is
a professor in an
of fine arts in Turkey,
Museum
Sisters.
of his
Israel
masters
more outstanding
Zangwill,
virtuosity
English
painted
portraits
with
an
and
(fig. is
earlv
277). that of
energetic
which expresses eloquentlv the complex
personality of his model. As one of the founders of
the
New
English Art Club, he contributed.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
587
scapes, Rothenstein specialized
the is
interplay
delicate
of
588
communicating
in
and
light
colors
that
typical of the English scene; in this respect, he
achieved an the
of
that
art
is
French
great
often analogous to that post-Impressionists.
His
younger brother Albert Rutherston (1881-1953)
was well-known and an is
in
England
a graphic artist
as
Haggadah
illustrator of fine editions; his
by
particularly appreciated
Among
collectors.
English cartoonists, Sir
(1872-1956) was of Jewish never hostile
satirist of
Max Reerbohm
origin.
A
witty but
the intellectual and artistic
fads of his contemporaries, he parodied
among
other themes, the affectations of pre-Raphaelite art.
that
His famous cartoons
— such
representing Sir William
example
as for
Rothenstein
(fig.
279), exemplify his urbane wit, which stressed the social absurdity of situations rather than their political implications.
Among
other Anglo-Jewish artists of this era, the
Whitechapel painter Joseph Mordecai is
remembered
tvpes;
Frank
(
for his portraits of East
Emanuel
1851-1940)
End
Arthur Friedenson Leopold Levy. Portrait of a Bulgarian
276.
(born
landscape painter, was the
Girl.
achieved
(1865-1948)
a considerable reputation through his
Jewish
etchings;
1872), a well-known first
Jew
to
have
a
canvas bought by the Tate Gallery under the
towards
moreover,
contemporary Solomon's
was
better
a
continental
understanding
of
Solomon
J.
trends.
terms of the Chantrv bequest for fostering Rritish
Joseph (1863-1940)
sister Lily Delissa
also an artist of talent.
William
Sir
alw a\
s
Rothenstein
(1872-1945)
will
be remembered as one of the characteristic
artists of
the English Impressionist and post-Im-
pressionist schools. His
works are remarkable
for
the subtlety and discretion of his colors as well as
for the
surfaces, in
and painterly texture
delicate
some
of
of his
which he occasionally allowed
himself heavier impasto effects, too. His "Carrying the
Law"
manner,
gogue
(fig.
in
278)
interiors
religious
is
a fine
example of
his earlier
which he frequently painted syna-
life.
and scenes inspired by Jewish
Here he managed
element of the sublime
in the
to suggest the
ceremonv by
stress-
ing the white of the striped prayer shawls of the
pious worshippers of the
who surround
Law, and thus
churoscuro of the
the sacred scrolls
contrast strikingly with the
rest of the scene. In his land-
277.
Solomon
Portrait of
a
J.
Solomon.
Child on Horse.
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
589
278.
while Joseph
art;
1931)
is
("Tom")
remembered
The poet
Isaac
William Rothenstein. Carrying the Law.
Friedenson
(1878-
delicate etchings.
for his
Rosenberg
Sir
590
(1890-1918)
also
painted some remarkable portraits in an idiom that sought to of
emulate the expressive qualities
French post-Impressionism. J.H. Amschewitz
(1865-1949) earned considerable popularity with his
very carefully painted Jewish genre scenes and
his graphic work, in
which he remained
in the
tradition of the great masters of the past.
Polish-born painter Leopold Pilichowski
The
(1867-
1933) had already exploited with great success, before settling in England, the traditional
Rem-
brandtesque manner which characterizes, with a
few
Impressionist
innovations,
his
and
personalities
and
Jewish types
genre scenes
(fig.
portraits his
of
Jewish
280); as a portraitist of several
outstanding figures in the early history of Zionism
and author
of a
monumental canvas depicting
with a wealth of detail the opening of the Hebrew University at Jerusalem in 1925, Pilichowski will
long be remembered.
One
of the
most successful
painters of English society portraits throughout
279.
Sir
Max Becrbohm.
Cartoon.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
591
among
remained,
592
his contemporaries,
the last important representative of the
kind of Romantic landscape painters
which,
works of the so-called
in the
Hudson River
much
rized
of
school,
had characte-
American
of the
art
nineteenth century.
Born
in
New Jersey, of from whom he in-
Arlington,
well-to-do parents
herited a tvpicallv middle-class nine-
teenth-century European conception
and the
of culture
Paris,
Eilshemius
arts,
many
studied painting for
years
in
mainlv with masters of the Bar-
bizon school of landscape painting.
He
Leopold Pilichowski. The Tired Ones
280.
departed, however, from the so-
manner
berly realistic lyrical
the earlier part of the twentieth century was the
Hungarian
Alexius de Laszlo (1869-
artist Philip
who became, towards
1937),
most successful por-
one of Europe's
century,
and
of royalty
traitists
he settled
in
turn of the
the
of high society. In 1914,
England, where he distinguished
himself as a brilliant and often optimistic analyst of his models,
them
a grand
in
The
whom
he flattered by representing
manner and
colorful poses.
in
history of the Jewish contribution to non-
academic American
when New York
begins around 1910,
art really
artists
and
art-lovers
first
deve-
loped an interest in the revolutionary achieve-
ments of the School of 1910,
America's
few
among whom no Jewish
Paris.
Between 1880 and
Impressionist
generally pi ef erred to live and
Yet America,
in this period,
awakened rather rudely from
almost conventional landscapes allegorical figures,
mainlv nudes, that are depicted
seems almost shockingly naive or the eccentric
show
home and
all at
work
in
Europe.
had already been nostalgic
its
and
literal.
of
all
whose
Eilshemius
had
meanwhile become increasingly unbalanced,
final-
and
encouragement,
ly claiming supernatural
of Manhattan.
some
Only
powers
he deserved, both
as a naive painter of unusual genius last of
common American
set out to
it
little
indeed
in
Romantic
with the stable idealistic traditions of intellectual
and
artistic
life
from the
as the
school.
The New York 1946) was a
painter Arnold Friedman (1879-
literalist
or a naive painter of an
Friedman had
entirely different temper. for a living all his life
was never
able,
assuming,
reality
and
America's great landscape painters of the
until
as
his
of
allegories,
as
Friedman lavished
by
earlier
the
absolute
and
conventions conversely
out
paint, with all the feeling, care
generally
and
to art. Instead
did,
fantasies, set
work
retirement, to devote
Eilshemius
Romantic
to
a postal official
of
depict was often sordid and had
he receive
after his death did
of the recognition that
Mahatma
as the
by the
the shifting world of realities that
New
his works. In his desperate longing for re-
cognition
more than Sundays and holidays
"ash-can" school;
For years,
galleries refused to
sometimes visionary dreams of the Romantic past efforts of its Realist or
a style that
in
was the laughing-stock of
artist
York's art-world,
importance are
artists of
recorded, met with no success at
painters,
of the
Barbizon school by frequently introducing in his
and
skill
painters
saw
that
to
were
on more
lofty topics, exactly
what
his eyes
anomalies of American cultural history that there
Some
New
York's industrial suburbs
should have been no outstanding Jewish painters
are
Revolution until the Civil War.
among ter
It is
one of the
these Realists and that the visionary pain-
Louis Eilshemius
(1864-1941)
should have
of his vistas of
in real life.
without
any
attempt at caricature or comment of any
sort,
so
realistically
reproduced,
that thev suggest an unreality of their
own, which
more
a
594
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
593 derisive or
more Romantic
would
artist
never have been able to achieve. After his
ment, Friedman was art
last
and care that
the time
all
at
and somewhat pedantic
retire-
devote to
able to
compulsive
his
"Saw-
talent required. In
tooth Falls," he thus sought to reproduce, in the surface and texture of his painting, effects
and
But
literature.
new surroundings soon made
the influence of his
him decide
that
art
was
Exhibition
national
in his painting,
had the
recent years, Friedman has been acclaimed both
of macchiaioli henceforth
it
macchie or spots
to
Serafino
1855,
in
much more
da Tivoli adopted a
mary manner
Paris
in
cided that
American "magic realism" and a
rapid and sum-
and
his friends de-
of
producing the
effect
which the new
owed
Italian school
name.
its
The landscapes which he
American
art-trends.
reveal an unusual quality of spontaneity, of
other American-Jewish painters of the
ment and
of freshness.
remained
hostile to his art and, in 1860,
era which concern us here, a
number
of successful
but somewhat academic portrait painters might
be mentioned, such
George de Maduro
as
Peixotto
(1859-1937) and Ernest Clifford Peixotto (1869-
who
1940),
enjoyed considerable reputations also
as creators of large decorative panels for public
is
exhibited in Florence
But
critics
move-
and the public he
left
country to settle in Paris, remaining there
his
until 1890. In Paris, the art of Serafino
da Tivoli
became more and more unconventional and
in-
creasingly realistic. Quite late, he allowed himself to
influence of Corot in works
come under the "The Seine
such as
buildings.
He
thus recognized as the father of the movement.
precursor of some of the least realistic of recent
Among
On
vocation.
real
his
his return to Florence, after a visit to the Inter-
phenomena which he had observed, without any display of personal imagination and fantasy. In as a master of
a«d
for painting
his predilection
Denis" and "The Old
at Saint
Fish-house in Bougival." His landscapes thus re-
main IV
Nowhere
Europe
in
nowhere
as in Italy;
against
ment
and
of national
the
ideas
1848
of
of
to frustrate the achieve-
social ideals cause as pro-
found an upheaval among the young. In the painting,
of
a
revolt
of
spirit
with
the
all
more
field
obsolete
against
neo-Classical formulae thus inspired artists
men
else did the spirit of revolt
seemed
that
all
did
mark on the minds
leave as profound a
young
Italian
dissatisfaction because
the decadence of Italian art in their age contrasted so strikingly with
rence that this
was
its
glorious past. It of
spirit
his
most valid works.
them with some
was
in Flo-
quite properly,
revolt,
of the
Still,
one compares
if
more luminous works
of
other painters of the macchiaioli school, one feels Serafino
that
da
remained
Tivoli
too
deeply
attached to certain principles of eighteenth-century art as
it
had survived
of the early nineteenth
in the neo-Classicism
Sincere in his
century.
expression and his love of nature, he achieved at times a quality of poetry that
is
nevertheless
very convincing.
But another Jewish painter of the macchiaioli school, Vito
d'Ancona (1824-1884), was endowed
with greater
artistic
gifts.
Born
wealthy and cultural family, he
in Pesaro, first
of a
showed
his
between 1848 and 1850, around
talent in historical compositions, e.g., "Savonarola
the tables of a cafe in the Via Larga, the Cafe
Refusing Absolution to Lorenzo de Medici" and
first
felt,
Michelangelo,
younger
artists
where
all
more
the
were accustomed
to
advanced meet. This
revolutionary group (whose theories, to be sure,
were
far
more revolutionary than
became known
as the macchiaioli,
macchia, meaning a spot or
The most important the
Jewish
painter
their
works)
from the word
da
group was
Tivoli
(1826-
1890). Born in Livorno, he had come to Florence at the
he became an ardent convert
to the doctrines of
Serafino da Tivoli, assimilating
and applying them
them thoroughly
to the creation of landscape
paintings which he conceived according to relatively simple principles of composition
blot.
figure of the
Serafino
"Dante Meeting Beatrice by the Arno" (1859). But
age of twelve with the intention of studying
with
a
liveliness
that
went
virtuosity of the founder of the
281
)
.
far
new
and painted
beyond
the
school
(fig.
In his nudes and his portraits, the colors
are rich, intense
and luminous, though the forms
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
591
among
remained,
592
his contemporaries,
the last important representative of the
kind of Romantic landscape painters
which,
works of the so-called
in the
Hudson River
much
rized
of
school,
had characte-
American
art of the
nineteenth century.
Born
New Jersey, of from whom he in-
in Arlington,
well-to-do parents
herited a tvpicallv middle-class nine-
teenth-century European conception
and the
of culture
Paris,
Eilshemius
arts,
many
studied painting for
years in
mainly with masters of the Bar-
bizon school of landscape painting.
He
Leopold Pilichowski. The Tired Ones
280.
departed, however, from the so-
manner
berly realistic lyrical
was the
the earlier part of the twentieth century
Hungarian
Alexius de Laszlo (1869-
artist Philip
who became, towards
1937),
and
of rovaltv
traitists
he settled
in
turn
the
of
most successful por-
one of Europe's
century,
the
of high society. In 1914,
England, where he distinguished
himself as a brilliant and often optimistic analyst of his models,
them
a grand
in
The
whom
he flattered by representing
manner and
colorful poses.
in
historv of the Jewish contribution to non-
academic American
when New York
begins around 1910,
art really
artists
and
art-lovers
deve-
first
loped an interest in the revolutionary achieve-
ments of the School of 1910,
America's
few
among whom no Jewish
Paris.
Between 1880 and
Impressionist
generally preferred to live and
Yet America,
awakened
in this period,
rather
rudely from
home and
all at
work
in
Europe.
had already been nostalgic
its
and
mainly nudes, that are depicted
seems almost shockingly naive or the eccentric
artist
York's art-world,
show
literal.
of
all
whose
Eilshemius
had
meanwhile become increasingly unbalanced,
final-
and
encouragement,
ly claiming supernatural
of Manhattan.
some
Only
powers as the Mahatma
after his death did
common American
set
it
little
out to
indeed
in
with the stable idealistic traditions of intellectual
and
artistic
Revolution until the Civil War.
It
life is
from the
one of the
unusual genius and as the
as a naive painter of last of
America's great landscape painters of the
Romantic school.
The New York 1946) was a
painter Arnold Friedman (1879-
literalist
or a naive painter of an
Friedman had
entirely different temper. for a living all his life
was never
able,
assuming,
reality
until
as
his
a postal
are
these Realists and that the visionary pain-
(1864-1941)
should have
Eilshemius
Romantic
Friedman lavished by
lofty topics, exactly
should have been no outstanding Jewish painters
Louis Eilshemius
as
did,
New
and
to art.
Instead
the
absolute
and
conversely
out
earlier
what
of his vistas of
work
conventions
fantasies, set
to
official
retirement, to devote
paint, with all the feeling, care
generally
anomalies of American cultural history that there
among
of
allegories,
Some
ter
he receive
of the recognition that he deserved, both
of
depict was often sordid and had
New
his works. In his desperate longing for re-
cognition
by the
the shifting world of realities that
For years,
galleries refused to
more than Sundays and holidays
Realist or "ash-can" school;
a style that
in
was the laughing-stock of
sometimes visionary dreams of the Romantic past efforts of its
in his
almost conventional landscapes allegorical figures,
importance are
artists of
recorded, met with no success at
painters,
of the
Barbizon school bv frequently introducing
and
skill
painters
his eyes
saw
that
to
were
on more
in real life.
York's industrial suburbs
without
any
attempt at caricature or comment of any
sort,
so
realistically
reproduced,
that they suggest an unreality of their
own, which
a
594
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
593
more
more Romantic
derisive or
would
artist
never have been able to achieve. After his
ment, Friedman was art
and care that
the time
all
able
last
at
retire-
devote to
to
compulsive
his
But
literature.
his
new surroundings
the influence of his
him decide
that
Exhibition
tooth Falls," he thus sought to reproduce, in the
da Tivoli adopted a
of his painting, effects
and
mary manner
in
Paris
had the
cided that
recent vears, Friedman has been acclaimed both
of macchiaioli henceforth
master of American "magic realism" and a
precursor of
American
Among
some
of the least realistic of recent
macchie or spots
rapid and sum-
and
his friends de-
of
producing the
effect
which the new
to
owed
Italian school
name.
its
The landscapes which he
other American-Jewish painters of the
ment and
of freshness. But critics
remained
hostile to his art and, in 1860,
of successful
but somewhat academic portrait painters might
be mentioned, such
George de Maduro
as
Peixotto
(1859-1937) and Ernest Clifford Peixotto (1869-
who enjoyed
considerable reputations also
as creators of large decorative panels for public
country to settle in Paris,
his
move-
and the public he
left
remaining there
until 1890. In Paris, the art of Serafino
da Tivoli
became more and more unconventional and
in-
creasingly realistic. Quite late, he allowed himself to
influence of Corot in works
come under the "The Seine
such as
buildings.
is
exhibited in Florence
reveal an unusual quality of spontaneity, of
number
He
thus recognized as the father of the movement.
art-trends.
era which concern us here, a
1940),
it
Serafino
1855,
in
much more
in his painting,
phenomena which he had observed, without any displav of personal imagination and fantasy. In as a
On
vocation.
real
his
soon made
his return to Florence, after a visit to the Inter-
national
and texture
was
art
and somewhat pedantic talent required. In "Saw-
surface
and
predilection for painting
at Saint
Denis" and "The Old
Fish-house in Bougival." His landscapes thus re-
main IV
Nowhere
Europe
in
nowhere
as in Italy;
against
ment
that
all
did
of national
the
ideas
1848
of
of
and
to frustrate the achieve-
cause as pro-
social ideals
found an upheaval among the young. In the painting,
of
a
revolt
of
spirit
with
all
the
more
field
obsolete
against
neo-Classical formulae thus inspired artists
men
else did the spirit of revolt
seemed
young
dissatisfaction
Italian
because
the decadence of Italian art in their age contrasted so strikingly with
its
most valid works.
them with some
mark on the minds
leave as profound a
his
glorious past.
It
was
in Flo-
of the
one compares
Still, if
more luminous works
of
other painters of the macchiaioli school, one feels Serafino
that
da
remained
Tivoli
too
deeply
attached to certain principles of eighteenth-century art as
it
had survived
of the early nineteenth
in the neo-Classicism
Sincere in his
century.
expression and his love of nature, he achieved at times a quality of poetry that
nevertheless
is
very convincing.
But another Jewish painter of the macchiaioli school, Vito
d'Ancona (1824-1884), was endowed
with greater
artistic
gifts.
Born
in
Pesaro, of a
showed
rence that this spirit of revolt, quite properly,
wealthy and cultural family, he
was
between 1848 and 1850, around
talent in historical compositions, e.g., "Savonarola
the tables of a cafe in the Via Larga, the Cafe
Refusing Absolution to Lorenzo de Medici" and
first
felt,
Michelangelo,
younger
artists
where
all
more
the
were accustomed
advanced
to meet. This
"Dante Meeting Beatrice by the Arno" he became an ardent convert
Serafino da Tivoli, assimilating
were
and applying them
more revolutionary than
became known
as the macchiaioli,
their
works)
from the word
macchia, meaning a spot or blot.
The most important the
Jewish
painter
figure of the
Serafino
da Tivoli
(1826-
1890). Born in Livorno, he had come to Florence at the
age of twelve with the intention of studying
1859) But .
them thoroughly
to the creation of landscape
paintings which he conceived according to relatively simple principles of composition
group was
(
his
to the doctrines of
revolutionary group (whose theories, to be sure, far
first
with
a
liveliness
that
went
virtuosity of the founder of the
281
)
.
In his nudes
are rich, intense
and
far
new
and painted
beyond
the
school
(fig.
his portraits, the colors
and luminous, though the forms
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
595
Paris
in
as
a
women; Ulvi
MODERN TIMES
successful portraitist of beautiful
Liegi (an anagram for his proper
name, Luigi Levi), (1860-1942)
who
a sensitive colorist,
who began
1931),
and
schools too;
also of Livorno,
long
in the course of his
work the
reflected in his
life
modern
596
influence of
more
(1883-
Vittorio Bolaffii
his career as a Realist disciple
was subsequentlv
of the macchiaioli, but
influ-
enced by Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, above
by some
Modigliani, then even
coming
Surrealists,
all
be-
after his trip in the Orient, in 1912, in-
from the Realism
estranged
creasingly
of
his
youth.
Other Italian-Jewish painters of the period were
who belonged
to the
Spanish master Villegas in
Rome
Alberto Issel (born 1848), of the
circle
and was a painter
though deeply
of "real life,"
The landscapes of Clemente Pugliese Levi (1855-1936) communi-
rooted in Romantic traditions.
and reveal the
cate a sense of serenity
vigorous
not
portraitist,
caricatural
averse
to
deliberately
Amalia Besso
touches.
artist's
1863) was a
sensitive nature. Arturo Rieti (born
(1856-1929)
distinguished herself as the author of delicately
feminine
And, going
landscapes.
to
the
other
extreme, one of the greatest Italian caricaturists Vito d'Ancona. Lady with a Parasol.
281.
do not dissolve according
Impressionist
the
to
modern
of the period of the Risorgimento, the
Cesare Redenti, was likewise of Jewish birth.
technique. Vito d'Ancona thus remained faithful to the
more
solid principles of composition
had heen those of neo-Classical
came
great city's
life,
but already weakened by a serious
was no longer able
produce many
to
when
works. After his return to Florence in 1874, his health
open
air,
no longer allowed him to work
in the
he painted small nudes that are unusual-
of other Italian-Jewish painters
influenced by the macchiaioli school fo
Belimbau who, born
most of
his life in
able influence on
where many
in
1845
in
—
e.g.,
were Adol-
Egvpt, spent
Tuscany and exerted a consider-
manv younger
of his
artists in
works revealed,
interest in social problems, before
Livorno,
for a while, his
he
became
a
mediocre manufacturer of genre paintings; Vittorio Corcos (1859-1933) of Livorno, age studied
The contribution
of Italian Jaws,
generally, to nineteenth-century art as to
be
negligible.
On
in
who
at
an early
Florence and Naples, finally settled
as
of Italy
was
so small
the other hand, in another
land of great traditions, Holland, there emerged in this
same period one
figure
his contemporaries there,
European painting
ly expressive.
A number
V
In 1868, he
art.
where he was fascinated by the
to Paris,
illness,
which
Few
artists,
in this
indeed,
who
towers above
and whose influence on period was profound.
managed
to express the gen-
erous humanitarian ideals of the time in terms of
pictorial
Israels
realism
(1824-1911),
more (fig.
faithfully
than Jozef
4). His beliefs, in this
respect, are identical with those of the generation of
1848, though deeply impregnated also with
the moral traditions of Judaism and for social justice.
Born
family, Jozef Israels
passion
its
in Groningen, of a
was admitted
seventeen to the Amsterdam
at the
Academy
devout
age of
of Fine
282.
Arts,
and
it
seemed,
at
but another academic
he went
to Paris,
Jozef
as
first,
his
A
Israels.
if
Jewish
Wedding.
he would be
In 1843, however,
artist.
where he spent
he continued, on
five years,
though
return to Amsterdam,
to
paint large historical compositions.
In 1853, Israels returned to France, where he
worked
for a while in Barbizon.
ism soon revealed art,
becoming
fully
of Millet
life
of the fisherfolk there,
and the
to detect in the
became part
though he
and preoc-
spirit that
he had
works of Courbet and
of his
own
also assimilated a
rich influence
am
too
of
my
come
subject-matter, but
he
closer than
purpose...
and is
my
agreement with him.
interested only in the painterly qualities
world that in
in full
try
I
somehow manage
to the people.
to
orient
share
I
to its
myself within the
peculiar to labor so as to reproduce
paintings impressions of
that are alive."
it
torial terms, so that his intellectual starting-point
was deeply moved by the simple
of these people,
been able
I
am
on the coast near Amster-
when he
learning to understand their problems cupations. Israels
point of view and
Amsterdam.
settled for
the true source of his
apparent
dam, and shared the
But French Real-
Rijksmuseum,
The main preoccupation of the artist was to find means of rendering these impressions in pic-
itself as
a while in Zandvoort,
life
598
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
597
life
and
art too,
more powerful and
through his study of the works of
Rembrandt. As he wrote:
"I
understand Millet's
was the same
as that of the Impressionists,
though
the path that he ultimately found and followed
was
different.
learned
how
From Rembrandt, to
thoughts through
makes
all
express light,
all
for instance,
his
feelings
he
and
not the kind of light that
colors vibrate, as in the
works of the
Impressionists, but the kind that forces
through surrounding gloom in order to
its
path
stress the
emotions and thoughts of the painter. The poor,
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
599
the
in
paintings
of
no longer the
are
Israels,
have been
of Millet; they
peasants of the works
Towards the end
safed.
brought back
the great French painter, since Israels no longer
Scribe,"
intended to arouse pity and charitable feeling.
that
he identified himself entirely with
to
tion and, in itself, offers a magnificent justification
of the craft that provides copies of the Eternal
life
the under-privileged."
of
the kind of Jewish
full of
of plain people
Word.
he was
The
In
this,
humanism
that recog-
which must serve
nizes charity as a social duty
was but natural
Rem-
that the influence of
of expression that Israels chose.
no contrasts
is
it
its
much
not so
mere
beauty that he seeks or with
There are thus
in his paintings, only gradations of
and shade, and
itself,
physical
prettiness as reality
ugly aspects, too. Instead of joy, he
likewise seeks to express the reality of those
beneath the burden of
toil
life
from the
paintings
humanism
of the artist
compositions,
warmth of
many
life,
all
own
providing
of
The
poor.
always present
only
not
the
in these
but
light,
mingling and awakening the elements
too,
Israels
is
of
life
who must
that they
bear. He, therefore, chose the subjects of his
he remains the devoted pupil
paintings. Here, too,
Rembrandt, and the peculiar
of
qualities of his
sonal, at times, than in his paintings.
The
brandt should become preponderant in the style
light
etchings of Israels are as expressive as his
craftsmanship are more eloquent and more per-
justice. It
bent over the parchment
the source of light in the whole composi-
is
his
"the atmosphere of the
it,
man
an old
"The Torah-
great work,
his- last
and expressed, without adding anything
Instead,
and
he went to
life,
Spain and North Africa. From Tangiers, Israels
stripped of the rhetorical appeal that characterize
subject
of his
600
concerned with the
also
life
of his
people, and his paintings on Jewish themes
are, in this respect, the
most important documents
of Jewish art of his age.
"The Son
own
country and throughout Europe was for a long while very great. influence,
for
not
It is
instance,
in
detect this
difficult to
works of Van
early
Gogh. Nor can one truly understand the
Max Liebermann
unless
Throughout the world, Jewish
influence of Israels.
turned with
painters
towards their
admiration
Dutch contemporary.
great
art of
one discerns there the
Still,
it
was on the
Jewish painters of his immediate milieu in Holland that the influence of Israels can clearly.
As
far
their
as
be detected most
manner
of painting
is
concerned, some of them developed the techni-
ques of their master in terms of a more modern
tremulous with poetrv and mystery.
was
influence of Israels on artists in his
of an Ancient
idiom; but the peculiar mystical realism of Dutch-
Jewish
life
that Israels
was the
now produced some
art
of the nineteenth century. In
of the
to express
first
has
most truly Jewish
Amsterdam, a
People" thus represents a junk-dealer seated out-
school of artists
thus came into being of which
side his shop, a perfect illustration of a certain
one can say that
it
decrepitude of Jewish
to
life in
the Diaspora. In his
representations of Jewish weddings too, on which
theme he painted find, in the
who
(fig.
no longer voung and a bride
is
but
too attractive;
much
several pictures
282),
we
highlighted foreground, a bridegroom
of the
this
workday
couple life
still
who
is
none
communicates
of petty tradespeople.
His palette remained poor but was rich in gradations;
and
life
Nothing to
art
without
express
Dutch
his
how he
ambiguity
and that in his
mere chance,
was a constant struggle both
the
spirit
to
of
of Judaism.
work was so that
all
light or easv or
due
his paintings reveal
wrestled with the angel, never relinquish-
ing his h Id until the ultimate blessing
was vouch-
was the
first,
in
modern
times,
have achieved a human and psychological
approach Jewish
in depicting
Jewish types and scenes of
life.
The son of Jozef 1934), managed to
Israels,
Isaac Israels
liberate himself at
(1865-
an early
age from the immediate influence of his father's style.
After living
many
years in Paris, he assimi-
lated the theories of the great French Impressionists
and became the most important representa-
tive of this school in Holland.
He was
nearly forty
he
when, influenced by
Zola's novel "Germinal,"
went
Belgium, to study industrial
life.
to Charleroi, in
From now on he achieved
great distinction
as a penetrating interpreter of the
especially in his paintings of
men
modern world, or
women
at
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
601
283.
work
The Coffee
witty,
and a
(fig.
reveal
grisettes
He
283).
the
re-
specialized in scenes that
Rotterdam.
aspects of Impressionism soon began to be It
tvpically Jewish, of a reaffirmation of the
Among
who
the painters
followed Gauguin to
at the turn of the century.
Nabis, representing an idealistic secession from
girls,
the
from
Meyer de Haan (1852-1895) was
this trip a series of paintings that are truly
with great virtuosity the art
of Indonesian dancers.
had developed
far
By
this time, Isaac Israels
from the manner of
and no longer limited himself
his father
to contrasts of light
and shadows, but had achieved a
style
own
their tonali-
which bright colors contrast
in
of his
ties.
The
influence of Jozef Israels continued,
while, to be
who
more
direct
formed the Jewish
first
life in
reaction
a
Among
against
life
of Amster-
these artists
group of Jewish painters
modern the
mean-
on a number of painters
specialized in scenes of the
dam's Jewish quarter.
primacy
of the idea rather than of painterly technique.
In 1921, he travelled to Java and brought back
his finest, depicting
felt.
took the form, so typically Dutch as well as
Pont Aven and founded the group known as the
working
Paris
and midinettes
Museum Boymans,
the
of the
life
of
style
was increasingly spontaneous, concise and
fined
Sorters.
he lived
to 1914,
where he developed a brighter range
more cheerful and even
colors,
that
Israels.
From 1903
in factories.
in Paris,
Isaac
602
artistic
more
who
to study
idiom, an idealist
scientific
or realistic
the
Impressionists,
Dutch
dwarflike
His technique revealed unusual
was very much appreciated where he earned a good
ability,
in his
living.
Jew
a striking figure.
own
and he country,
Then, one day,
he wandered into an exhibition where he saw for the
first
time,
some Impressionist
paintings.
These moved him so deeply that he decided that he must get
to
was
in
Pissarro
know
the
artists.
London, and went there
Pissarro then spoke to
him
Gauguin with the
with him.
The Dutch
that
at once.
of his admiration for
Gauguin, and Meyer de Haan to find
He heard
set off
immediately
firm intention of working
painter thus
abandoned
everything to submit, like a school-boy, to Gauguin's teachings.
He
returned to end his davs
in
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
603
Meyer de Haan. Dietary Laws. Aronsson Collection, Amsterdam.
284.
Amsterdam, where 284) are
still
his
paintings
on Jews
(fig.
who
who belonged
to
school
this
include
Salomon
Meijer, Moritz Calisch, Ezechiel Davidson, Jeftel
popular.
Edouard Frankfort was another Amsterdam painter
604
specialized in scenes of Jewish
life.
Salomon, Elchanan Verveer and David Blanes,
Mention should be
the youngest of the group.
In his representations of religious ceremonies, he
made
avoided the somewhat monotonous browns that
another Sephardi, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita
characterize the
work
and obtained
Israels
using a
greater
of several pupils of Jozef his
range of
chiaroscuro colors.
effects
by
The Sephardi
Baruch Lopes Leao de Laguna (born 1864) was
more
impressionistic in his art,
some
interesting portraits of Jewish types. Martin
and has
left
us
Monnickendamm (1874-1943),
originally
ciple of Jozef Israels in his use of
Rembrandtesque
a
of the etcher Jozef Teixera de Mattos
(1868-1944), one of the artists
of
his
European woodcut specialist
of the Far East,
in
color
felicitous syn-
and techniques of Europe and
who was deported by
mans and murdered
in
the Ger-
Auschwitz.
dis-
modified his style so that his more mature work
an
a
which he achieved a very
prints in
thesis of the styles
VI
technique, spent some time in Paris, where he
reveals, in the choice of brilliant colors,
finest
generation,
and
influ-
ence of Van Oogh. Other Amsterdam painters
Until
German
the art
end
of
the
nineteenth
century,
was, with a very few exceptions,
dominated by the grandiloquent
historical
style
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
605
Munich school
of the
or the academic sentiment-
alism of the Duesseldorf school that produced so
many Romantic
genre
landscapes,
and
scenes
pretentious portraits.
606
More and more deeply influenced by the
world.
great Berlin painter Adolf von of
moods and
fantasies
— he stripped the
—
Menzel
a
man
and a wonderful draftsman anecdotic
latter's art of all its
even more
elements, retaining only his energetic and exact
than his works, contributed most towards encour-
draftsmanship, his wit and his range of colors
The
who, through
artist
new
aging a
his activities
German
current in
was Max
art
Liebermann (1848-1935)°. He was a scion of the middle-class
1848, began
German
German Jewry
that, as early as
with the
to feel entirely identified
then beginning to enjoy
liberalism
heyday. As a representative of
Max Liebermann
illustrated a
man, Jewish and European Ever since
his
synthesis of Ger-
culture.
age of
drawn
felt
fifteen,
became a
pupil of the Berlin painter Karl Steffeck.
him Liebermann inherited a great respect
From
for sheer
draftsmanship. In Weimar, he was influenced by
Hungarian painter Munkacsy, a Romantic
the
realist,
whom
he followed
Liebermann began
in
1873
to Paris. Here,
to assimilate the teachings of
he had occasion
to witness the heroic era
no mark on
his
the works
be under-
to
discovered, in Berlin, the truly revolutionary
He
nature of this kind of painting.
infallible
communicate
in their art.
he formulated
logic,
immediately
understand the world that the
to study, to
Impressionists
the principles that
all
for
his
With an
own
art
His painting
this implied.
then began to develop in the direction suggested
by French
German Impressionism, Nordic
was no mere
painting. But he
from
considerably
in
time,
when
impor-
stood and appreciated in Germany. Liebermann
now
color
of Impressionism, but this, too, left
his great historical
French Impressionists began
of the
Lei the
At the same
not brilliant.
realistic if
tance at the turn of the century,
the Barbizon painters though not as yet able to essential aspects of their art.
and
rich
Liebermann acquired
began
childhood, he had
to painting and, at the
its
generation,
this
was
that
as
that
it is
of
now
imitator.
called, differs
A
French.
certain
composition and harshness of
stiffness of
characterize the art of the Impressionists
Germany. But the confusion that had long
reigned in the
German
art-world began to be less
great, with the foundation, in 1898, of the Berlin
who
art for the
time being. The surroundings which
"Sezession," the group of artists
liberated in
Liebermann a more spontaneous
claimed their break with the academic pontiffs.
atti-
tude seem to have been those that he subsequently discovered
in
Holland, where from 1875 he
spent his summers regularly.
The works
that he
Liebermann had been one
movement and, and
Here we see the
his
great complexity
Among
his
and
own
flowering of his talent, its
its
robust sensuality.
contemporaries, he admired
the art of Israels and was interested in the subjects
which the Dutch master chose to paint, but
Liebermann was unable
to
communicate the same
element of sympathy and pathos
when
he, too,
chose to paint poor and simple people.
Both
his brief stay in Paris
Liebermann's
artistic
development. In 1884, he
returned to Berlin, where he soon became the
most respected personality
in the capital's artistic
The
great
German post-Romantic
painter
Hans von
Marees was only a half-Jew and has therefore been excluded from the present discussion.
its
wit,
in his writings, in
which he communicated
deep convictions with great objectivity and played
determining
a
artistic evolution.
After the
was elected president Arts. In 1933,
exhibit
part
of Berlin's
banished from
of Fine
and dignity
he died
fection towards the
end
to
works were
German museums and
public
in 1935, re-
until the very last.
Liebermann's painting reached
him
Germany's
Academy
to paint, while his
all
taining his wit
revealing
in
World War, he
first
he was forbidden by the Nazis
and even
its
peak of per-
of the nineteenth century,
an equal of
many
most famous contemporaries. Though he had chosen Berlin as his
*
was elected
as early as 1899,
collections. Broken-hearted,
and his late activities Munich remained, however, but stages in
in
of the initiators of this
president. His activities, both as a public speaker
brought back from Holland remain masterpieces. full
thereby pro-
as
home, he spent most
of his
of his
summers
in Holland. His admiration for Jozef Israels his great friendship
and
with Isaac Israels can be de-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
607
285.
Max Liebermann. The
tected in the choice of his subjects. His famous painting,
now
in the
Munich Museum, the "Woman
with a Herd of Goats," for instance, interpretation of the loneliness
landscape
(if
sand-hills,
figure of a poor
all
is
a
moving
and poverty of a
concentrated
in
peasant-woman herding her
the
goats,
perhaps her only worldly possession. Liebermann's
"Old People's Corner,"
Edam" and
his
"Hospital Garden in
his
"Seamstress"
(fig.
tions,
though without the great compassion that
marks
all
In
his
the Dutch master's work on such themes.
"Chi hen bv the Sea" and the various 1
studies of hoi
created works
emeu on the
sea-shore,
Liebermann
hat are very close to those of
some
Seamstress.
of the great
French Impressionists. His master-
pieces remain, however, the Judengassen scenes that he painted in
Amsterdam
reproducing
In
century.
crowded Jewish
the
quarters,
solidarity
with Jewish
life,
at the turn of the
bustle
of
these
he proved both the
maturity of his art and his
own deep a
sense of that he
solidarity
never relinquished.
285) belong to
the same world as that of Jozef Israels' preoccupa-
608
Portraits also
played an important part
life-work of Liebermann,
most popular of
portraitists in
Germany
in its years
economic expansion. Some of these,
he has sonality,
left
in the
and he was one of the
in
which
us the effigy of an outstanding per-
can be counted
among
the
more
striking
portraits of his age, revealing both the perfection
610
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
609 of bis art
and
WHHHMmttOHn|
his great critical insight. In Lieber-
mann's eyes, the interpretation of the character of his
model had
to
individual, so that
go beyond
he has
left
all
that
is
merely
us portraits of repre-
sentatives of an intellectual or social class.
Liebermann's graphic work
is
also of great
me-
His drawings, like those of Degas, must be
rit.
considered in the same light as his paintings;
they served as preliminary studies for the
Of
numerous etchings, many
his
fail,
latter.
indeed, to
achieve the perfection and sensitivity of those of
Camille Pissarro, though some, including the portrait of
Hermann Cohen
great vigor
(fig.
286), are works of
which can be classed among the best
of his generation.
Whereas Libermann found much tion
in the life
of small
of his inspira-
towns and
villages
of
Holland, the art of another of Germany's three
most
outstanding
Impressionists",
Lesser
Ury
* The third among the major German Impressionists was Louis Corinth, who was not a Jew but married the Jewish writer Charlotte Behrens and who included many Jews among his friends and pupils, so that he too was effected by the Nazi ban on Jewish and "judaizing" artists.
Lesser Ury.
287.
(1861-1931), the
life
of the
A London
Street.
almost entirely centered around
is
German
capital.
Unlike Liebermann,
Ury, born of a family that was poor and disunited,
the
felt
oppressive
when
throughout his youth. Even
somewhat
late in his life,
weight
all
He
his friends.
up
Born
in
at last
life
though
bonds was found buried
Birnbaum
in
German Poland, he ran on his own to become
set out
a painter, studying in Duesseldorf, Brussels,
an
Lesser Ury's works of these years
academic
pieces. vet,
character
From 1882
and
to 1884,
and the landscapes
286.
Max Licbcrmann.
Portrait
of
Hermann Cohen.
are
still
mainly
he withdrew
that he
Belgian village can be found
He
of
floor.
away from home and Paris.
who
wearing
in his studio as a recluse,
a considerable fortune in
beneath the
the artists
thus led a
unhappiness and poverty and died rags, locked
success came,
he remained a misan-
thrope and continued to avoid
might have been
poverty
of
genre
to Vollu-
produced
among
and
betray
in this
his best works.
assimilated the influence of the French Im-
pressionists sooner than did
Liebermann, and then
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
611
Lazar Krestin. Prohibited Literature.
288.
remained
faithful until his
death to his convictions
an Impressionist. Rut Lesser Ury rarely com-
as
pleted his paintings in the open that
had inspired them;
posed them the open
he remained
the
life
ters
whom
Ury returned
until his
death
German
color ist.
where
in 1931. In his
most
by the charac-
other...
great French Impressionists, is
Though he remains one moods
essentially
of the great interpreters
of a great city, Lesser
duced among
most
his
pantheistic.
lasting
Ury
also pro-
works some land-
scapes that can vie with those of the most reputed Impressionist Paris masters. Pastels offered
him a
range in which he achieved great technical
Ury expressed,
bril-
rain-
compositions on Riblical and Jewish themes, his mystical attachment to the sacred texts and to
are
streets
rainy streets.
which
features
287). Above
all,
of
from the
rise
his
favorite
he remains a subtle
new language, capable of expressing He found this language in his use of
Form
A
all
Ury
The
its
its
Martin Ruber wrote of his work: "He
relationships
Lesser
of
and the passers-by that almost fade
always seek a
color.
Like the art of that
cafes,
in
belonged among those Promethean natures that
everything...
divides, but color
and
sidewalks (fig.
to Rerlin,
metropolis,
he could observe
into the surrounding mists
topics
in
he was, therefore, inspired by
city-scapes of
shining
made
Form
unites."
of the
of the
skies
thing exists in everything.
the setting
in his studio after sketches
characteristic works,
swept
air, in
he generally com-
air.
In 1885, Lesser
by the
instead,
612
expresses I
none of the ambiguous
tween things,
their effects
thing does not exist in
itself,
on each
but every-
liance. Lesser
in his large visionary
the chosen people. Here, his figures are reduced to
mere
objects that are integrated within a vaster
vision, the scale of sitions
which suggests fresco compo-
depicting an allegorical struggle between
the individual and the whole of creation. Lesser Ury's "Jeremiah," "Moses," "Paradise Lost" and,
above
all,
his "Destruction of Jerusalem" are not
as great art as interpretations of city life; they
remain, however, an expression of the
Judaism by an
artist of rare value.
spirit
of
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
613
289.
Hermann
Struck.
In addition to Liebermann and Lesser Ury, a
number
of other Jewish artists deserve mention
as outstanding personalities in the
German
art-
world of the era that interests us here. Ernst
of the Berlin "Sezession" group, developed
an aristocratic style as a painter of vigorous and lively portraits,
and has
interpretations of the
left
us some very felicitous
rhythms and colors of the
great Russian ballets. His brother, Alexander ler
Opp-
(1869-1937) was a sculptor known in Berlin
Julius Bodenstein,
Benno Becker, Lazar
Krestin,
German post-Impressionist and Fauviste
idioms in her fine landscapes of
nineteenth century and of the
latter half of the
outstanding contributions to the evolution of the graphic
arts.
Among
them, the most important
was Thomas Theodor Heine (1867-1948), one of the founders
tributor,
and
tarism,
all
made
early decades of the twentieth century also
Georges Mosson, Julie Wolfthorn, Jacob Nuss-
and Hans Brochardt
Italy.
Germany's Jewish etchers and draftsmen of the
baum,
Pickard
Adele
Reifenberg-Rosenbaum (born 1893) has remained faithful to
Munich
of the
which he remained
for his portraits.
Ernst
of Galilee.
typically Parisian scenes of Utrillo; his wife
Oppler (1867-1929), an outstanding and active
member
Lake
614
many
for
always active in
social
ills.
A
its
Simplicissimus,
of
years the chief con-
battle against political
German
merciless critic of
mili-
he even dared attack the sacrosanct person
Emperor Wilhelm
achieved distinction as landscape painters, their
of
various styles reflecting to a greater or a lesser
ings all the weaknesses, contradictions, intolerance
extent the influence of the great French Impres-
and narrow-mindedness
sionists.
ful
Lazar Krestin also painted some thought-
and sober
types
(fig.
portraits of Eastern
European Jewish
288), as well as genre scenes
he refrained from being too anecdotic. Berlin's
more
penheimer
where
Among
successful portraitists, Joseph
(born
1876)
Op-
subsequently achieved
already family
II
and revealed
of
a
in his
draw-
regime that was
doomed and of the life of the German and of the German bourgeoisie. The viru-
lence of Heine's satire combined with his brilliant
among
draftsmanship earned him a place
the most
outstanding cartoonists of his age.
Thanks
to his great
knowledge
of
all
the tech-
considerable reputation also in England and in the
nical aspects of etching,
United States and Eugen Spiro (born 1874)
1944) has contributed almost more than any other
now well-known
in
New
York. Julius
is
Rosenbaum
artist to
Hermann
the evolution of this art in
He
(born 1879) has also painted some city-scapes of
his generation.
Berlin
representing views of Israel
that
offer
interesting
analogies with the
Struck (1876-
has also
left (fig.
Germany
some
in
fine prints
289) and Jewish
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
615
Ephraim Moses
290.
types observed in various lands.
The
etchings of
Ernst Oppler, mentioned above, represent perhaps his
most
lasting contribution to
German Impresmanaged
sionism; in his sketches of ballet scenes, he to
capture
movement and
black and white, with unusual
(1870-1932) was born
in
light,
in
felicity.
terms
of
Emil Orlik
Prague but spent most of
Lilien.
My
616
Child.
improving the standards of German
American) book
illustration;
he has
(and
left
later
some
fine
prints of the old Jewish ghetto of his native city.
Particularly well-known in Jewish circles
Ephraim Moses in Galicia, lived
Lilien
(1874-1925)
was
who, born
mainly in Germany, where he was
one of the chief contributors of Die Jugend, the
name
his active years in Berlin; in addition to painting
periodical that gave
its
some
Germany's "modern"
style of the turn of the cen-
signer
striking portraits,
and
signed a mint.
he was an outstanding de-
illustrator of fine
number
books and also de-
of medals executed
Another distinguished graphic
Prague, also ac ive in Germany, was (d.
by the Berlin
1945),
whc
also
artist
Hugo
from
Steiner,
played an important part
in
to the Jugendstil,
those
that
he did for an edition of the Bible, reveal a
taste
tury.
Lilien's
illustrations,
for decorative effects their
day
father, a
(fig.
especially
and were very popular
290). In the portrait of his
humble wood-turner, he has
left
in
own us a
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
61'
618
(1880-1940), a pupil of Struck, deserves particular mention
(fig.
291).
we have
In most European countries
Jewish
of the nineteenth century tended,
artists
on occasion,
to seek inspiration in the
of the Jewish folklore.
painters
seen that
But
and
religion it
was
managed
in
in
ceremonies
scenes of Jewish
Vienna that a group
to gain recognition
by
of
specializ-
ing in the treatment of Jewish themes. In the poli-
empire of the Habsburgs, the
tically conservative
Romantic had refrained from attempting the technical innovations of their
Western-European
col-
leagues or the extreme spirituality and asceticism of
some Germans. The
salons of Austrian art
were
thus dominated by historical compositions, genre redolent
scenes
of
local
and
folklore
anecdote, and landscapes that expressed 291.
Joseph Budko.
The
nostalgia of Viennese Lieder for country
Scholar.
literary all
the
life.
Three Jewish painters achieved fame here as lasting
have
monument contributed
to those artisans of
so
much
to
Jewish
Struck and Lilien were the masters
a whole school of Jewish graphic
and Eastern Europe, among
Poland
who
artists in
whom
who
folk-art.
inspired
the
Central
Joseph Budko
292.
chroniclers of Jewish
Europe
folkloristic
much
Galicia
regionalism
of Austrian
created,
life in
and
in general. Translating into
for
that
in Eastern
Jewish terms characterized
Romantic genre painting, they
the prosperous Jewish middle-class
Leopold Horowitz. Tisha B'av.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
619
293.
Kaufmann. The
Isidor
of Vienna, a specifically Jewish art that reflected, in terms of Jewish types
and customs, the
mental traditionalism of the Austrian middle
The
first
1917), of his
of the trio
who was born
life in
when he (fig.
was Leopold Horowitz in
Vienna. His
(
senticlass.
1839-
Hungary but spent most success
first
was obtained
exhibited a painting entitled Tisha B'av
292), a genre composition representing a
synagogue
interior
on the
fast
commemorating
the destruction of Jerusalem with figures gesticulating in grief in a theatrical at the
Vienna Salon,
manner.
this painting
A
sensation
was immediately
reproduced and thousands of copies of sold through the world. Horowitz
however, as the fashionable nobility
it
were
was best known,
portraitist of the Polish
and of the Austrian Court under the
Emperor Franz Joseph. Fourteen
years
to
vounger, in
Isidor
made
Kaufmann
Hungary, but soon
Vienna where he spent
years and
all
his
working
a great career as the chronicler
of Galician Jewish tvpes
Chess-players.
paintings are actually large miniatures, in which his brilliant sense of color
and
delicate gradations
overshadowed by the excessively
of tone are often
anecdotic nature of his themes, such as that of Visit to the
293).
He
Rabbi" or "The Chess-players"
as a painter in a
few compositions where he
best compositions such as
human
histrionic influence of
French naturalism of the
Kaufmann, continued
types and genre scenes, at
London,
in
re-
His
reflect the less
of the nineteenth century. Isidor
son, Philip
figures.
"The Sabbath," "Friday
Evening," and "The Rabbi's Door"
in
(fig.
revealed, however, his very real quality
frained from introducing any
end
"A
first
in
Kaufmann's
to paint Jewish
Vienna and
now
an idiom that has borrowed many
devices from the Impressionists, but subsequently greatly extended his interests.
(1853-1921) was also born
came
620
and customs. His genre
The youngest lers of
of these three Viennese chronic-
Eastern European Jewish
Epstein (1870-1945),
life
who was born
was Jehuda in Mogilev,
in the Ukraine, but lived and died in Vienna.
He
too chose anecdotic subjects, as in his "Chess-
622
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
621
player," or Biblical themes, as in his
"Job"
294), "Saul and David," and
(fig.
"Maccabees." At
somewhat
and
dull
was
his painting
first,
but he
colorless,
soon began to achieve increasingly rich
and
colorful effects, developing, espe-
cially
in his
vision
and
and more
landscapes, a quality of
were more
a technique that
The
impressionistic.
Polish
painter Mauricy Trebacz (1863-1943)
was a
late survivor
and a minor repre-
sentative of this school of "genre" painting that
known
had originated
in
and
Germans
was
scenes, he
Warsaw,
in
the
at
Among
number
the early works of a
of outstand-
European Jewish painters
Eastern
the
of
twentieth century, examples of this kind of Vien-
nese-Jewish regionalism of genre painting can
still
be found, though generally blended with Rembrandtesque
inherited from Jozef Israels.
effects
O.ily with the
But the influence of Munich
Hungary,
in
also
to wane when the
began
Europe,
as elsewhere in
primacy of Paris was slowly recognized there,
age of eighty.
ing
Jehuda Epstein. lob.
his representations
of typical Jewish characters
murdered by the
Well-
in Vienna.
294.
Poland for
emergence of
Segall,
Marc Chagall,
Adler,
who
artists
Ryback and Jankel
Issachar
be treated of
will
such as Lasar
later,
did Eastern
The importance of the Jewish painters also placed them in the front rank among their contemporaries. We have already had occasion to mention Horovitz, Isidor Kaufmann and Laszlo, beyond the
spirit.
discussed in other sections of the
is
present chapter.
valuable
and
obtained their major successes
frontiers of their native land, so that
work
their
number
folklore
whom
three of
all
own
its
too,
in the evolution of
painting.
European Jewry discover themes and forms that are characteristic of
determining factor
as the only
In
Hungary
however, a
itself,
of outstanding Jewish artists contributed
elements to
evolution
the
modern
of
Hungarian painting. This evolution occurred, at
mainly
first,
two
in
VIII colonies,
artist
In the Decennial Fine Arts Exhibition within
World Fair the
the 1900 Paris to
section devoted
Hungarian painting attracted considerable
at-
to achieve a decisive step their ideas,
garian Jewish painters were indeed represented,
the
exhibiting
this,
thirty
one paintings, out of a
Though the view show gave was still
Hungarian
of 147.
of
this
far
total
art that
from complete,
it
nevertheless illustrated most of the artistic trends that
were being
felt
Whereas
part of the century.
painting of the
had
still
in the
country in the in 1850,
last
Hungarian
been under the domination
Viennese Academy,
it
has subsequently
achieved more and more freedom as feel the attraction of
it
began
to
Munich, which offered more
leeway for the development of individual
talent.
Nagybanya
garian plains; both allowing a
more Jews participated than in any other European nation's exhibit: fifteen HunIn
tention.
the one in
in
Tran-
sylvania, the other in Szolnok, in the great
in coordinating
thus determining the general trend
present
son
in
Budapest
of
wealthy
technical
a
to
made
Paris,
knowledge
Paris determined his
he was able
Vienna.
and studied
possible
it
where
he
of his art.
whole
In
1883, for
perfected Bihari's
artistic
a
him his
stay in
development,
to assimilate the Naturalist masters'
style fully into his
to paint
in
was
(1856-1906)
poor house-painter
and
patron
travel
Bihari
century.
the
as
forward
of artists
Hungarian painting towards the beginning of
of
to
number
Hun-
own. For a while, he continued
genre pictures and was soon Hungary's
outstanding
artist in this limited field.
The element
of anecdote in Bihari's painting remained some-
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
623
624
The most important
individual
figure in the Szolnok artist-colonv
was Adolf Fenyes
The son
(1867-1945).
of a rabbi in the rural
center of Kecskemet, he began to
study law but
the universitv
left
and devoted himself
to painting.
After staying a while in Holland,
he
painted
the
These
poor.
themes
on
cycle
a
from
derived
works
the
of
life
Fenyes
of
were declared
to
and severely
criticized
as
such.
indeed,
in
their
They
reflected
be
socialist art,
somber composition, the deep compassion that the artist Alexander Bihari. Sunday Afternoon.
295.
what
restrained, however,
and never overwhelmed
more painterly aspects
the
quality
of
Parisian
of the composition; a
wit seemed to protect him
against the temptations of a heavier sentimentality,
much
and he observed nature with so
was prevented from attempting of
mere
On
prettiness.
histrionic effects
from
return
his
love that he
Paris,
Bihari settled in Szolnok, an agricultural center in the great
Hungarian
the monotonous
town notables,
plains.
Here, he studied
of the peasants
life
in the transparent
rant atmosphere in
and small-
and almost
which the dry
air
separate figures rather than enclose them
common medium. He figures in a
in
a
did not glorify his peasant
Romantic
the people as he saw
vib-
seems to
instead,
spirit;
them
in their
he painted
everyday sur-
roundings, thus achieving some veritable masterpieces.
With broad
strokes of the brush, Bihari
grouped and painted
his figures in
such a manner
that they are held together in an organic pattern, particularly striking in
its
details,
which he painted
with accomplished simplicity and directness. His
masterpiece (fig.
is
perhaps
his
"Sunday Afternoon"
295), in which the Impressionist influence
is
felt, in
spite
of his lofty intellectualism, for
wor-
and
was
invited to participate in the foundation of the
Szolnok
for the underprivileged. In 1901,
artists'
colony.
that never seems to allow
smoking
their pipes as they play cards while their
women-folk gossip and drink
their coffee, repre-
senting the last and most glorious stage of a school of genre painting that of
its
means.
had achieved
full
masterv
al-
dust-
any movement, and
his
acquaintance with the peasants of this area, with simple
their
life,
so
full
human
of
dignity,
all
achieved a metamorphosis in the palette of the artist.
At
ings,
full
figures in
first,
of
of
folkloristic
to genre paint-
implications,
them are brought
light colors.
tion
he limited himself
to life
by
but
the
his use of
His careful analysis in his observa-
subject-matter
was
already
preparing
way for the future evolution of his art, espewhen he began to compose his pictures in terms of color, which made it possible for him the
cially
to attain true tion. In his
a
Impressionism without any transi-
admirable
still-life
paintings, however,
decorative element already foreshadowed the
next step in his artistic evolution.
War
The
First
World
distracted the artist from his sensitive philo-
sophical optimism concerning world developments.
He observed mankind,
around tables and
mud and
storms and their penetrating and crystalline light
from man's
seated
his constant contact
ternating climate of overwhelming
minor
servants,
Here
with the landscape of the great plains, with their
obvious, the well-fed b:;redom of this group of civil
Fenyes
kers
evil
but turned his gaze away
actions, thus tending to
create
a world of his own, a world of the Bible and of
wonderful legends and
tales.
The themes
of his
paintings of this period are: "The Jews Defeating
the Amalekites," "Noah's Ark," "Moses Striking the
Rock"
—
Biblical composition deeply rooted
in the
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
625
626
much
purest Jewish tradition, representing not so
the individuals but the event, with the figures entirely integrated within this surrounding land-
scape so as to be one with
Landscape of Snow," chord
of the very Artist
in
a
a final harmonious
like
He
in this great creator's life.
died in 1945
during the period
sufferings
a result of his
as
is
One
it.
"The Old
last paintings of Fenyes.
of Nazi domination.
The
artists'
colony in Nagybanya had
come
Szolnok and was
into being shortly before that of
perhaps more important because of the more ex-
some
cellent teaching of
residents.
1940). Interested, above
means
light
a
as
was influenced he achieved
Hungarian peasants,
of
life
the
(1867-
color
of
in decorative effects that
scenes from the
was
problems of
in
all,
the power
in
of expression in itself, he
by Gauguin in
them
Ivanvi-Grunwald
Bela
and shadow and
more distinguished
its
among
Outstanding
painter
Jewish
of
where the black outlines of
his design stress the
which bring warmth
into his atmosphere.
JSHjiiiaf<*tvi
colors
296.
Soon, however, he gave up composition in terms c
f
planes in order to place his figures in a spatial
by landscapes
context. His paintings inspired
of
Lake Balaton, adopted heavier
the area around
forms of a more Romantic nature, and his brushstrokes
an
became more
artistic
energetic, so as to express
was never divorced
that
sensitivity
from a certain robust sensuality.
Among has
the
modern
remained as
faithful
the
capital,
and
homes, with figures
his
in
of
interiors
picturesque
of
peasant
Hungarian
On
composition
the (fig.
through
thoughtful arrangements of forms and colors.
and true painting
of light,
qualities
word
translatable
that
atmosphere.
seemed
designates a certain spi-
The Academy
so unsatisfactory to
their
leader
of
Stockholm
most Swedish painters
was Ernst Josephson (1851-1906),
the most important Swedish painter of the nine-
teenth
century,
among Jewish
He was
whose
talents
first
of
fortress
which
his
Jewish families
Sweden, and the atmosphere
he was already
conventional earliest
historical
works are
painting,
faithful
In
the end of the eighteenth century. In Sweden,
Manet, Pissarro and Degas.
the overwhelming
diately the true sources of an art that
of
the long winter
of his
Stockholm Academy, a veritable
and Danish painting scarcely go back beyond
Paris,
Israels.
unusually favorable to the development
IX artistic traditions of Swedish, Norwegian
foremost
painters of his age, second only
a scion of one of the
to settle in
home was
rank
Camille Pissarro and of Jozef
to that of
a student of the
darkness
yielded to
something that they called "Stamning," an un-
of his artistic ambitions. In 1867,
The
months on end,
half of the century, to emigrate to Paris. Here,
other hand, his vistas of open-air markets
unity
influence on most painters. For
depressing
(1866-1932). His
costumes, strike one as optimistic in their outlook,
achieve
and
restraining
of real' talent that they tended, during the latter
thanks to his fresh and powerful colors.
296)
a
Impressionist
the
to
views of the area around his home, in a village near
exerted
Perlmutter. Market-place.
they were forced to interrupt their work for lack
ritual
painters of Hungary, none
formula as Isaac Perlmutter
months
Isaac
of
examples.
however, he discovered Courbet and
He
recognized imme-
would be
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
627
628
achieved to a great extent thanks to Josephson,
who was the most aggressive and member of the group. When some
enterprising of
its
mem-
bers were readv to accept a compromise, Joseph-
son remained true to his principles, almost alone
storm
the
in
of
and
critical
public
protest.
In the evolution of his art, his trips to Spain, in
1881 and 1882, represent an interesting diverHis eclecticism was
sion.
now unable
of Velasquez,
from the influence
to escape
and the famous
paintings that he brought back from his travels,
"The
"The
Rlacksmith,"
Dancer,"
reveal this. Their frank
all
realism at
first
shocked the
most
Josephson's
"The
Cigarette-girl,"
and refreshing Stockholm.
critics in
famous
painting
was
his
"Undine," inspired by a Nordic legend. This had
been conceived by the
originally
youth, but he painted a
theme, the
final
number
artist
his
in
of variations on
its
version (1884) being purchased
of Sweden for presentation to Museum. The management refused, accept the gift but, some twenty
by Prince Eugene the Stockholm
however, to
years later, purchased an earlier version of the
same painting. In France, Josephson continued to paint pictures
where the forms,
increasingly striking.
as sheer expression,
He withdrew
to
small island off the Breton coast, where he 297.
painted some masterpieces in which the
Ernst Josephson. Portrait of Karl Scanberg.
are
Brehat, a still
artist's
Goteborg Museum, Sweden.
conception comes close to that of Pissarro's repre-
contemporary, and his portraits soon expressed
sentations of peasants. His portrait of the Brehat
the implications of his newly-discovered tech-
all
nique. In these, which can be classed
among
the
best Impressionist portraits painted in anv country,
the light colors, the broad brush-strokes
the temperamental
and
painting diffuse a youthful,
bright and frank lighting that contrasts vigorously
with
previous
all
The
painting.
surroundings,
artist
gan
to
produce a
series of
flux
(fig.
of
297).
did not seek to immortalize their fea-
them
in a
moment
of their
was soon
to
artist
be-
drawings that are of
The draftsman-
as fine a quality as his paintings. is
of an extraordinary nervousness,
artist's
formal exaggerations stress their
ship of these
in
some
His paintings
art.
then became increasingly rare and the
quivering expressiveness.
being
static in
indicates
of the mental disease that
transform the nature of his
suddenly arrested in the
When
Josephson died
1906, he had both initiated the modern move-
ment
in
many
years to come.
Swedish
art
and indicated
its
tasks for
In Denmark, another great painter of Jewish
life.
In
already
and the
tures but to capture
that
symptoms
however,
characters are integrated in their
becoming rather than
The
Swedish
nineteenth-century
policeman,
1885,
had
when Sweden's
settled in
to organ-
extraction, (though not brought up as a Jew) Theodor Philipsen (1840-1920), played an equally
exhibition of anti-
important part as the most outstanding innovator
artistic
Montmartre decided
opposition
ize itself as
movement,
academic
From the banks of the Seine" was
art
its
in the artistic life of his country.
Influenced by
,
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
629
and other French Impressionists
Pissarro
his
in
treatment of design and color, Philipsen
lyrical
Den-
became the most important
interpreter of
mark's countryside, of
landscapes of green
and
fields,
of
every detail of his brush-work
Impressionist in
many
An
farms.
cattle-raising
its
and coloring, he has ings,
its flat
us some striking paint-
left
which now hang
of the best of
Copenhagen's National
Museum
among
"Slaughtered Ox,"
in
of Fine Arts. His
others, achieves a parti-
Whereas the
sophy of liberalism and of
ing art to be, above
dependent on
were
age,
reached
quality
this
theme
Rembrandtesque
in
the
in
idioms of post-Impressionism or of Expressionism.
One
of Philipsen's
the
Danish-Jewish
most remarkable
disciples
Gottschalk
Albert
painter
was
and
literary
Towards 1890, however, a
certain reaction
occurred
began
who new
at
to
Stalinist
an unhappy
ever, to
anxieties
life
of almost psychopathic
and doubts, which hindered
to a great
extent his full artistic development.
A
was
,
active
in
Born of a long
Mogens
established family of Danish Jews,
came
1891
to Paris in
among
the "Nabi" group
the French post-Impressionists.
At
to study art.
a
Ballin
banquet
met Jean Verkade, the Dutch painter who became a Catholic monk,
given in honor of Gauguin, he
by
whom
he was introduced
to the
In 1892, Ballin travelled with
came
convert to
a
"Nabi" group.
him
Catholicism
to Italy, be-
and was then
Two
admitted to the Franciscan Third Order. years later, he returned to Copenhagen, exhibition of his
work met with great
shortly afterwards married,
most of
retrospective rich
and
and thereafter devoted
German occupation
during the
show
fantastic"
of
where an
success, but
time to charitable work.
his
Ballin's
of
these
against
last
Painters
trends.
intelligentsia
turned their gaze towards the West. Their faith
in
for
art
introduced
sake
art's
In
1943,
Denmark,
"strange,
new quality of Among the most emitrend were the por-
this
trait-painter Valentine Serov,
Jewish
and the
extraction;
who was
painter Isaac Hitch Levithan
partly of
landscape-
Jewish
(1861-1900), son
of a Jewish teacher of Wirballen
(
Verjbolovo )
with the help of a
Moscow
patron, Levithan
ed the International Exhibition discovered the worl<
of Corot
in Paris
first
and
to assimilate their doctrine,
him
to
the
become the
which enabled
great poetic interpreter
sad and heavy monotony of Russia's vast
that brood over
its
idiom
however,
remains,
masters, dull
though
and tend
his
steppes. Levithan's pictorial
that
own
color
of
French
his
harmonies
are perfect as an expression of his personality,
where the Jewish sorrow
of the Dispersion
all
with the staid resignation of an
grave,
elegiac Slavic
mood.
work was organized by mem-
met
opposition as within the Tsarist
ideas imported from
so
well blended
liberal ideas of the nineteenth century
new
is
a
Empire, where an intolerable autocracy, condem-
ned
are
to resolve themselves in greys that
In 1896, his position
now
he was
established,
Moscow Academy, where he continued
much
of
horizons and of the apparently motionless skies
appointed professor of landscape painting
as
Jewish
painters to understand the art of the Impressionists
fiance.
The
visit-
and thus
and the Impres-
Levithan was thus one of the
sionists.
1889,
In
bers of the Danish Resistance as an act of de-
nowhere
a
refinement of technique and a
close to the forme." Prussian frontier.
Danish-Jewish painter, Mogens Ballin (1872-
1914)
era,
appear among the Russian
composition in their work.
to his beliefs
which
political ideas,
hundred years
the
nent representatives of
an Impressionist, Gottschalk was doomed, how-
for political
a
of
(1860-1906), whose tortured and somber skies
as
medium
a
all,
contrast strikingly with the serenity of his master's
more balanced works. Always true
sought
still
a style that already foreshadowed the "Socialist
later.
our
social justice, the Sla-
illustrated in strikingly rhetorical images, in
the middle of the picture. Only
this
philo-
propaganda. Their painting thus became primarily
that hangs in
own
their
masses to nationalist ideas, consider-
to convert the
realism"
Soutine,
Western
artists of
vophil writers and painters of Russia
cular qualitv in
handling
and
Realist writers
Europe were already expressing
the treatment of the animal carcass
in
630
Western Europe.
until
he died of tuberculosis four years
When Chekov was some
later.
at last able to see, in Paris,
of the works of the great
sionist,
in the
to teach
none of these moved
French Impres-
his soul, so deeply
Russian in as the
its
fundamental melancholy, as much
works of Levithan
298). "Compared
(fig.
with the landscapes that
saw yesterday," he
I
wrote "those of Levithan proclaim him a true
"vast
Chekov wrote
Elsewhere,
king."
and novel
bv circumstances
to live in
When
him
his friend to paint
side around in the
upper part of
forest
in
a landscape of the countrythis picture
some havstacks,
friend,
the distance, and
all
sovereign light of the moon." difficult to
faithfully than
is
Chekov has done
would indeed
It
in his description
"Moonlight over the
already midnight.
stretching over a
Everything there sleep.
beneath the
this
To
can distinguish the village, with
ful
caught
in a
No movement, no
main
some
distance of is
the right, one
its
five
one looks at
moonlight, with
its
its
versts.
sound; one would
this village street
izbas,
street
deep and peace-
scarcely believe that Nature can be so
When
a
suggest the art of Levithan more
of the great Jewish painter's
Village:" "It
framed
always before his
his desk,
"A
eyes as he wrote:
he was forced
Crimea, Chekov asked
Moscow and kept
hav-stacks,
silent...
under the its
sleepv
willows, one feels one's soul appeased. In so restful a place,
melancholy, of beauty remains.
protected by the night from
toil,
from
care, from sorrow, onlv the quality of softness, of
looks as
It
if
the
themselves contemplate the village with a
stars
tender emotion, as
world and
all is
Levithan's
Levithan's
of
talent, so original, that of Russia's
greatest landscape-painter."
632
Isaac Hitch Levithan. Landscape.
298.
be
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
631
evil exists
if
now
in the
good."
so deeply
art,
no longer
impregnated with a
melancholy Jewish optimism, profoundly affected the development of Russian
began
to follow the
and receive
art
art,
which henceforth
path of Western European
literary expression in the once-
its
famous periodical Mir Iskousstva (The World of Art )
founded and promoted by Alexandre Benoit
,
and Sergei Diaghilev. This was the vators
whose
activities,
soon brought
new
circle of inno-
through the Russian Ballet,
life
to
the art of theatrical
design, not only in Russia but throughout Western
Europe and America. One figures in this
who was born in
exile
but in his
book
in
Paris,
in
of the
most important
group was Leon Bakst (1868-1924), Saint
was
Petersburg
baptized
manhood returned
illustrations,
his
as
and died a
child
to Judaism. In his
incomparably
masterly
drawings, and especially his designs for the scenery
and
costumes
of
Scheherazade,
The
Firebird,
Petroushka, he Mariage d'Aurore and other fa-
mous
ballets,
Bakst proved himself a craftsman
of real genius, in
whose
art the tradition of the
Orient and of the Western world were wonderfully
blended
(fig.
299). Levithan and Bakst were
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
633
fountainheads of modern Russian art which,
real
in
the following generations, gave Western Europe
and America the many outstanding
humble
tions;
is little
work
of Bakst, however,
evidence of interest in Jewish tradi-
on the contrary, he was one of the origina-
movement
tors of a its
whose
are to be found in the ghettos
origins
of Eastern Europe. In the
there
talents
inspiration
Asiatic
folk
despised
to
art
styles
a
and
in
Russian art which sought
great extent in
a
in
revival
and techniques
Slavic
of
of
the
disciples
landscapes of his native
painters of the School of Paris
his artistic views
and
is
land,.
Russian
remembered
today mainly for his landscapes of the countryside
around
Paris.
His fine compositions of wintry
scenes reveal his nostalgia for the
snowy land-
scapes of Russia, but express, at the same time,
much of the who painted
lyrical quality of the in the
same regions
French masters
of France. Leonid
Jewish painter who, after studying at the Munich
Academy, devoted much Levithan, there was
of
many
of the
painters
another Jewish painter of considerable talent
borrowed
in the
Pasternak (1862-1945) was another Odessa-born
of Greek-orthodox ikons.
Among
mainly
Altmann was a percursor
long-
the
the
and
tion
634
who
from the major French
of his time to illustrating
the works and the philosophy of
Leo
Tolstoy,
including Resurrection, and painting more intimate scenes
of the interior of Tolstoy's
home
in
Impressionists:
Alexander Altmann who, born in
Yasnaya-Polyana, as well as portraits that were
Odessa,
many
reproduced and widely circulated. In the Paris
died.
lived
years
in
Paris,
But whereas Levithan sought
where he his
inspira-
299.
Museum
Leon Bakst. Sultana.
of
Modern
Art, Pasternak's
"The Eve of
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
635
Examinations"
the
represent
white
shadows;
facile
its
also the author of a
element
of re-
300)
and
own
his
more famous than
number
son,
Boris,
Pasternak
art.
of portraits of
Rainer-Maria
including
celebrities,
their
Impressionism
veal the narrow limits of Pasternak's
was
male
room where
anecdotic
the
composition and
this
of
stand out sharply against the sur-
shirts
rounding
group
a
students studying in a lamp-lit
636
Rilke
later
to
(fig.
become
his father.
In Poland, meanwhile, the intellectual and artistic life
of the Jewish
extent influenced to as
which a
its
community was
by external centers
more outstanding
pendence.
We
of attraction
were drawn
talents
consequence of the country's
political
have already seen that
artists
de-
such
and Jehuda Epstein, though born
as
E.M.
in
Poland, were attracted to
Lilien
to a great
where they spent most
Germany and
Austria,
of their productive years.
Other painters, such as Leopold Pilichowski, wandered farther
France, England or even
afield, to
America. In Poland proper, there continued to be considerable artistic activity, but
ever transcended
the
Jewish provincialism. 300.
.coniil
Pasternak.
Portrait
of
Raincr
301.
Maria Rilkc.
manage
to
limitations
A
little
of
of this art a
kind of
few Jewish painters did
adapt themselves to the current Polish
Samuel Hirszenberg. The Yeshiva.
JEWISH IMPRESSIONISTS
637
and
patriotic
for
taste
historical
painting.
638
One
was the Jewish
of the celebrities of this school
painter Samuel Hirszenberg (1865-1908), a native of
Lodz who died
in Jerusalem. His
"Wandering
Jew" gained him an award and considerable fame. Later, he painted a whole series of popular genre compositions on Jewish themes such as "The Yeshiva"
(fig.
301), "Uriel Acosta," "Young Spinoza"
and "The Jewish Cemetery" which were widely reproduced. His most famous work "Exile," depicting a
band
of
Jews driven out of their houses into
the snow, reveals
means when he theme intended
how
were
insufficient
tried to
his artistic
handle a contemporary
to express his
deep attachment
to
the Jewish people.
Mauricy Minkowski
was
(born 1888)
consi-
dered a prodigy because, in spite of being deaf
and dumb, he managed
to
attain
considerable
prominence. Minkowski remains one of the most chroniclers
realistic
the
last
decades
compositions flights,
depict
of Polish-Jewish of
pogroms
but also the religious
life
during
domination.
Tsarist
(fig.
life
302)
His
and
of traditionalist Mauricy Minkowski. After the Pogrom. Tel-Aviv Museum.
302.
Jewish communities and the day-to-day sufferings of the underprivileged Jewish masses. of
psychological observation
His
gifts
often mitigate the
bermann and Lesser Ury;
excessively dramatic quality of his realism.
A
general survey of the part played
in Holland, Jozef Israels; In
by Jewish
Serafino da Tivoli; in
England,
in
Isaac Levithan; in
innovators
in
every country
who stormed
the
among bastions
the great of
post-
Romantic academism. In France, Camille Pissarro;
Grundwald: mentioned lution of
Sir
all
in
in Italy,
D'Ancona and
Sweden, Ernst Josephson;
William Rothenstein;
painters in the history of the art of the second half of the nineteenth century indicates that they
were active
Germany, Max Lie-
in Russia,
Hungary Fenyes and
these are
names
Ivanyi-
that are always
any objective history of the evo-
modern
art.
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS byWALDEMAR GEORGE
The sudden appearance
a large
of
number
of
outstanding Jewish painters in our age was long attributed to the emancipation of a whole people
whose
had
faith
marginal
relationship
the
to
ments of Europe and of the It
in
it
a
develop-
artistic
of the world.
rest
the Jewish communities of the
that
true
is
kept
centuries
for
Diaspora, subjected as they were to grave limitations
imposed upon them both by
and
bv
the
economic an
artistic
of
instability
status,
own
faith
political
and
their
their
were but rarely able
to invent
idiom which could be distinguished
from that of their Gentile neighbors. that
ghetto,
state
within
representatives of almost
the
state,
and the paintings
reveal,
if
Jewish
by Jewish painters
and
ritual
not the key to
subtlety
Age
since the
artists
for
plastic
self-expression
many Jewish
arts.
Immediately
from the ghetto, Jewish
media
after
their
of
the
liberation
indeed began to
artists
contribute to the art of their age an element that expresses their for instance,
own
peculiar talent.
we have
France,
seen that Camille Pissarro
was generally recognized the Impressionists. In our
and Surrealism,
sionism
In
as the law-giver
own
among
age, both Expres-
some
harmonies,
lost
Bernard Berenson argues
The Visual never
any
revealed
anything that can at statement well
refute
by
it
that
stating
may
to
fail
Do we now have homogeneous
is
a
number
extraction
to deal with a Jewish art that
in
its
who,
with
an important
as individuals, play
part in the evolution of art in our time? This
our whole problem, though, to be sure,
posed
larly
A
spect,
has
it is
is
simi-
the art of nearly every nation.
in
interpretation of art,
nationalistic
not
onlv
narrowed the
in
this
re-
intellectual
horizon of some of the most illustrious art-historians of our day;
of the of
common
Western
art
it
has also led them to lose sight
aesthetic trends that pervade
and proclaim
forget
what Jean Fouquet has
Nuno
Gonzalves,
stresses the distinctive aspects of
whether
or
real
Hals
each national
one
imaginary,
Frans
all
basic unity. If
its
the
renovated it
or
characteristics,
of artists of the Jewish faith or Jewish
express poetic
let
specifically
with a rare quality of universality.
while
has
a
are nevertheless gifted
art,
Chagall,
order to
expressed
Jewish painters,
create
art,
in
now
be called Jewish. This
all
one
Marcoussis
book,
obviously arbitrary, and one might
is
have
idiom of Cubism
Sandro
even
nor
originality,
been influenced by the personality of
extent,
of
that they are emancipated from the ghetto, have
similarly
to
spiritual
in his
that Jewish artists,
Arts,
to bring
the
and the wonderful arabesques
Botticelli.
Jewish style in their
of Emancipation,
the
in
the
life
included
now produced
at least the secret of the genius of so
to
though they
folklore art thus
the art
all
manages
frenzy, the art of Modigliani
back
contribute towards the establishment of a national style of art.
of Soutine are full of a prophetic
But the
the crafts that can
all
have been suggested by ancient Hassidic legends
in
tends
common
with
to
with
Velasquez,
feelings also. Pascin, on the other hand, remains
Rouault with James Ensor. The chief characteris-
one of the most hallucinating draftsmen of our
tic
century,
collective Jewish art
a
true descendant
Goya, while Soutine revealed affinity
with
rhythms
t,
But, whi
of
Hogarth and of
his intimate spiritual
Van Gogh, suggesting
in his tortured
advent of an Apocalypse. is
the images of Chagall seem to
of the art of our age
rather
the
—
is
appearance
of
a
Jewish painters and sculptors leadership
in
the
not the birth of a
a separate
past
problem
great
— but
number
who have
of
achieved
few decades. Whether
thev are conscious or not of their racial or religious
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
641
background, these creative
have enriched
spirits
the
common
The
great diversity revealed in the
Jewish
be
heritage
artists
work
of the
Some
ways.
several
in
world.
civilized
School of Paris can thus
of the
interpreted
the
of
hostile
critics have accused these painters of spreading
we
a spirit of eclecticism;
work the
their
in
incline rather to hail
new
birth of a
of uni-
spirit
and docu-
too early to write an objective
It is
history of the School of Paris. Should
it
be considered as the ultimate legacy of a whole continent that rather to
had reached
be viewed
is
it
anticipating the art of
as
tomorrow? Be that as
Or
decline?
its
may,
it
heyday began
its
With
a
few exceptions, nearly
who came from abroad
all
the Jewish
to join the ranks
from countries
of the School of Paris originated in
Eastern Europe and were attracted to Paris
by
its
characteristics as a center both of traditional
culture
by
and
of
as
if
own development
..tmosphere that fostered their
Though they might meet
individuals.
as
Drawn
invention.
artistic
magnet, they found in the French capital an
a
sons
middle-class
well-to-do
of
Hayden and Marcoussis, and Soutine,
or children of the ghetto like Chagall
trod the sidewalks of the French capital for the time, the Fauvist School
first
lated
doctrines, as
its
which
followed
in
had
had already formuNabi group,
also the
Gauguin's
The
footsteps.
Cubists were, in turn, re-examining
pictorial
all
"the most important artistic revolution since the
Renaissance." Paris was thus the crucible, where
modern movement
the
created
and of
there
a
in
series
taste that
the
in
of
was being
arts
developments
of
style
succeeded one another with un-
precedented speed. Whereas Cubism immediately
began
between 1900 and 1914.
painters
whether
tion,
parents such as Pascin,
values in the course of what has been termed
versality.
mented
642
on a whole
to exert a powerful influence
group of younger
artists,
the experiments which
Matisse was meanwhile conducting in the field
continued to attract large numbers of
color
of
disciples.
How
did Jewish painters react to so complex
a situation?
Many
remained
of them, of course,
merely passive; others, however, absorbed various influences but retained their
own
specific indivi-
duality, using the basic devices of
modern
art as
with a certain lack of understanding or of sym-
means towards personal ends
pathy in
climate of the School of Paris, then as now, was
found that their
quarters, they
official
French colleagues were no better understood nor
one of free debate
more
research.
heartily
artists
shared,
welcomed. in
misfortunes, exhibited with the
attacked or defended living
express
and working themselves
European
its
conditions fully
art, Paris
museums where
same
dealers,
by the same
in
freedom that existed nowhere of
and French
Foreign
the same fortunes
Paris,
critics.
allowed
an else.
and
were Their
of Central
of
themselves
offered to foreign painters all
lands at
of a series of artistic
counted
As soon ality,
an
entirely novel conception of the arts.
their
earlier
training
had developed
been taught and began
financial help,
many that
a
Jewish painter,
Camille Pissarro, was one of the main theoreticians of
Impressionism
and
contributed
almost any other French painter to evolution.
When
person-
own
and
their
hopes of
at first very slight.
selling their
But enthusiasm and
genuine friendship compensated for the absence of
II
have already seen
own
to formulate their
more material comforts. For
We
their
dis-
negligible.
as
working principles. Very few of them received any
of
the art-schools
and quite properly
self-taught,
as they
works was
establishment
artists
they forgot whatever they had previously
contribution
the
genuine culture
and Eastern Europe often considered
all
experiments that constitute our century's major
towards
also a climate of
who had graduated from
to
As metropolis
is
of
their works, rather than in academies. Jewish
artists
all
the achievement of
same time, the scene
and
It
The
and
in a spirit of criticism
be acquired by direct contact with
atmosphere
and ages could be studied. But Paris remains, the
that can
of their own.
more its
than
technical
Jewish painters of a later genera-
the
of
them
La Ruche
a
few francs a month,
lived in the ramshackle studios of district,
without any heating, and
worked under open umbrellas
to
protect them-
selves against the leaking roofs, with old blankets
stuffed into the broken panes of their
To
the painters of the Paris School
windows.
who
re-
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
643
presented
Jewish
of
traditions
various
the
all
culture, every form of expression was allowed,
from
ranging critics
mysticism
Many
rationalism.
to
have, therefore,
discussed the instability
and
their alleged nihilism, or
of Jewish painters
the attraction that revolutionary trends seem
on them.
exert
to
has even been alleged that
It
Jewish painters have
made
a
dogma
of iconoclasm
of subversively discrediting the balanced art
and
The bankruptcy
of classicism.
anthropomorphic
of
art and of naturalism has frequently been
buted
to their influence. If all this
were
attri-
true, every
work of art that has revolutionized the artistic
(ill
gan to associate more particularly with the pain-
Fernand
ters
were
dealers all
Cheron, in
When
the
Moise
Paul
Guillaume,
"Deddo" Modigliani, who professed ideas,
anti-militarist
above
lived
World War was
first
His
Kisling.
home he
whose
Zborowski,
a while.
and
Leger
for
declared,
leftist
and
refused to fight and began
Though he
to paint in a kind of feverish haste.
davs in the cafes of Montparnasse, he
srjent his
was constantly sketching there and often paid with his drawings. His pockets were
for drinks
always
man
when
such sketches. Once,
full of
a police-
asked him to produce identification papers,
in the past
century should be attributed
he waved a whole bunch of drawings: "Here's
to a Jewish artist.
But Van Gogh and Gauguin,
my
world
Ensor and Eduard Munch, Picasso and Paul Klee,
whom
of
all
have contributed basic elements to nature
revolutionary
the
contemporary
of
art,
passport!"
A
life
of privation
and a
sickly
constitution as well as his irregular habits soon
began
to tell
on
his vitality.
He
died in 1920, aged
only thirty-six, in a Paris hospital ward,
cannot be accused of having been influenced by
ing: "Cara, cara Italia!" His last
subversive theories.
made more
bearable by a
murmur-
months had been
woman who committed
suicide so as not to survive him. It
was
in 1915,
during the war, that Modigliani's
Ill
works were
Four jewish
dealer Berthe Weill writes that a protesting crowd
recognized as major masters of
assembled outside her gallery window where she
the School of Paris, ranking with Picasso, Braque or Matisse.
Pascin, It
These are Amedeo
Chaim
we
that
Modigliani.
Modigliani, Jules
and Marc Chagall.
Soutine,
inevitable
is
Amedeo
exhibited. In her memoirs, the
painters of the twentieth century
universallv
are
first
begin
should
The antecedents
with
of this re-
have
as chaste as a
medi-
aeval master's representations of Eve. But these
shocked the
figures
markable genius differed fundamentally from that
whom we
had displayed some nudes
man
in the
police insisted that an exhibition,
street,
and the
which was caus-
ing a public disturbance should be suspended. After his death, he was exhibited
more and more
to
frequently and, in 1930, the Venice Biennale de-
consider in these pages, for he originated, not
voted a big retrospective show to the greatest
of the majority of those
in
will
one of the teeming ghettos of Eastern Europe,
but
in
wholly
the relatively occidentalized
(Leghorn)
—
in Italy,
community
Livorno
of
where he was born
in
1884
the voungest of four children. After studying
art,
at
first
Venice,
in
classical training
ing the
first
time in 1906. In the
where Modigliani
centrated on his work only in
loved
bed
life
to
a
and had manv life
fits
friends,
his bitterness.
lived,
and
he con-
starts.
He
but soon succum-
of poverty, drink
helped him forget
and Rome,
of Florence, Milan,
he came to Paris for the various studios
where he received the
which he completed bv frequent-
museums
Italian painter of the School of Paris.
The
multi-cultured and
small,
and drugs that
When
he moved
from Montmartre to Montparnasse, Modigliani be-
chief elements of the art of Modigliani are
founded on a basic talent that no teaching could divert
from
his youth,
its
characteristic
tic
early Cubists, so that his
works seem more geometrical and schema-
than
much
of
his
later
productions.
portrait of Kisling belongs to this period, in
the anatomy lest
In
Modigliani had been influenced mainly
by Cezanne and the earlier
development.
was generally brought
to
its
His
which simp-
form, the body reduced almost to the surging
mass of a column, the faces treated faceted diamond. As
if
like a
many-
aware that he was des-
tined to die young, Modigliani
seemed
no time
His mediaevalist
in his rapid evolution.
to waste
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
645
303.
Amedeo
646
Modigliani. Jeanette. Netter Collection, Paris.
period refrained from too didactic a reliance on
painting, with colors that are grave
archaism. Modigliani never excluded an awareness
somber, unlike any of his other works, remains
of life
and
of
human
full of a
values.
His elongated models, like archaic goddesses
haunted the cafes of Montparnasse, reveal
that
the
artist's
deep sense of pity
were under-privileged. His sents
Motherhood
for all those
last
who
painting repre-
or a Virgin with Child:
this
in
sense of humanity.
France summarized
and almost
An
in his
Italian Jew trained work the art of the
past and indicated the path for the art of the future
A
(fig.
303).
wholly different
cultural
represented by Jules Pascin
background was
(Pincas)
who was
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
647 born
in
1885
in
Vidin
Bulgaria, of well-to-do
in
Spanish-speaking Sephardic parents. Educated in a Viennese boarding-school, Pascin
began work-
ing at an early age in his father's wine-business, at that
time established
his time to art,
to
Munich, studied
in several
Soon, his drawings attracted the
tention of the editors of satirical periodicals
he became a member
at-
and
of the staff of Simplicissimus.
For a leading Berlin publisher he was
also
all
his
Heine's works. In spite of his
German
to Paris in 1905, settled in
successes
Montmartre,
but associated also with the Montparnasse pain-
Cuba, he took back masses of drawings
On
his return to Paris in 1920,
set feverishly to
work and created
most important compositions. After a
Tunisia, he returned for a while to
studio, leaving
burial
No
somewhat
artist of
of Picasso, has
his
Paris
to Jewish rites.
as
much
passion and
Pascin's objectivity, that of
watchful chronicler and all
York. In his
our age, with the exception
drawn with
diabolical brilliance.
in
trip to
bizarre instructions for
by a rabbi according other
records of
New
he committed suicide
1930,
June
a
citizen.
wanderings, which had brought him
he immediately his
became an American
nevertheless
From
com-
missioned to illustrate some of the poet Heinrich
he moved
but
and water-colors.
He
where he was an
States,
eloquent propagandist for French art and ideas,
as far as
age
way
United
at first in
at the
art-schools.
the
for
to devote
he escaped from home,
then found his
out
and decided
life
seventeen, jumping out of the window.
secret, until
of
Rumania. But he soon
deprived of his main source of income and set
which he practiced
wearied of a settled all
in
648
travels,
satirist,
has
left
us
Europe, America
in
among them the Swedish artist Isaac Griinewho painted a remarkable portrait of him.
and North
wald,
a special attraction for him.
(fig.
2).
recorded has the quality of a brisk film-montage,
ters,
By
Africa, especially of
low
life,
which held
The world
that he
nature a wanderer, Pascin travelled in the
with direct views of reality and visions of a be-
ensuing years in Spain, Belgium and Holland.
witched and often burlesque midsummer night's
His
German
publishers
with contracts to of the First
On
him
dream.
At the outbreak
women
exhibited their over-ripe charms.
with
motley population of
continued
illustrate books.
to
ply
World War, he thus found himself
304.
lules Pascin.
its
the balconies of Arab houses, Spanish
Reclining Girl.
all
races
Cuba,
— Spanish,
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
649
—
Indian and African
and
cularly rich field,
Havana
in
life
offered to Pascin a parti-
among
are
communicating
much
characterize
best.
him an unusual
left
immediate impressions
his
work slowly began
of his early
develop into a more purely pictorial
to
art.
His
draftsmanship became more firm and, at the same
The
time,
more
closes
forms seem to vibrate, ever more incisive,
cursive.
lines
painter
of the
not try to explain
which he en-
pearls, are of this period.
We may
see
which distinguish
painter
Chaim
Soutine.
Though many East European
ghettos
were centers he was born
in
1884
— was
a
poetry and of patriarchal tradition that Chagall
contemporary scene, he does
described in his childhood memories of Vitebsk
away what might seem
was not
ugly,
be detected
to
elegant proportions of his
young
are like fallen angels or ambassadresses
Soutine, the tenth in
an indigent family of
ment
to excel in handling
unsavory
such a manner as to discover an
in
ele-
of the sublime in them. In spite of their
morbidly erotic quality, his drawings thus avoid
becoming pornographic. type
few pennies from
His
favorite
feminine
revealed as an almost infantile but sensu-
is
ously formed figure that remains a kind of
under many
motiv,
work
throughout
variations,
He was
leit-
his
and
pencils
and
He was
color.
damp basement,
in a
ing
him
Chaim become
his family to
two whole days and
for
up
aged
to see
without culture,
nights,
was locked
hope
of thus cur-
in the
of his vice. But, soon after that,
to obtain a
this
at
buy colored
severely punished,
box of water-colors and
painting the portrait of the village ful
a
satisfy his passion to express himself
form and
in
man
At the age of seven, the boy already
cobbler. stole a
of sin.
and hoped
a tailor
surroundings
in the early
was
themes
modest and obscure
community. The atmosphere of almost mystical
ferent to the
seemed
Soutine's
Smilowitchi in Lithuania, where
of
gift
such
School,
of traditional native art,
—
town
native
Paris
eleven children. His father, a
His
in
work
as
the
of
he creates beauty and one cannot remain indif-
who
as
his
fundamentally from that of a more typical Jewish
but seeks expression rather than harmony. Always
girls,
production,
Pascin's
in
Modigliani's, elements
describes.
what he
expressing the very essence of
A
in
nudes, those that have the tones of real oriental
His early
But the exact recording that
an observer.
as
his
had
training as a cartoonist skill at
numerous sketches of
his
650
idiot.
he manset
about
Success-
ungrateful task, he then asked the
indeed able to vary
venerable rabbi of his community to pose for him.
not only the treatment of his themes, but also
The pious man's son interpreted this request as an insult and gave him a thrashing. Soutine's
later
304).
(fig.
The
his actual subjects.
sketches that he brought
back from America or from Tunisia and the
satiric
drawings that would have delighted Goya thus
way
gave
to fantastic sarabands,
rococo ballets,
charming Biblical scenes, imaginary
and
fantasies
peopled with cupids
allegories
For
his fascinating
all
cir-
some never-never-
cling like birds in the sky of land.
orientalistic
qualities,
however,
he never achieved, as a painter, the rare quality
and
of his drawings
were dark and rather
ings
colors
colors
gave
that
strokes.
Later,
relief
his
A
real
solidly organized, with
to
palette
more transparent
fluidity.
like
etchings. His earliest paint-
in
his
forms
became
in
broad
strictly
to
go
to court,
but the matter
the rabbi gave her twenty-five
roubles to satisfy her claim. But these twenty-five
roubles
made
it
possible
for
Soutine to leave
Smilowitchi and study in Minsk, where he enrolled in the School of
Vilna.
Fine Arts, moving
in
1910
to
Here a Jewish physician detected Soutine's
unusual talent and was generous enough to help him. In 1913, he
left for Paris,
Pinchas Kremegne. his aims,
but his
He seemed
difficulties
accompanied by to
have achieved
were only beginning.
In Paris, Soutine continued to paint without
localized tones of his composition. of his
his colors
of turpentine,
life,
when
any hope of a future, without exhibiting, without
sfumato effect composed of colors
oil
settled
the
Towards the end in
was
their mother-of-pearl
lighter,
those reflected in mist replaces most of the
more
mother threatened
Pascin began to dilute
and
his loveliest
belonging
to
any school, without having any
patrons. Obsessed with his nightmares, he often
sought answers to his questions
in
the works of
the old masters.
Almost
no personal
correspondence
of
Sou-
[EWISH ART
651
FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
Chaim
305.
tine's is
The few
preserved.
Soutine.
letters to his friend
The
Baker's Boy.
spoke French quite fluently after a while,
and dealer Zborowski that have been published
wrote
give us no real insight into the secret of his charac-
and he followed
ter;
they are mere business-letters,
way
remains
with
difficulty.
he
His health was always bad
a severe diet.
scared him, giving him no
Money
actually
sense of security.
His perfectionism achieved absurd proportions;
interpreted to a great extent in terms of
he often destroyed his own paintings by burning
thus
the legend that he himself created.
himst
not in
it
mythical
confessions.
figure,
He
anv
652
in
general,
a
He
rather uneasily.
expressed
Though he
them
or tearing at
them with
The main periods
his palette-knife.
of Soutine's earlier produc-
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
653
Cagnes (1918),
tion correspond to his sojourns in
(1919), Cagnes and Paris
Ceret
(1920-1922).
In 1923 and 1924, he obtained some
when
last,
success, at
the American collector William Barnes
bought several of
and Paul Guillaume
his pictures
published an article on him in Les Arts a Paris. In 1926, he experienced his
when Bing
public,
first
contact with his
work without
exhibited his
having previously consulted him; Soutine refused to
the gallery,
visit
many
though the show attracted
when France was invaded and
the
persecution of Jews began, Soutine fled from Paris
and was invited
to
come
to the
United
but refused to emigrate. In spite of
to
had
In 1943, he
States,
the dan-
all
he continued
gers that surrounded him, feverishly.
to paint
to return to
Paris,
undergo an internal operation, immediately
Though number
Soutine's
of periods,
work can be divided
retains unity as a whole.
it
While he lived
in the artists' colony
he painted
flower-pieces,
his
Ike flaming torches, and be
clouds,
away
and
trees
a
in
hill-sides
series
with red gladioli
by the soul that inhabits them and that the painter
very depths of their hearts. in
his
The Baker's Boy
life,
seem
in
a
He had
and 1943, he
that
is
and the
random
at
for their First
tor-boys
Soutine's personal
lity of
1920, he
broken
in
Here, he created
still-life
compositions,
and
models
his
whom
hotel bell-hops, eleva-
— achieve
a rare qua-
Chagall (born 1887). The latter was the son of
simple but deeplv spiritual atmosphere
nies, in a
endowed play and chores
Soutine's painting relies to a great extent
on
impasto effects which he often achieved on older
where he depicts the main life,
In Saint Petersburg, Chagall failed
came up
Academy
of Fine Arts.
sidy of ten roubles, he
study at the
his
contemporaries lack and that he
when he
was
to a
monthly sub-
able, nevertheless, to
school of the Society for Ad-
The Russian Jewish lawyer Maxim Vinaver, became patron and encouraged him to emigrate
vancement
liberal
Chagall's
new
Thanks
in the Arts.
politician,
to France. In 1910, Chagall settled in Paris, with
other Russian painters, in
most of
these
for entrance examination to the Imperial
revealed himself as
that
all
scenes being his native Vitebsk.
Such an
of color
his birth, his marri-
age and his death, the background of
paintings that he sacrificed to use again as a base.
knowledge
with sym-
alike
Chagall's talent revealed itself
stages of a devout Jew's
and
almost psychiatric insight.
art implies a general
Marc
the accompaniment of recurring religious ceremo-
choir-boys, girls dressed
Communion,
background was very similar
to that of his slightly junior contemporary,
In
and expanding
and men-servants
her arms a child
be carried
to
convulsions.
portraits of the
—
in
face
Jew in whose devout and profoundly peaceful and united family, the future painter grew up to
hunks of butcher's meat, vege-
self-portraits
are re-
and even the
as living as his portraits;
he chose
life
asleep or dead.
in his first paintings
seem
1942
maximum. The woman whose
bolical meanings.
tables, all
neurosis, but
steadily. In
painted Motherhood where
finally
almost capsize and the outlines of his figures seem
too, onions, fish,
only apparent.
own
him increased
vision achieves a cosmic quality, as the landscapes
an apocalyptic world. In his
is
the stresses and strains of his inner
vealed at their
But the
of composition.
learned to master his
the tension within
true
rhythm
a fishmonger's assistant in Vitebsk, an orthodox
Ceret, after
like those of seizures.
how
epileptic
newly acquired serenity
that
rhythms
reveal, in
all
was slowly replaced by
more ordered scheme
artist's
The
himself.
to
this
but also of death, and the
spite of a kind of relaxation that set in,
he remained
in
boy
305). Soutine was
(fig.
paintings that he left us after 1935
painted some two hundred pictures in which his
to dissolve, contracting
skull of the
revealing,
as
is
respect, as a vivisection
not only aware of
The
to
seem
wild
of
Cagnes and especially
La Ruche,
his landscapes
by an earth-quake;
shaken
into a
life
discovers as he portrays them, revealing to us the
seems so ravaged clutches
which he died.
after
the puppets of Soutine's world are brought to
of his earlier landscapes
visitors.
In 1940,
654
La Ruche. At once, he
an outstanding personality
The Berlin critic and proWalden selected him for a show,
in the School of Paris.
acquired the hard way, in a constant struggle to
moter, Herwarth
transcend the limitations of mere technique. But
Chagall's
first,
in
the Berlin gallery
Der Sturm,
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
655
one of the focal points of the modern movement.
probability
The was
itself in
introduction to the catalogue, fittingly enough,
In 1914, Chagall returned to Russia, where he
remain throughout the war. In
to
he was appointed by the revolutionary
1918,
Commissar
Cultural
authorities
where he
area,
the Vitebsk
for
about reforming the teaching
set
museums, and
of art, founding local
upon
calling
well-known artists to c; operate in the establish-
ment
new
of a
social order. In 1919,
and Isaac Rabinowitsch
Eliezer Lissitzki
group of
cow
who
artists
analogous to the
and
art,
which would be
of the other nationalities
arts
were being encouraged
of Soviet Russia that affirm their cultural
the
in
sought to formulate in Mos-
the principles of a Jewish
traditions
he was asso-
Nathan Altman,
Ryback,
with Issachar
ciated,
independence and
to
to
develop
independent of those of Russian
art
Soon, however, Chagall began to disagree, on
young
of
art
political
he was commissioned
to Paris.
to illustrate
ber of books, including Gogol's
Dead
Immea num-
Souls, the
Fables of La Fontaine, and the Bible. In 1931, in the
Near East,
and types
Old Testament.
In
Holy
visited the
Land, wandered around Jerusalem local color
in
search of
for his illustrations to the
during
1941,
German
the
occupation of France, he emigrated to America.
His arrival of a
in
triumph.
designed the
wartime
New
York was somewhat
For the Metropolitan Opera, he sets
for
two
ballets,
Tchaikovsky's
Aleko and Stravinsky's The Firebird. In 1945, his
one-man show
at the
New
York
Museum
of
Mo-
dern Art was an almost unprecedented success. Chagall refused, however, to become an rican
citizen
and returned
Ame-
France after
to
its
first
influence that helped Chagall develop
his extremely personal style
was
that of Russian-
Jewish craftsmen, the naive painters whose folkart
produced the painted signs of the shops
ghetto. that
In
Cha
harmony
On
his arrival
at
once
dependent on
of colors, less
monochrome
almost
fantasy had
effects of greys
and browns
than some of his earlier Russian works evidence.
When
he
absorbed the influence of early
later
Cubism, he abandoned
que manner and
for
good
Rembrandtes-
his
his reliance on chiaroscuro, con-
trasting instead, the bright colors that
have charac-
terized his art ever since. But he
was never
A
programmatic Cubist.
a
painting by Chagall re-
mains anything but a geometrical theorem. Far
from wanting
to
problems,
solve
demonstrate laws, to pose and Chagall
legends in terms of
duced
to
transcribe
An inventor of fables that own memories, he reintro-
style.
into Cubist art a sense of time, violating
did the
artists of
depict, in one
moments
several distinct presents, as in his
prefers
its
the Middle Ages
and the same
picture,
of a story. Chagall thus
much folk-art, both
the dreamer and
dream, the drunken soldier and
his fantasies,
cow on a church roof with the milkmaid coming down from the sky to milk it. The air seems indeed to be the
the unborn calf within the cow, a
element where Chagall
is
most
at
home;
as in a
Yiddish proverb, he depicts the whole village in the
air,
The
Shtetl in der Luft. disasters
of war,
the
German
policy
of
genocide, the destruction of the city where he
had been born and had discovered the worlds love and color, gall's art, to
all
make him
as well as of
comic
never recovered
all
of
contributed to transform Chaa painter of tragic themes
fantasies.
In later years he
of his pre-war peace of mind.
His recent fantasies, however popular, are often
but pale reflections of those of his earlier years. His greatest work remains, perhaps, the canvas
liberation.
The
a brighter
when they
moved on
of prose.
humor and
and the Fauvist masters, acquiring
Pissarro
leaders of the Vitebsk area.
short period in Berlin,
he travelled
moods
express
to
he had studied the works of Delacroix,
in Paris,
logic, too, as
In
refusing
developed slowly, by distinct stages.
and aesthetic theory, with the
1924, he, therefore emigrated again, and after a
diately,
the pedestrian
are often based on his
literature.
matters
physics,
But Chagall's style of
written by the poet Apollinaire.
was obliged
and
656
1914, ill's
Apollinaire
alreadv
art violated all the
in the
explained
laws of logic,
My
Museum
entitled
To
Modern
Art, a kind of synthesis of all his work.
Wife
in
the Paris
of
In the center of the composition, the bride ascends vertically, train.
On
wearing her bridal dress with a long the right, the Jewish virgin on her bright
crimson bed awaits the companion destined for
Mane
Katz.
Saturday Walk
in
Jerusalem
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
657
658
her by God, her body as luminous as
Through
ivory-
bunch
a
of flowers
bright like jewels, one can distinguish
A
a view of an old Russian village.
Chanukah
lamp,
turquoise-blue
a
and a seraph
goat, a fiddler on a roof
sheep complete
sacrificing a
this in-
tenselv personal parable that vet expresses universal sentiments.
Chagall painting
brought
has
kind
a
modern
to
angelic
of
purity,
which he has enriched by allowing to express again
it
of man's spiritual
all
aspirations, his dreams, his nostalgia,
legends,
his
which
Fiction,
fantasies.
his
banished from modern
is
art
ever since anecdotic and traditional
have been condemned
allegories
too literary, comes into
own
as
again
works of the painter from Vi-
in the
tebsk
its
who
remains, at heart, a poet
too.
IV
Though modigliani, Pascin, Soutine and Chagall are now recognized as the greatest Jewish painters of the
School of Paris, several other
may
of their generation
all
these
majority
of
Jewish
Paris
painters, artists
with
together
School
the
of
the of
a
originally
Fauvist
milating
developed as a continuation
movement, though often
Expressionist
and Eastern Europe influences
Realist
stemming
that,
from the work of Cezanne and the
Impressionists, has
the
of painting
tradition
from
influence
the
School
of
Paris.
and Ex-
tremely painterly, this tradition has stressed composition,
moods
in
of
School
the
European duction
is
gave them
it
and popularity of
with
a
Jewish their
life
as
persons in question one by one, for
it
of is
possible to generalize about their work.
the
hardly
On
the
its
keen Paris
the very type of the painter in
the brilliant Paris bohemia
in
in
to
Paris
1910, volunteered in the French
1914 and,
after
the war,
became an
even imposing
arbiter of taste in Montparnasse,
few
and
genius,
sudden flame.
Montparnasse
Armv
deal
warm
or Polish ghetto
between the two wars. He had come from Cracow
now
stereotyped as their pro-
The Russian
its
Eastern
of
Moise Kisling (1891-1952) achieved great fame
terms of color and texture, rather than
must
as
who were
stimulated
birth,
to a
Paris
is
varied.
intellectuality
brought
of
origin
brush-work, a technique of expressing
subject-matter or formal stylization.
We
Sisters.
other hand, the life-record of the Jewish painters
Central
as well as certain Cubist
of
assi-
Two
Moise Kisling. The
31)6.
ex-
between 1910 and 1940, have remained
true to
of
yet win re-
With a few
cognition as masters. ceptions,
artists
on the painters of his generation a
style of dress
that characterized the marginal social life of the
modern
artist.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
659
Pinchas Kremegne.
307.
Among
painters
was one
Kisling art
the
that
few
of the very
to
relies
a
School of Paris,
the
of
Still
to develop
an
on traditional
great extent
MODERN TIMES
Life with Bottle and
and
Apples.
produce too many works that are merely
to
decorative.
We
have already mentioned how Pinchas Kre-
chiaroscuro effects. His technique, in this respect,
megne (born 1890) who was born
was always very
and
effective, especially in his judi-
cious use of glazing,
which gave
smooth and translucent
his surfaces a
perhaps learned
quality,
from certain German Renaissance masters. In design,
Kisling
allowed
himself
own and
his
that expresses
types,
when he
interpretation stressed
of
clearly his
physical
certain
their
affinity
with the
models of Persian miniatures or Rvzantine mosaics, (fig.
his
thus 306).
drafts
towards
tin
that
he
More melancholy and
less
orientalizing
uiship
end
than of
his
all
Pascin, life,
to
in
White Russia
came
Vilna,
in
to
1912 together with Soutine. In the 1913
Salon dAutomne, he
made
his first public appear-
vocation as a painter. His landscapes of Provence,
the choice of his subjects, but
itself in
in
while
a
some freedom
His Jewish background never
expressed
Paris in
for
ance as a sculptor, but soon discovered his real
innate sensuality.
rather
studied
his
to rearrange his forms according to a style that
remains his
660
Corsica, Israel
all
Touraine, central France, reveal
him
as
Sweden and
a master of the
"heroic" period of the School of Paris
In
many
of his
still-life
(fig.
compositions,
early
307).
one can
detect a quality of lyrical sensuality that he has inherited from Renoir. Kremegne's as
an individual or as an
life,
whether
artist, offers us
a fine
painted
example of the dignity, disinterestedness and the
free
professional
in
Kisling
tended,
repeat
himself
integrity
that
made
the School of Paris to achieve
its
it
possible for
fame.
Another close associate of Soutine
is
Russian-
THE SCHOOL OF
mi
who
(born 1891)
born Michel Kikoine
with Kremegne and other
shared
there in
life
those years. Modigliani, one of his neighbors,
was
to detect his talent and introduced
him
the
first
few patrons. After 1926, Kikoine began
to a
exhibit frequently, in Paris
662
La Ruche
of
artists
the hard times which characterized
PARIS
and abroad
to
308).
(fig.
Today, he claims to be a disciple of the ninecentury French Romantic-Realist master
teenth
Gustave Courbet and to interpret in his paintings the organic
life
of nature: but the composition of
mature works reveals a lasting influence of
his
Cezanne
as well.
Georges Kars (1885-1945)
modern
painters
who
one of the very
is
are not yet appreciated as
and whose work may
universally as they deserve,
and
yet be destined to achieve a great
fame
309). Born near Prague, he worked
(fig.
in Paris
from 1907 onwards,
tzerland
1942.
in
commit suicide which came
war
of the
in a
and his
mind, whose
human
of
anxieties
remained a painter of a
years, Kars
all
fled to Swi-
many
as a reaction after his
ciation of life
almost
he
till
Though he was destined to moment of acute depression,
truly optimistic turn of
in
lasting
paintings.
lyrical
appre-
nature strikes one
Always
faithful
to
those principles of balanced construction and emotional poise that distinguish the great
number
tions that
of composi-
can bear comparison with some of the
works of Modigliani and of Picasso's Classical
The
period.
sobriety of his harmonies
by rare touches of
is
relieved
he applied
brilliant color that
with a quality almost akin to wit. The atmosphere that
he thus created infuses
into all that
life
painted, as well as a kind of poetry that he able to
distill
he
was
may
ham Mintchine 1898-1931 among the most gifted (
strictly painterly tradition
the School of Paris.
well decide that Abra)
,
too,
is
to
be reckoned
representatives
among
He began
of
a
the painters of
life
in
Kiev as a
a
interiors
style of his
rare
lyrical
quality
and a painterly
own. Gradually abandoning Cubism
and assimilating some
of the qualities of
German
Expressionism, he achieved in a very short while a perfection that collectors
soon
many
discerning
His
recognized.
dealers
and
self-portrait,
dressed as a harlequin, which hangs in the Tate Gallery,
is
one of the
finest
examples of
his
mature
style.
The
from the contemporary scene.
Future generations
Michel Kikoine. Portrait.
works of
the Italian Renaissance, especially the Florentine masters, Kars has left us a
308.
Jewish
background,
absent in the work of so
many
of his
work
of
father,
Mane-Katz
(born
1894).
shammash (synagogue beadle)
in the Ukraine,
was shocked
His devout at
Kremen-
to see his son
goldsmith's apprentice, emigrated from Russia in
choose the career of an
1923 and came to Paris
age of sixteen, Mane-Katz began to study art
years
of his
artistic
in 1926.
maturity,
loped, in portraits, strikingly (fig.
310), landscapes,
During the few Mintchine deve-
knowing
still-life
the
or
contempo-
can hardly be escaped or avoided in the
raries,
chug
inconspicuous
Academy
artist.
Nevertheless, at the
in Kiev. In 1913,
he came
in
to Paris,
self-portraits
but in 1914, considered unfit for military service
compositions and
because of his small stature, returned to Russia.
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
663
309.
Here he began subjects
Georges Kars. Self-portrait.
themes and
to treat the Jewish
which he saw around him, elaborating
and magnifying them often on a grandiose
in poetic
664
tended to be more somber, relying more on chiaroscuro effects and less on contrasts of color.
We
terms and
have no option but
to pass in
number
review more
rapidly
here
the Revolution, he decided to return to Paris,
perhaps
less
where he soon attracted attention and exhibited
tainly
regularly. Originally a painter of Biblical scenes
tioned,
and ghetto types, Mane-Katz has refrained from
yet reached the fullness of their genius.
limiting his art to
other
Jewish
In 1921, in the midst of
scale.
documentary
painters,
he
has
works, the spiritual aspects of
During the war
years,
studies. Like
stressed,
all
that
he
many
in
his
paints.
he emigrated to America
and, since his return to Paris, has revealed himself in a in
ne
v light, as a delicate painter of
an
cheerful
tirely fig.
new range 311),
of colors,
whereas
his
landscapes, bright and
earlier
work
A
no
large
a
known, though gifted,
less
in
career
(born 1891)
of
was
other
artists
cases cer-
we have men-
than those
conscious that some of
typical
of
many
them have not
that of Isaac Dobrinsky
Makarov
in the
Ukraine,
who
studied in a yeshiva before entering an art-school,
coming in
to Paris
1911.
through the generosity ot a patron
His development as an
artist
of the
School of Paris has been slow but sure, steady but never spectacular.
A
realist
who
delights in
the intimate touch, he paints interiors, children,
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
665
views of the French country-side and
portraits,
Polish-born Maurice
and
its
suburbs.
Bond (born 1899),
primarily
Paris
of
picturesque areas
of
666
a Post-Impressionist, has concentrated in suggest-
and movement mainly by
ing light, color
vising
Van
a technique of bright streaks of color such as
Gogh had
less violent in their contrasts
used, but
and more
own
keeping with Bond's
in
gentler
temperament. Adolphe Milich (born 1884), also
by
Polish
and now Swiss by
birth
nationality,
is
a painter specializing in lyrical interpretations of
an
idyllic
who
world,
has revealed his sensuality
his
optimism
in nudes, southern landscapes,
still-life
paintings
and large compositions
and
men
of
more
bathing. In the latter, in particular, the
influence of the composition
intellectual
strictly
wo-
and draftsmanship of Cezanne has been tempered
by a return
to the sentiment of Corot's figures of
women and
Rubens. In his
to the sensuality of
water-colors, Milich refrains from any recourse to
draftsmanship; blank white spaces bring into recolors that
lief his fluid
seem
to crystallize in solid
masses. Polish
by
birth,
too,
Pressmane
Joseph
is
who
after three years in Palestine
settled in Paris in
1926. During the war years,
(born 1904)
he suffered great privations, but soon liberation of
France began
A
guishes
much
sense of melancholy distin-
of his work.
In his paintings on
Jewish themes, especially of brides, he handles his
subjects with
less
humor and
fantasy than
Chagall but with a greater seriousness of purpose
and a
strikingly lyrical feeling. His landscapes
views of industrial suburbs of Paris reveal a
and deli-
now
paints in a kind of studied realistic style that
some
offers
affinity
Zygmund Landau the ghetto.
1919
to
style of his
Paris
David Garfinkel
1932 and has specialized
in still-life
France
in
composi-
tions that reveal Expressionist influence in
what meditative of the city.
A
Jean Markiel
portraits
and
in
some-
picturesque views
native of the industrial center Lodz,
(bom 1921)
Academy, then
in Paris,
studied at the
where he
Interned during the Second World soner in Germany, he resumed
Cracow
settled in 1935.
War
work
in
as a pri-
1945 and
1900)
Lodz
is
also,
no child of he came
own, rich
in
since
still-life
and
Zygmund who
in
lyrical
memories
of
Lodz gave
Jewish and Slavic background.
birth also to
(born 1902) of Radom, Poland, has lived
(born
native of
France where he developed a more
and tender his
A
touches of realism, a nostalgic awareness of pity for anything that lacks beauty.
with the work of certain me-
diaeval portrait-painters. Although born in Poland,
cate sense of nature and, in spite of occasional
since
Self-portrait.
to attract attention as
one of the outstanding younger painters of the School of Paris.
Abraham Mintchine.
310.
after the
Schreter (born 1896), in
1934,
is
a painter of intimate
compositions and interiors and landscapes,
of portraits that express a delicate sense of
psychology; he
Bonnard and
is
mainly a
colorist, of the school of
Vuillard. In his landscapes,
centrates on expressing the individuality color
of
scenes
the
which he
Mondzain (born 1890), settled
in
recent
years
Paris
among which
1910,
in
mainly
in
has
Algeria.
and
depicts.
a native of
he conlocal
Simon
Chelm who worked
His
in
paintings,
the Guitar-player remains his mas-
311.
terpiece,
seek
to
suggest
Mane
without
space
exclusively
by suggesting volume
color, light
and
in
ever
terms
of
of circus-scenes
A
for
many
remained
his
and make
it
hobby
his
much
retire
main occupation. In recent
years,
until
on basic draftsman-
excelling
Chwat (born 1888), son
of a prosperous banker
and a cousin of Simon Segal (page
compositions, particularly
David
Seifert (born
post-Impressionistic sitions
Im-
his
contacts
painter of Biblical
delicately sensitive
and
landscapes in
interiors,
and nocturne
twilight
effects.
698), was encouraged at an earlv age bv his
art of the
A
some
also painted
family to study art in Saint Petersburg and later
he assimilated the
by
scenes that seek to express a prophetic or epic
mood, he still-life
312).
tempered
with some Fauvist masters.
impasto effects derived from the technique of
re
which
painting,
to
he was able to
Impressionism,
of
Rembrandt
wl
responsibilities
legitimate but original heir to the best traditions
tempered by contrast of color and occasional
in Paris,
by family
painter of realistic portraits,
and of clowns and puppets, he
to Expressionism, but relies
in Bialystok
years prevented
he has attracted more and more attention as a
has developed a sarcastic stvle that owes
(fig.
Settling definitely in France
the painters of
years a well-known figure
the School of Paris.
pressionist masters.
immediately after the Russian Revolution, he was
from devoting much time
airiness.
Though born in Lithuania and now an American citizen, Max Band (born 1900) was for many
among
668
Katz. Wild Horses.
having recourse to the trickery of perspective and
ship,
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
667
and
and
1896)
is
landscapes,
a painter whose still-life
compo-
how
Austrian
native
Galicia
portraits illustrate clearly
German
influences
in
his
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
669
670
tended to encourage a more Western-European kind of art than has generally been produced by
who came
artists
An
Empire.
Russian
former
from
to Paris
he has worked mainly
artist,
Russian-born Michel Adlen since 1923,
(born 1902)
and Sculptors
he underwent, for a while, a
of France. In 1925,
Later,
influence.
living
one of the organizers of
is
the Federation of Jewish Painters
Cubist
modest
extremely
in the tradition of
Nabi masters, Bonnard and Vuillard.
the great
in Paris
territories of the
he developed a more
Fauvist style, admirably suited to landscapes of
He de France,
the
and
its
as the metropolis
suburbs rapidly encroach on them. Marc
Sterling
(born
1910) also Russian-born, asso-
c.
in Paris
with the group of painters
La Ruche. Painting
in the general post-Fauvist
ciated at of
love and pity for their
full of
seem condemned
beauties that
first
tradition of Soutine,
he has produced some well-
organized and dynamic landscapes that express a passionate fervor in vivid colors and expression-
museum, no
he was able
Fauvist,
a
who
(born 1903),
Irisse
art there until
Basically
only a provincial art-school,
galleries,
gave birth to
studied
to emigrate to France.
Irisse
has
the
assimilated
teachings of Matisse, and organizes his compositions chiefly in
terms of colors that dictate both
the textures and the forms. It
was from Bobruisk
in
Tcherniawsky (born 1900)
His
shows of contemporary French
art
by the French Government, and
in
sponsored
represented
is
and foreign museums
important private collections. During the occupation
of
Resistance.
His very painterly
post-Fauvist,
is
was
active
style,
and
German the
in
that
of
a
admirably suited to landscapes,
which he paints with an emotional fervor akin that of Soutine; his landscapes are generally
peopled with
figures, thus expressing his
tion of the relationship of ings. In his portraits,
ual
psychological
man
to his surround-
similar
those of certain Central-European masters.
A
concep-
Tcherniawsky reveals unus-
insights,
1945.
since
attention
composes
his paint-
moment, with a
ings under the impulse of the
great
and often tortured sense of movement both
in his figures
Europe
in
he
much
has attracted
Expressionist
France
to
work has often been included
France,
Robert Helman (born 1910)
is
Basically an Expressionist, he
came
exhibit.
French
who
Russia that Charles
to
several
School of Paris
and
his landscapes.
His colors are
often violent, revealing a strong influence of the
1913. Here he received his training and began
to
Portrait of the Artist Gregoriev.
composition. Kishinev, a city that had no
istic
in
Max Band.
312.
Rumanian-Jewish
at
times
to
Expressionist
painter
of
the
an,d
schools
of
Central
and
Eastern
sometimes lacking certain more
deli-
cate painterly qualities that generally distinguish
the art of the School of Paris.
Though born (born
c.
in
New
York, Mottke
1910) has reverted
pean Jewish
folklore of his forebears as a source of
inspiration for to Paris in
Weissmann
to the Eastern-Euro-
many
of his works.
Weissmann came
1949, and has specialized in Jewish
subjects as well as in views of the city, in portraits
and
still-life
compositions.
He paints in a somewhat
tormented manner, resorting frequently to impasto effects,
family
and life
is
and
at his best in his scenes of in
fellow-townsman of Soutine's
is
once well-to-do Russian-Jewish studying in Vilna
Jewish
views of French cathedrals.
A
Zarfin, son of a
industrialist. After
under the same masters as
Soutine, he emigrated to Israel, in the Bezalel School,
but went
where he studied in
1923
to Berlin,
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
671
672
At the same time, he has
where he was encouraged by Max Liebermann.
and
Since 1924, Zarfin has lived in France, specializ-
borrowed
ing in landscapes and views of harbors. Zarfin's
painters of recent years, thus conferring on his
matured slowly,
has
style
gradually
colors
his
acquiring a richness that often suggests the art
development
who,
(born 1899)
Antscher
Isaac
of
born
in
some
work a
high
A number
artistic
1921 to 1924, and then moved to
of
the
two years
exhibited,
first
various annual
later, in
becoming one of the
salons, besides
group
select
encouraged by the dealer Zborowski.
of artists
Antscher has distinguished himself as a landscape
who
painter
delights in detail. His views of city
scenes, often depicted from above, are remarkable
and
for their soft colors
Maurice
to that of
analogous
lyrical feeling,
In his flower-pieces,
Utrillo.
Antscher 's colors are brighter, more rich in con-
David Murginsky
Similarly,
trasts.
Poland, emigrated as a young
in
studied
the
at
commissioned
Rezalel
execute
to
of
Suwalki,
man
to Israel,
was
then
School,
some
murals
the
of
Httrva Synagogue in the Old City of Jeru-
in the
came
salem. Later, he
to Paris to studv in private
academies. Since 1947, he has exhibited regularly
and has painted murals
gue
Antwerp, children, a
and
Paris
in
Belgium. still-life
the
for
His
for the Rashi
Born
1914
in
under
moved
to Paris
typical
of
city's
other
who
Jacob
and
Paris
hand,
local
Steinhardt;
charm.
in
manage
his
youth
art-movements with other
1948, he settled
in
on
After
art-colony.
came
while in Munich, he
where he immediately became a
close asso-
he was already
exhibit-
among
ing at the Salon des Independants,
to
the
founders of Fauvism. In the catalogue of Czobel's
1956 Paris exhibition, Picasso published an open importance as one of the
letter stressing his
movement
tors of the
brought
has
throughout
famous
School
the
Paris
of
world
the
the two leaders of the group
known
initia-
which
art
the
to
fore
Czobel
313).
(fig.
Hungarian art-world
the
in
contemporary
in
one of
as
as "the Eight,"
who
a school of painters, mainly Jewish,
intro-
Hungary and has exerted a
duced Fauvism
to
lasting influence
on contemporary Hungarian
A
sensitive innovator in the tradition of
work a
art.
Cezanne,
relied to a great extent
on drafts-
in his paintings, enclosing the
masses of
first
heavy and dark
color in his compositions within outlines
is
similar
to
those
characterize
that
the
of Georges Rouault. Later, Czobel developed
more personal technique
which allows him still-life
to
sfamato
of
compose
and
his portraits
arrangements in masses of
according to principles
effects
warm
derived from
colors,
Cezanne,
1908)
draftsmanship. His paintings thus acquire an un-
Israel
where
usual depth and fluidity, with the colors seeming
number
of
to melt into
now
exhibited
was born
A
fine pain-
the
groups.
with ships, of flowers and
still-
arrangements, Weston expresses in his work
and
color,
awareness of the great traditions -color art as well as of
Turner
each other.
Like Rela Czobel, Robert Rereny (1887-1954)
Israeli artists. In
pically English delicacy of design
revealing ha
Hungarian
Nagy-
in
(born
a
of English w
a
(born 1883), one
but without stressing the outlines of their basic
life t\
years
the
in a
France, and has
in various salons as well as in
ter of sea-scapes
to
he
views
convey the
to
English-born,
and participated
art
1948
in
Reginald Weston
is
emigrated
he studied
1934 and studied
his studiously realistic
streets
old-world
reposeful
unreal
many
for
was born
outstanding,
ciate of Matisse. In 1906,
manship
likewise emigrated to Israel in
there
Paris,
of
in
and
Hungarian-Jewish
and worked
Bela Czobel
famous
a
portraits
interiors,
life.
studying for
Czobel at
Poland, Yehouda Rasgour
in
banya,
in
compositions and flowers reveal
well-known
of
most
Great Synagogue
deep love of nature, expressed
colors.
Synago-
abstract
the French capital, participating actively in
in its
Here he
the
dreamlike
curiously
painters have lived
Ressarabia, studied at the Rezalel School from Paris.
from
techniques
quality.
of the jeweler or the Oriental miniaturist. Palestine, too, contributed to the artistic
of Whistler's oils.
of
early
"the
in
Hungary and came
years
Eight,"
of this
century.
to
Also
Paris
a
in
leader
he reacted very early against
the excessive fluidity of
much
post-Impressionist
painting and, in the 1908 Salon des Independants, attracted
attention
by developing
sculptural qualities of form in a
certain
more
manner analo-
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
673
674
gous to that of the earlier work of the Cubist masters. Maurice Denis wrote, in his Theories
1890-1910,
the
that
of
ugliness
grotesque
some
unusually
a great
somber richness and warmth,
a
Among
his rare
often
but powerful por-
composer Bela Bartok remains
that of the
by
influenced
Profoundly
masterpiece.
a
displays
His colors are generally muted, sug-
lyrical.
traits,
Bereny
painter,
An
Fauvists.
Paris
profound culture and
works a
sensitivity.
gesting
the
intellectual
in all his
very
among
leader
that his qualities
and draftsmanship reveal him
of sheer painting
a
figures
Bereny's
of
and
remain basically expressive
as
and somewhat
intentional
Ce-
(1883-1937) spent many
zanne, Dezso Czigany
years in France and distinguished himself par-
landscapes
in
ticularly
Provence
of
well as
as
portraits.
in
many
gary, but spent
attention
attracting
was
(born 1880)
Bertalan Por
also
Hun-
in
years in France. At
a
as
first
painter
decorative
of
considerable power, he was commissioned to paint
a huge mural for the Popular Opera House in
Bela Czobel. Girl with Green Scarf.
313.
After
Budapest.
known
he
became
Por
Bertalan
mainly as a painter of animals.
in Paris
1949
In
1919,
returned
Another
Hungary.
to
Hungarian of the Paris School, Lajos Tihanyi (1885-1942) a
has
of
disciple
distinguished himself
also
Cezanne.
as
Although a deaf-mute,
write in six months,
when he was
sent to a sana-
torium to be treated for tuberculosis. In 1930,
he emigrated
France as a laborer,
to
After a
steel-mills.
while,
he began
to to
work try
in
his
Tihanyi was well-known between the two world
luck at various other trades until he found conge-
wars in the bohemia of Montparnasse; he died
nial
a victim of
German
Hungary
extermination policies. Vilmos
pupil
a
was
(1879-1954)
Perlrott-Csaba
of
in
his
Impressionist
the
native
master
Becoming
self-
employed, he branched out into decoration,
final-
ly
work
becoming an
first
house-painter.
a
as
artist.
In 1939, he exhibited for the
time in the Salon des Independants, painting
Ivanyi-Griinwald before he came to Paris in 1906.
in
A somewhat
sober colorist, he reveals strength in
heavier and larger touches of color, a technique
combine color and draftsmanship
which he called Cloutisme. Under the German
his
ability
as
compositional
space
in
to
an
elements
so
to
as
though
energetic
suggest
ornamental
Schwarz-Abryss
(born 1905)
is
whose obsessions and psychological hinder
the
expression
limited but real talent.
Born
of
in the
a
painter
peculiarities his
perhaps
Tokay wine-
country of Hungary, he spent his childhood in utter
destitution
of a seasonally at the
analogous to Pointillisme, but with
style
occupation, he lived in hiding in a Paris psychiatric hospital,
as
one of the twelve children
employed
laborer.
Still
illiterate
age of seventeen, he learned to read and
where he had undergone treatment
and developed a great
previously,
style.
often
a
interest in the
art of the insane. In his novels, written in
he has likewise expressed his interest tric
and has published a somewhat
problems,
confused
treatise
Expressionist
won manv
French,
in psychia-
on
relativistic
post-Fauvist,
aesthetics.
Schwarz-Abryss
admirers through the rhetorical
liance of his rather superficial style,
on palette-knife
effects
and
which
An has bril-
relies
striking colors to sug-
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
675
there
His
Sephardic
com-
the
work
paint
land-
admiration
great
Gogh
Van
of
Spanish-speaking
a
in
munity.
676
has
scapes, flower-pieces
him
led
and even
for to
self-portraits that
are full of echoes in their draftsmanship, composition,
tortured
color,
and
fervor
painterly
technique of the great works of his Dutch proto-
some
type. In ever,
Peretz
of his
still-life
Jewish tradition and family
when
his best
the
of
rare
derived
and
life
least inspired
Another
314).
compositions, how-
elements
introduces
is
thus at
by Van Gogh
(fig.
among
Sephardim
the painters of the School of Paris,
from
S. Sinai
(born
1915) was born in Smyrna and has also specialized in realistic descriptions of old-world corners of
especially
Paris,
back-streets
Saint-Germain-des-Pres. tionalist
Among
of the
the
area of
more
tradi-
Jewish painters of the School of Paris,
Marie- Andre
Klein
(born
was born
1901)
in
Paris of an old-established French-Jewish family,
began studying sculpture, but discovered
his real
when he met the painter Loutreuil, whose memory he celebrated in a collective portrait,
vocation
Hommage David
314.
Peretz.
The Jew with
the Yellow Star.
practice of such works as Fantin Latour's famous
Hommage and
gest perspective
relief.
He
is
at his best in
landscapes, views of Paris suburbs, flowers
Of the Hungarian
tion
a Delacroix. The great mural decoraKlein painted in
that
1950
for
the Paris
Ecole Polytechnique reveals his mature technique as an artist capable of handling elaborate
painters
of the
Marcel Vertes (born 1893)
Paris,
and
compositions.
still-life
a Loutreuil, that seeks to revive the
is
School of
positions in a very large scale.
surely the
trips to Spain,
From
his
com-
many
Morocco and Madagascar, he has
most famous and most popular. After making
his
brought back a number of works that refrain from
he settled
in
romantic exoticism but seek to stress the basic
debut
cartoonist
a
as
where he
Paris,
is
Berlin,
in
now
generally acclaimed as
the somewhat commercial but witty and sensitive
heir
Lautrec. colors,
the
to
In
many
Vertes
great
traditions
Toulouse-
drawings and water-
of his
displays
of
a
scurrilous
sensuality
humanity
of
member
of
all
that he observed. Another French
the
School,
Dreyfuss-Stem
(born
1890) tends to intellectualize reality in order to reorganize
it
according to a plastic architecture
that relies mainly on patterns of line
and
color.
akin to that of Pascin, though generally tempered
In his later work, he has developed a greater sen-
by a sense
sitivity as
from
of sheer fashion that he has acquired
his vast experience as
cessful
commercial
artists
a colorist. Roger
Worms
(born 1907)
one of the most suc-
has likewise stressed color in his later work; he
Of much
has been commissioned, in recent years, to exe-
of our age.
born
number of public buildings in France. Andre-Joseph Hambourg (bom 1909) who was born in Paris of mixed Russian
portrait-pa
Army's
the same quality as Vertes, though his style and
humor remain more essentially Parisian, ParisMaurice Van Moppes (born 1904) has come to (lie fore in recent years as a cartoonist,
his
ter
and decorator.
Bulgarian ]ike Pascin, David Peretz was born
cute murals for a large
and Spanish parentage was one of the Free French
war
War and
artists
during
the
Second World
published his impressions of the cam-
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
677
From
paigns in a volume,
A
den.
painter
managed of
the
in
his
of
much
nineteenth-century treatments
Hambourg
sea-scapes,
recapture
to
Algiers to Berchtesga-
especially
masters,
water
of
of skies,
delicacy
the
of
has
and
of
A number
of gifted
women have
Lou Metz when
(born 1894) was born in
was German. After studying
associating with the
came
she
to Paris
the Cubists.
A
achieved
Neue
dis-
Albert-Lazard
tinction as painters in Paris.
city
sarabia and educated in Israel, has rapidly acquired in
Paris
this
French
specifically
critics
since
1951.
very feminine and decorative
its
Originally a
artist,
style
attracted the attention of French
because of
qualities.
French
somewhat somber expres-
mainly in portraits and figurative
compositions, she has developed, in France, into a painter of delicate
and cheerful landscapes and
flower-pieces.
Munich and
in
Sezession group there,
and was influenced,
well-known figure
in
at
first,
by In spite of the sweeping allegations of certain
Montparnasse anti-Semitic or reactionary critics,
between the two wars, and close friend of the
German
a
Her work soon
sionist
mists.
678
who
consider
that this could have been a reproach, the direct
poet, Rainer-Maria Rilke, she has exhibit-
participation of Jewish painters in the early acti-
ed
portraits of his
Ghandi, Paul
as well as of
vities
the
Einstein,
Valery,
poet
Claudel,
and other of the
Her lithographs remain perhaps her most distinguished contribution to modern art. In recent years, she has developed a more realistic
Cubism was very slight. The movement Picasso and the rest
of
—
leaders
— were
celebrities.
stripped of the earlier influence of
style,
Cubism
all
Spaniards or Frenchmen; before 1930 only a
handful of persons attracted attention in Paris as Jewish painters of the Cubist or post-Cubist
schools.
and of German Expressionism. Marie Chabchay, formerly lecturer on the history of art ry,
and
librarian in the Russian National Libra-
has helped establish and organize the Jewish
Museum 1934
in Paris
and has exhibited regularly since
as a painter of almost naive compositions,
treated with a minute care that situates her
work
on the border-line between Realism and Surrealism.
Maxa Nordau,
pher
Max Nordau, was
the daughter of the philosoa pupil of the Realist
master Jules Adler and has remained faithful to his teachings, excelling in portraits of personalities.
born
Ida
in Russia,
Mordkin
(born
and studied music
famous
1884)
was
in order to
be
a singer, until she married the painter Abrami,
whose pupil she became. After exhibiting with
him
in
Vienna, Prague and Rrussels, she settled
in Paris in 1929,
until
and continued
to
work with him
he was deported and murdered by the Ger-
Whereas the work of Abrami Mordkin eschewed stylization and, especially in portraits
mans.
and landscapes, developed a kind of realism that is
tempered by Fauvism, the work of
his wife has
developed a very feminine and almost naive style that she uses effectively in landscapes, interiors, portraits
and flower-pieces. Sara Voscoboinic
is
another woman-artist who, though born in Bes-
315.
Louis Marcoussis.
The
Eiffel
Tower.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
679
680
and youthful, those
of a
new-
born world that renews
itself
from day
to day.
Henri Hayden (born 1883)
was
also
born
Warsaw, of a
in
prosperous middle-class family. In 1905, he
abandoned
am-
his
an engineer to con-
bitions as
centrate on painting. In 1907,
he came to Paris, discovered
new
the
and decided academic
gan
art
to start afresh. His
Poland had been
instructors in
man
modern
trends in
disciples of the Ger-
school; in France, he be-
work of Ce-
to study the
zanne. In 1916, he
came
into
contact with the dealer Leonce
who
Rosenberg,
him
throughout
Three Musi-
cians, painted in
1919 and now
Museum
of
Modern
dern Art
Art, Paris.
Museum
the Paris
in
Henri Hayden. The Three Musicians.
ensuing
the
Hayden's
years.
316.
encouraged
(fig.
Mo-
of
316), remains
one of the masterpieces of
(Markus)
Marcoussis
Louis
came from
a well-to-do
middle-class
and somewhat assimilated
Warsaw home and
his native city before
(1883-1941),
coming
studied
art
in
to Paris in 1907.
At
he underwent the influence of the Impres-
first,
sionist masters,
but found his true style of expres-
Cubism
sion after his discovery of
(fig.
315). Be-
tween the two wars, he achieved a considerable reputation both
Paris
in
and abroad, though
premature death precluded
fame
his
witnessing
an
illustrator in
as L'Assiette style that
Paris
owes much
to the
"modern
A
in this
years,
now
to his earlier Cubist
decorative
style" of the
much
of
style
manner, developing
still-life
of the
modern
among
art.
An
the
best
examples
exquisite craftsman,
by bringing
coussis enriched the Cubist tradition to
it
ment
a
quality of taste
endows
thai
quality.
;
s
all
his
and
of
Mar-
early training in
of technical refine-
work with a
colors, in particular, are
rare poetic
always fresh
eschewed
and
soon
in a
artist.
Alfred Reth (born 1884). His
Hungary had been
affirmed his
all affectation.
developed,
strictly aca-
own temperament
an early age by developing a
prized
it
most unjustly neglected innovators
art is
graphs. Later, he also produced fine etchings that
now
is
composition in which he
an unusually refined and sober
demic, but he
are
his
work
of his earlier
turn of the century characterizes these early litho-
Cubist graphic
desultorily.
Germans looted
the
Since 1949, however, he has returned
lost.
One in
develop a style as an open-
manner, often somewhat
Paris studio, so that
comic magazines such Rire.
to
Until 1949, he continued to experi-
During the war
excels as
reverted
compositions, then on landscapes in
air painter.
ment
Hayden
naturalistic style, concentrating mainly
which he sought
new
au Beurre and he
more
still-life
his
Before 1914, Marcoussis had earned a living as
to a
on
the
he now enjoys.
that
great period of Cubism. In 1922,
this
realistic style that
In 1904, he
almost
at
came
to Paris
independently,
a
Cubist style of his own. His early experiments thus coincided with those of Picasso, to
Reth
was never much indebted.
Picasso,
by Cezanne's
later
whom
Inspired,
as
manner, Reth pro-
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
681
682
painting,
jecting
sub-
requires
theories,
his
to
in
forms
its
laws
that
govern the rhythms and
har-
and
colors,
the
to
monies of music
317).
(fig.
After studying art in ny, Sonia
1885) came of
to Paris as
German
the
Germa-
Delaunay Terk (born the wife
Wilhelm Uhde. At
critic
and
collector
first,
she was influenced by Gauguin
and the Fauvists. After her
di-
vorce, she married the Cubist
Delaunay, founder of
painter
Orphism, and became a leading theorist
among
mental abstract
she had already associated
sia,
duced, in 1907 and 1908, a number of colors that reveal a his
water-
fine
remarkable sense of space; and
nudes and portraits of before 1914 give proof
with some of the future masters of the
tions
where the spaces
in
des Matieres, he has tried to combine in a techni-
tumes and
que
number
similar to that of collages, a
of un-
ings:
coal-grit,
fragments
of
ceramic,
plaster,
After
Levy-Dhurmer
pages 582,
(see
Henri Valensi (born 1883)
is
the
first
Jewish painter to hail from French North Africa.
Born of a leading Algerian Jewish family of merchants
and professional men
extraction,
he studied
art in Paris,
himself, as far as his style self-taught. aesthetics,
extensively. brief
An
original
Valensi
Impressionist
is
Italian
but considers
concerned, mainly
theorist
lectured
has
After his
partly
of
the field of
in
and published
academic training and a
period,
he became,
1910, one of the pioneers of abstract
art,
around
formulat-
ing the theories of the Musicalist school as well as the school
now known
as Cine-peinture,
which
has sought, somewhat like the Italian Futurists, to
static
nature,
suggesting
movement
rather than
must
in
1953, she first
retro-
experimental movements.
Another neglected innovator among the masters of the School of Paris
1943).
Born
in
is
Otto Freundlich (1878-
Pomerania, he experienced an
unhappy childhood and developed
early in life a
hardness of hearing which contributed towards
making him somewhat unsociable and After
first
studying art-history he
felt
retiring.
the urge,
at the
age of twentv-seven, to become a creative
artist.
In 1908, he
the rest of his in
as
moved
life to
to Paris
and devoted
a long series of experiments
purely two-dimensional painting, eschewing
almost a
all
his
works the
"illusionist" devices,
in
such
perspective and chiaroscuro, which might
give his surfaces the appearance of containing a third dimension In
(fig.
318).
1914, Freundlich returned to Germany- In
war-time Berlin, he was active in the Aktion and
Sturm groups, among mainly
and dynamic of the
of
according
her hand-woven fabrics and her
were well-known before;
initiator of
accept the norms of music, "the most scientific arts." Abstraction,
sets,
spective show, a survey of her entire career as
develop an art of a dynamic rather than a
poise. Valensi believes that the plastic arts
were framed
surprised the Paris art-world with her
583),
outstanding
of plain color
dark outlines. Her designs for theatrical cos-
tapestries
an
paper, etc.
ill-starred
Russian modernist movement, painting composi-
of outstanding maturity. In his recent Harmonies
usual materials which he juxtaposes in his paint-
of the
Paris School. In her native Rus-
Henri Valensi. Peace.
317.
the experi-
artists
pacifists.
other
artists
Many
and writers who were
issues of
Die Aktion and
war-time publications of the
German
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
(SN3
One
to the darkest blue-blacks.
tures
was reproduced
1934
in
684
of his early sculp-
as the cover-design
of the pamphlet-catalogue for Hitler's travelling
exhibit of so-called "perverted art." Valensi
and
Freundlich deserve to be remembered among the true founders
temporary Marcelle the
of
of the
abstract tradition
con-
in
art.
Cahn (born 1895)
who
School
Paris
another Cubist
is
received part of her
Germany. Born
early training in
she was a pupil, at
first,
Strasbourg,
in
of the great Berlin painter
Lovis Corinth, and then in Paris, of the Nabi painters Maurice Denis
and
and
Serusier,
of the
Fauvist Orthon Friesz. Only after meeting Leger
and the
Purist master
Amedee Ozenfant
did she
Her Cubist period thus began
truly find her style.
as late as 1926, but her art in recent years has
remained
faithful
to
the
rigorous
traditions
of
Purism, a post-Cubist school that makes a mini-
mum (fig.
of concessions to non-compositional values
319).
Nechama Szmuszkowicz (born 1895),
another Purist painter, was born in the Ukraine. After escaping to Poland, in the early years of the
Otto Freundlich. Composition.
318.
Revolution, she worked in the applied
illustrations
and
contain
cially as
and vignettes by Freundlich. At the
Berlin in
capital's pacifist
same time, he began
and stained
leftist
intelligentsia
experiment with mosaic
to
having already, as early as
glass,
medium which, by
1909, tried sculpture as a
its
a
of puppets,
to
Paris,
espe-
and exhibited
Herwarth Walden's Sturm
moved
she
maker
arts,
in
gallery. Later,
where she worked under
Leger and Ozenfant. Her Purist compositions have a rare lyrical quality that suggests, in spite of
very nature, implies a legitimate third dimension.
their carefully
In 1924, Freundlich obtained permission to settle
naive temperament. In recent years, she has worked
in
France again and as an
saics
and stained
number
glass
artist specialized in
and became active
of abstractionist groups
moin
a
and movements.
During the German occupation of France, he was arrested
and deported
to
the Lublin-Maidanek
extermination-camp, where he died. Since 1946, a
number
of Paris galleries
an interest recognition. tonic to
in his
have sought
work, which
is
to revive
slowly gaining
Haunted from the very
start
by
Pla-
consideration of the relationship of truth
beauty and of
art to nature,
Freundlich painted,
up
tion
a
patches of bright con-
in
Paris
as
The Russian Serge
Dadaists. Later, he Purist theories
modest
artist,
to attract atten-
one of the leaders among the
and
was influenced by Ozenf ant's also
by Cubism.
A
strangely
Charchoune paints works that do
not lend themselves easily to photographic reproduction. Painted in white on a white background, of his works, for instance, suggest the forms
objects
by the
differentiated
brush-strokes rather than
by
texture
of
his
outlines or contrasts
of color. In recent years, he has often sought to
graded shades of the same
interpret,
in his paintings,
from the palest blues, for instance,
when he
listens
trasting colors or of color, rang,
arrangements of irregular
in flat
etching
by her surviving the Nazi perse-
Charchoune (born 1888) began
of
two-dimensional
haggadah,
cutions in occupied France.
some
tive
monumental
a
piety inspired
mainly allegorical or
patterns, broken
architecture, an almost
the illustrations and even the text as an act of
except for a few figurative compositions that are self-portraits, only construc-
on
steadily
composed
to
some
what he experiences of
the
great musical
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
685
1894), so soberly
would never lead one
realistic,
to suspect that he has been, in the past, an active
propagandist
modern
styles of
and
there
in
some
for
Born
art.
the
of in
most advanced
Warsaw, he studied
Antwerp, before completing his studies
Here he associated with the more modern
in Paris.
found
painters, but then
his
way back
Already as
(born
Recent works of Henri Berlevi
classics.
to Poland,
686
a
Chapiro
Jacques
child,
(born
1897), con of a regimental cabinet-maker in the
Dunaburg
in
Russia, has revealed a
taste for drawing, so that
he ran away from home
fortress
of
at the age of ten to study art independently. In
Yalta,
he worked
model and
as a
a street-sweeper
while preparing his sketches for a competition to decorate a
Russian Orthodox basilica.
He won
reverted there to a study of the ancient masters
the competition and, after the Revolution, lived
and played an active part
in
in Polish artistic
After a while, his restless spirit led
him
life.
to Berlin,
where he exhibited some abstract compositions in
Walden's Sturm Gallery. Returning to Poland
founded there, with a few
in 1924, Berlevi
Blok group of Polish abstract
the
launched a
style
known
as
friends,
artists
and
Mechano-Faktura or
"mechanical painting." In 1928, again driven by
moved
Wanderlust, he
his
to Paris
where, since
1947, he has painted increasingly realistic
still-life
compositions of the kind that, in America, are
known, because of
their trompe-l'oeil effects, as
"magic realism." Berlevi remains, perhaps as a consequence of his
mt and
port
movement,
many changes
of style, an im-
controversial figure in the especially
modern
art
Poland, rather than a
in
leading painter of the School of Paris.
Though no longer Pailes
a Cubist, Kiev-born Jacques
(1895) has retained,
the style of his maturity,
elements earlier life
Vachtangov
Petrograd.
He
tor's
art
and
figures
bats,
member
realistic
and
"World
of the
active for a while
and
virile style, relying
solid
In 1925, however, he settled in Paris. Developing a passionate ing,
and discerning
taste for
mation of
his
whole
style;
one-man show, Born
in
Paris
of
(fig.
can
interest
still
almost
architectural
in
Paris Institute of Aesthetics.
the
structure
of his compositions, with their
horizontal
and
vertical arrange-
ments of elements of color that suggest depth and
relief.
new master
of
immigrant parents, Gabriel
and
sculpture
1949
Zendel (born 1906) worked for a while at the
mainlv
in
be detercted
in
321).
range of carefully selected and
original
was only
as an important
the School of Paris
acro-
320). His
it
that he finally revealed himself, in an outstanding
in
(fig.
French paint-
he underwent a gradual but deep transfor-
composition and on a limited
powerful colors
younger painters.
its
still-
draftsmanship
to-
of Art" group, remaining
among
he has developed a strong
on
meanwhile
manner, and he became a
numerous
of clowns
style
developed from Cubism and Constructivism
wards a more
scenes of circus-life, including portraits
this great direc-
and temperament. His
paintings, landscapes, por-
traits,
The Dybbuk,
the production of
in
his
Cubist manner. In
collaborated with
remaining deeply influenced by
many
from
inherited
Moscow and
319.
Marcelle Cahn. Composition.
A
post-Cubist with
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
687
a typical French sense of taste for texture as well as for composition
harmonies,
and carefully selected
Zendel
developed
has
though somewhat limited compositions
life
painter,
and
mainly
style,
landscapes.
color-
personal
a
A
in
still-
painter's
he has been highly praised by discerning
critics and already exerts a considerable influence
on some younger
artists
(fig.
Chapoval, whose real
name was Chapovalski
(1912-1953), was brought to France from Kiev in
1919
as a child
and studied medicine
for a while
before deciding that his true vocation ing. in
At
first
somewhat
ments of unexpected
and
objects,
paint-
who
delighted
poetic
arrange-
a figurative painter
surprising
was
he became increas-
French painter. Born
at the
so
much
at the
School of
that
he abandoned
An
it
to
study
extremely modest and
very intellectual painter, Arditi has distinguished himself as a creator of carefully conceived portraits
and
their
sound composition and clear and balanced
still-life
color-harmonies
arrangements, remarkable for
(fig.
323).
Georges Goldkorn (born 1908)
community
eighteen,
in
an unmistakably
Marseilles of Sephardic
in
painting on his own.
one of the masters of the post-war School of
Harbor
is
age of seventeen, to study
mudic student
1'ailcs.
Arditi
Decorative Arts, where the instruction disappointed
a Hassidic
facques
Georges
parents from the Near East, he was sent to Paris,
ingly abstract as he matured. At the time of his
520.
Chapoval,
writer Elias Canetti,
sudden and earlv death, he was already considered Paris.
and
(born 1914), though a cousin of the remarkable
German
him
322).
Zendel
Like
<>SS
to
Brittany. Courtesy of
until
become
in
Poland and was a Tal-
he decided, a
originated in
painter.
M. Kaganovitch.
at
He
the age of left
Poland
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
689
Gabriel
322.
Jacques Chapiro. Figure.
321.
690
Zenilel.
In
of
Praise
the
Craftsmen's Tools.
Collection of the City of Paris.
when
1928 and,
after studying art in Belgium, fled
attracted attention in Paris, around 1930,
France
1940 and joined the French Resis-
she painted the famous picture of the fur-lined
tance. Since the war, he has attracted attention
cup, which remains one of the commonplaces of
in
to
as
in
an interesting innovator
in
the
post-Cubist
Surrealism.
idiom. In 1955, he began to paint abstract compositions.
Goldkorn's monumental figures, posed
with a delicate sense of architecture, are painted in
clear colors
that contrast strikingly with the
somewhat heavier outlines that stress his construction.
of
A
fine
graphic
remarkable
artist,
plates
he has etched a
inspired
by the
series
cultural
The very a
contribution of Jewish artists to the earlier
slight.
leader
and Baargeld surrealist
Dadaism and Surrealism remained
Marcel
among is
the
Janko
mentioned
manifestos.
had
original in a
Mereth
the
Paris
of
which
is
Rumanian-born
concentrated in
on
Victor
earlier period in
depicting
his
own
a relatively realistic style, Brauner
interprets as the collective style, as a
dreams of humanity.
consequence of
chology and ethnology, tends
his studies of psy-
now
to assimilate,
with an eclecticism guided bv great technical pro-
graphic
also
School
has developed a broader interest in myths which he
ficiency
early
he
nightmares
been
number of Oppenheim
most important Surrealist painters
Brauner (born 1903). After an
Dadaists,
indeed
Zurich
of the
His
history of the Jews of medieval Spain.
style of Parisian
One
and
from the
rare taste, a great
number
of icono-
and decorative elements derived both art of primitive peoples
painting of children or the insane
and from the (fig.
324). All
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
691
692
patches of bright colors, following a technique
analogous to that of Pointillisme but using larger of
units
he has formulated a
color,
that
style
achieves effects similar to mosaic, relying in each picture on a very narrow range of colors and often limiting himself to different shades of the
two
color or of
or three colors.
Among the post-Surrealists painter Dan Harris who signs pseudonym drawings,
same
Zev
(born
is
his
American
the
work with the His
1914).
fantastic
and sculptures, the
paintings
latter
sometimes colored as brightly as some of oils, offer
viewed
as
jester's
by
with
Gifted
children.
a
court
sense of caricature, Zev has developed,
in his Paris years, a
more
a range of colors that tive
his
us a derisive parody of the adult world
painterly technique and less
is
immediately decora-
than in his earlier work exhibited in America.
The work
of
Esther Carp
cannot easily be
placed in any of the existing categories of the School of Paris. lived Georges Arditi.
323.
Portrait.
tain
many
Born
now
Poland, she has
in
years in France, and assimilated cer-
techniques of Italian Futurism as well as
elements
compositional
from
derived
French
Cubism. In her nearly abstract compositions, by these are integrated, however, by his fine drafts-
manship, sound composition and rare sense of
breaking up her colors in patches analogous to those of Pointillisme, she achieves an entirely dif-
His colors, in recent years, have generally
color.
been bright, juxtaposed
shadow
or of relief. In
he thus continues
in the tradition
effects of perspective, of
many
ferent purpose, actually suggesting
movement
even stereoscopy. Her landscapes,
still-life
positions, interiors with figures
respects,
or
patches without
in flat
and
com-
street-scenes
are always the fruit of elaborate preliminary stu-
Cubism, though a calligraphic element,
of flat
dies
and seem
dream-world that
to depict a
re-
derived from the art of Aztec manuscript illumi-
mains very personal.
and
nations his
similar primitive arts, often enlivens
paintings
with
almost caricatural.
decorative
A
peculiarly
that
effects
are
wry humor adds
VI
an anecdotic element to many of Brauner's com-
which
positions
abstract
human
as
would
otherwise
representations
of
be
animals
almost
and
of
figures.
in
among
the
Rumanian
Bucharest, Jacques Herold
(born
1910) has come to the fore as a Paris Surrealist since the
the
painters
gregarious, inclined to
After being very active Surrealists
Most of
Second World War. Though generally
grouped with the
Surrealists
on account of
interest in the subject-matter of
his
dreams, Herold
recluses.
Some
however, be
artists of
classified
only with great
Zak
forms into
in
Paris
groups that have
common. Few
ly personal style or, like Soutine,
Paris only in
his
of
of them,
Modigliani or Chagall, have created a distinct-
cern for problems of pure painting as well as
By breaking up
work
a style or an ideology in like
has developed a technique that reveals his con-
surrealist topics.
School
the
of
have, in the past few decades, been sociable and
been legendary
the School of Paris can,
under
difficulty.
its
various headings
Russian-born Eugene
(1884-1926), for instance,
who
1922 (four years before
settled
in
his death)
remains a somewhat solitary figure, in spite of
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
693
324.
his
affinity
Victor Brauner.
with the early Cubists. Almost pre-
Raphaelitic in his reverence for Italian painting
Zak
of the early Renaissance,
is
yet a
modern
in
his idealized stylization that reflects the influence
of musicians,
mountebanks and other dreamlike
Zak has systematically idealized every-
characters.
thing that he painted
(fig.
Paris
Brisel
Bella
painters,
Among younger (born 1930), who
325).
Man
and
694
bull story.
Modern Art named one of its rooms after him, exhibiting permanently a number of his gouaches of
and
painted religious
generally
seemed
particular,
naive, his
he
work
Max
Converted to Catholicism,
oils.
is is
scenes;
Jacob
miracles,
to fascinate him.
in
Sometimes
yet an accomplished draftsman, and inspired both
by
a profound faith
a weird sense of humor. Arrested
and
by the Germans
to
during the occupation of France, he was removed
depict a similar dream-world, though her figures,
from the monastery where he had lived many
was born
less
seems
in Jerusalem,
sculptural
in
design,
their
have chosen
to
are
more remi-
niscent of the ikons of Russian art. Another Israeli
painter
the
of
School
of
Paris,
Sioma Baram
years in retirement, and died in the centration
camp near
by devout French
intellectuals, to
tomb, and there
(born 1919), has also specialized in depicting a
at his
world of legend and of fables, especially of birds
obtain his beatification in
and animals, stylized
The poet and was born himself,
in
Apollinaire
painter
Quimper,
in
in a very decorative
the
Jacob (1876-1944)
in Brittany,
group
was the
Max of
manner.
and distinguished
which
Guillaume
leader, as one of the
and
most
imaginative
French
poets of our century. In 1950, the Paris
Museum
disconcertingly
witty
is
a
Drancy con-
Miracles
Paris.
are
said,
have occurred
movement
afoot to
Rome.
Another curious recluse was the painter and engraver Balgley (1891-1934),
who was born
in
came to Paris before the First World War. For many years, he was one of the Brest-Litovsk and
poorest, most retiring
painters
1920,
in
he
and most eccentric
the art-colony of
gradually
achieved
of the
La Ruche. After a
certain
fame
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
695
696
Jewish spiritual traditions and of French techniques. His views of Safad and his studies of Jewish
types
religious
reveal
profound attachment
his
to a certain Jewish mysticism.
The work also defies
Kirszenbaum
of J.D.
any attempt
(1900-1954)
under the
at classification
The son
usual heading of the School of Paris.
he be-
of a rabbinic scholar at Staszow, Poland,
gan
sign-boards for local tradesmen at
to paint
the age of twelve. At the age of seventeen, with
he emigrated
a limited training as a craftsman,
Germany, working there
to
at first as a laborer,
then as an illustrator and cartoonist for a number
under the pseudonym Duvdi-
of Berlin papers,
1933, he came
In
vani.
Kirszenbaum began
themes,
including
through
his fine etchings
and wood-cuts,
in
which for
the suffering of humanity, especially in his various
themes of the Misfortune of
of the
War and
the People, of
Job, and of The Life tive
show held
which reveal
by
surprised
many
of
1955,
in Paris in
were
collectors
quality
of
of
a big retrospec-
manv
critics
and
remarkable
the
Balgley's
of
The Book
Peace, of
Man. In
earlier
paintings,
a sensitive poetic fantasy analogous
but haunted by a despair that
to that of Chagall,
bears comparison with that of Soutine.
known
Frenel,
was perhaps the
also first
as
Frenkel
Palestinian-born painter of
when
Mandate, and began
to
own work and
his
school of painting. a
number
it
was
Kirszenbaum went ransacked
and
still
dered.
hiding;
into
a British
form there, through
his
productive until his unexpected death.
be both a poet and a prose art
artist,
European Jewish sources obvious,
often
disciple of
had
that
his
of his
undergone
Impressionism;
the
art
German
and
he
that
rning
offering
in
his
nel
to
now
ork
a
absorbed
A
Expressionism.
true
he had thus achieved a remark-
perfectionist,
able synthesis.
His
work,
things
especially
by
haunted
always
past.
Gifted
life
after
elegiac
with
the
an
unusual
settings of his childhood, bringing
had
lived
for
exploring
was thus able
to
time,
of
pictorial
to reconstruct the
the villages where he
was
war,
recollection
scenes
back
to
and the men
machine
Re
a
French
of
had
he had known there. Such a memory
World War, t
of
of the schools
ing to them the principles of French painting and
of the School of
are
inspiration
influence
addition,
in
the Eastern-
was always
style
Western-European
and
and
was
and that abstract
Though
the poetry of painting.
is
He was
thus the teacher of
It
Kirszenbaum's intimate belief that a writer can
memory, he was able
of distinguished Israeli painters, reveal-
France, Kirszen-
of
weaning them away from the more academic Munich.
work
his
remaining extremely
work,
his
teaching, a truly indigenous
influence of Russian schools
studio
his
most of
looted,
After the liberation
baum resumed
the influence of
(born 1898),
the School of Paris. After studying in Paris he
returned to Palestine
tion,
was
destroyed, his wife arrested, deported and mur-
he expressed hauntingly a great sense of pitv
illustrations
Biblical
prophets
of
During the German occupa-
figures of El Greco.
Eugene Zak. Composition
especially
ghostly as that of the
as
is
with a kind
in Paris
representations
whose appearance
325.
work
to
handling
desperation,
of
a refugee to Paris.
as
is
like
a
and Kirszenbaum
resurrect the prophets of the
as well as the
works and days
exhibits there regularly,
of an
entirely vanished world.
The melancholy
remarkable svnthetis of
mood
of his reminiscences
Paris
after
the
Second
Old Testament,
was enlivened, how-
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
697 bv touches of humor. His
ever,
698
trip to Brazil, after
the devastating experience of the war-years, gave his art a
new
discover,
if
lease of
only
allowing him to re-
life,
something of the
vicariously,
original sources of his inspiration.
some
to recapture
He now seemed and mysticism
of the mystery
of vanished Eastern-European Jewry, transform-
ing the monstrous idols and grotesque figures of
Rio de Janeiro's carnival into traditional Purim figures,
riotous
its
known
in
his
paintings that to Paris
still
works
he had
festivities
own childhood (fig. 326). The he produced now and on his return
express the profound religious nature
even
of his talent, later
into
joy
is
if
the subject-matter of these
no longer immediately
Michael Aram, whose real name
religious.
Michael
is
S.
(born 1908) was born in the Ukraine,
Gottlieb
achieved success in Germany as a designer of
and costumes, and
theatrical sets
1932, emi-
in
grated to Israel, where he continued to
work
for
the theater, mainly for the Ohel Theatre company. In 1946, he settled in Paris. Alternately a figurative
and an abstract his
artist,
Aram
some
reveals, in
of
works, an almost surrealist quality. His figu-
rative
works include some strikingly
realistic por-
both paintings and drawings, as well as
traits,
some views
of Paris roof-tops seen
from his win-
dows.
more
include
Kirszenbaum. Brazilian Carnival.
His
examples
brilliant
as well as tions.
works
abstract of
compo-
the art of the School of Paris as valuable and
of a truly personal dream-world.
is
still
lived
1931 and has exhibited extensively,
mentioned but rarely
in discussions
on
Jewish art and certainly deserves to be better
known,
if
only because the quiet and the poise
that characterize his traditional types of Galician
Jewry contrast so
Bialystok,
and circus
Jews
Bukovina,
Kolnik
atmosphere dignified
in
former has
paintings,
composition
harmonies, as well as
in his
wood-cuts and etchings.
their
and began
to
paint his
1923, he
came
to Paris,
worked
style.
first
In
for a while as a
returned to painting as soon as he could and in
Toulon. in
Paris
In a
1935, Segal painted and series
of thirty
admirable
Galicia
and
gouaches entitled Visions of War; on the day of
types
and
the opening of the show, a well-known American
its
remarkable
and
artists
with
now-vanished world
Austrian
Berlin and
laborer in the Citroen automobile factories, but
significantly
recorded
in
and scenes
exhibited
of
entirely self-taught.
canvases in a somewhat Expressionist
A
the
is
Between 1918 and 1924, he was
settled
faithful chronicler of the
Simon Segal
Vienna, where he associated with writers, painters
the turbulent fantasy of Chagall's Russian Jewry.
of
and Modigliani. Born
original as those of Soutine in
Though Arthur Kolnik (born 1890) has he
Simon Segal (born 1898) may
soon be generally recognized as a contribution to
he has also revealed some curious aspects
in Paris since
of
free tachiste composi-
In his magic-realistic trompe-l'oeil
sitions,
The work
draftsmanship
improvised
some extremely
some
for
sober
their
color-
more widely-known
collector strolled into the gallery
bv chance and
purchased the entire exhibition. Assured of some financial security, Segal gradually
began
to deve-
lop an increasingly personal style. Segal remains
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
699
MODERN TIMES
-
700
human
values which characte-
rize the
works of the great mas-
above
ters of the past,
those
all
of the Italian Renaissance,
human
that the
more frequently main focus
constitute the
in the subject-mat-
Among
ter of a painting.
leading
and
should
figure
painters
group,
known
Paris
and
as
of
the
new
this
Humanist
neo-Romantic
in in
America, the leaders were Eu-
gene Berman and Victor Tischboth of them Jews; Leonid
ler,
Berman, Joseph Floch, Josiah Ades,
Victor
Paul
Eliasberg,
Benzion Rabinovitch, generally Simon
327.
Segal.
Harbor Scene
known
in Brittany.
kel
fundamentally a painter of rustic types and scenes,
and surroundings
of fisher-folk, of the life
to
have indeed
he portrays are treated
the largest percentage of Jewish talents. These
a style that reminds one of the drawings of
Jewish painters of the Humanist or neo-Romantic
unsophisticated
school have distinguished themselves, moreover,
children
children
the
or
His
craftsmen.
whom
(fig.
sculptures
of
compositions
still-life
likewise
reveal the utensils that characterize the home-life
poor farmers and workers, such as a very
ordinary kitchen-range, and his animals are those that share man's
own
toil
and provide him with
his
Segal has thus created a world of
sustenance. his
Humanist group can thus be said
also
The
representatives.
been the school of modern painting which included
simple-hearted and the poor
of
and Jacques Zucker are
outstanding
its
George Mer-
327). The men,
women and in
of the
among
as Benn.
that no longer bears any trace of the
men
by generally being
and
of outstanding
culture
who
encour-
parents
taste, sons of well-to-do
aged their children music and
an interest
to develop
in art,
literature.
Eugene Berman (born 1899),
for instance,
was
the son of a very prosperous Saint Petersburg
banker
who played an
active part in the cultural
Berman
pre-occupations of his colleagues in contemporary
life
metropolitan centers. His actual painting, however,
emigrated to Paris, where the family settled in
is
its
extremely sophisticated in
blending of colors,
its
brushwork and texture. The
least figurative of
abstract Expressionists might indeed learn from
who
Segal,
is
most subjective when most objective,
most abstract when most
of
the
Tsarist
a palatial residence
capital.
still
of Proustian characters
guests there. Paris
haunted by the ghosts
who had been
Berman began
of the
first
show with
the
painters
intellectualism
that characterize
since It
much
birth of
t<
was
I\
of
that art
began
to
be
felt
School of Paris
the
and
modern
deeply
Italy;
a group that included
Berard, Chelichev and his
against
in
works of the masters of the Seicento,
VII reaction
frequent
to study painting in
and travelled extensively
he held his
a
1919,
influenced by his memories of Italian landscapes
figurative.
and
Around 1930, among certain
In
the
formalism
This
was
the
first
public
Humanist or neo-Romantic
own
brother Leonid.
appearance school.
of
the
In 1937, he
emigrated to America, where he settled
in Holly-
art, especially
wood. His influence on younger American
artists
Cubism, Dada and Surrealism.
has been considerable, and his success in
Ame-
of
was tending
to neglect certain
rica,
especially
as
a
designer of theatrical cos-
THE SCHOOL OF
701
tumes and
and
sets
a creator of extremely distin-
guished advertising designs has been quite spec-
A
tacular.
painter
manneristic
and landscapes
perspectives
of
Berman
the Italian tradition,
in
PARIS
draw
to his
as a child, astonishing his family with
mental
art of ancient
he
world as a theater for man's actions, however
influence,
may seem
puzzling these
The painting Leonid
(born
conception
classicist
328).
(fig.
Eugene
of
1898)
of
Paris,
in
Berman's
brother,
from that of Eu-
differs
reproduce from
to
memory. Profoundly influenced by the monu-
qualities,
a
and
observe
to
ability
the
returned to
has
702
then
too.
Egypt and by
underwent
an
spiritual
its
Impressionist
After completing his law studies
he returned to Egypt
to practice law,
but in 1922, settled in Paris to devote
time to painting. His portraits of
all
women
his
often
gene in that he seeks inspiration from the illumi-
have a visionary quality which they share with
nated manuscripts of the late Middle Ages rather
those of
than from the Italian masters. Leonid has thus
some painters
developed a microcosmic quality, in his vision of the universe, that brings out, in his art, his
pseudonym
with that of certain great miniaturists; views of the country-side or the sea-shore,
in his
human
figures play a
important part than
less
The work of the Viennese Tischler (1890-1950), who moved to Paris in 1928 and became an outstanding master among the young Humanist painters, is that of in the
landscapes of Eugene.
man
an aristocratic personality and
In his native country, he
taste.
be
appreciated
painters of the
of exquisite
Ben
Romantic
who
Benn with
Benn.
The
signs his
the
former,
Bialystok and studied
first
works with the
American
who in
was
insists that
work
a
human
of art
born
and
must express some
sentiment and that arbitrary
play of colors and lines cannot lead to a valid picture.
In his larger
compositions, he has de-
one of the major Austrian
as first
half of our century.
Haunted
by the dream of a kind of painting that would be both traditional and novel, he admired Cezanne noble
the
for
proportions
of
his
composition
rather than for his innovations. In his
scapes
of
views of
French or
cities,
and transformed
appears
it
by
man.
fellow- Viennese Joseph Floch lives
in
own
land-
and
his
Tischler stressed the domesticated
aspects of nature as
now
gardens
Italian
when
Like
inhabited
Tischler,
(born 1895),
America, tends to
his
who
stress the traditio-
nal aspects of art, especially his debt to Poussin.
In
some respects an
traditions in
Rome
of the
heir
German
in the early
to
painters
the
Romantic
who worked
decades of the nineteenth
century, Floch seeks to
communicate the more
noble aspects of the world that he depicts. His figures
have a meditative quality that he
fre-
quently brings out by depicting them in the act of reading, or else in quiet discussion. His interiors, in this
of culture is
respect,
and
communicate an atmosphere
intellectual refinement. Cairo-born
Josiah Victor (Joe)
Ades (born 1893). Gifted
with a natural facility as a draftsman, he began
in
in nature.
beginning to
is
in
world of per-
Paris, seeks his subject-matter in a
quality of
painter
Warsaw, then
sonal fantasy, in Jewish tradition
He
era.
important not to confuse Benzion Rabino-
It is
vitch (born 1905),
affinity
of the
328.
Eugene Berman. Ruins on Courtesy
Julien
Levy,
New
the Beach.
York.
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
703
32
veloped a curious of
fisica
curious
l
Menn (Benzion Rabinovitch).
>.
affinity
other
certain
pantomimes,
A
Reading. Musee du Petit Palais, Paris.
The New York
with the pittura metapainters.
Italian
compositions
these
Like depict
704
painter Reginald Pollack (born
1924) has lived since 1948
in Paris,
where he
soon developed a remarkable awareness of the
scenes enacted by dream-like figures in an other-
more
wise deserted stage,
of the School of Paris. Entirely self-taught, he has
in a
purelv imaginary world
who have
329). Unlike the painters
(fig.
French aspects of the tradition
specifically
directly
acquired a certain calligraphic quality of drafts-
neo-Romantic
manship and composition from the work of Raoul
movement. Gregoire Michonze (born 1902) has
Dufv, a sense of color and spacing from that of
sought
Matisse, and a lyrical and intimate quality from the
participated
in
inspiration
especially Breughel
the Italians.
Humanist
the
from
or
Flemish
the
masters,
and Bosch, rather than from
Coming
to
from Rumania
Paris
in
of Bonnard.
interiors
a larger scale
and refrained from
with a
exhibiting. In 1924,
associate with the Surrealist poets
he began
and pain-
but without subscribing to their doctrines.
ters,
tries
out
many
of his
compositions as etchings before treating them on
1922, he worked for a while in complete solitude
to
He
a
and
window
typical
in color
interior,
that opens onto a landscape,
Pollack
Israeli-born
An
on canvas.
composition.
painter,
Hanna
is
Married to the
Ben
Dov
(born
His somewhat manneristic compositions are like
1919), Pollack often chooses the same subjects
charades imagined to illustrate fables and parab-
as
les
from popular sources,
meaning
often
remains
though their actual obscure
Extremely
modest,
Michonze
attracting
ittention
and
been
fully
.
predated.
his
(fig.
seems
to
his
subjects
330).
sfumato
avoid
uses
work has not vet
whereas she tends to
wife; in
muted
brighter
stresses
color
harmonies
effects that soften all
some
and
more
treat
these
and
with
her outlines, Pollack
cheerful
colors
and
of his outlines in a playfully deco-
rative calligraphy.
THE SCHOOL OF
705
706
PARIS
VIII
A number
non-figurative art
seem
appeal,
since
ordinary
schools
different
of
or
abstract
of
have exerted an extra-
to
on many
1945,
the
of
younger Jewish painters of the School of Paris.
abandoned
Several old painters, too, have
previous
in
styles
been
has
so
Known
their
themselves
express
recent
in
on both
widely publicized
of the Atlantic.
sides
to
new manner which,
exclusively in the years,
order
Ab-
Tachistes,
as
non-formal or non-figurative
stract Expressionists,
who belong
painters, the artists
to these various
schools have generally developed great technical
compensate
so as to
have
and
their texture
skill in
lost
Among
by
whatever
for
may
their art
avoiding any figurative subject-matter.
the leading theorists of this general trend,
from the Jewish point
particularly significant
view,
their use of line or of color,
1898). At
and a Parisian
a Cubist
first
an active promoter of non-formal
after the war, art,
disciple
Hosiasson became,
of Chirico's pittitra metafisica,
abstract
of
(born
Odessa-born Philippe Hosiasson
is
kind of art that
the
generally
is
caned Tachiste, or Abstract Expressionist.
Among
Jewish painters of the School of Paris, he has
only in
one
by
himself
distinguished
justifv
to
probably choice
his
being
the
abstraction
of
terms of the traditional religious veto on figu-
work might thus be interpreted
rative art; his
as Gregoire Michonze. The Danger.
330.
a kind of regression, after the era of emancipation
from
a
commandment. this
terms
In
quality
regressive
of
interpretation
literal
Freudian analysis,
of
moreover
is
second
the
in
keeping
with the somewhat anal nature of Hossiasson's
composition (born 1892)
and is
formal abstract
Born
in Nijni
tween
1930
Leon
color-harmonies.
Zack
another recent convert to nonart,
as
well
as
to
Catholicism.
Novgorod, he painted
in Paris
and
spiritualized
1939
extremely
figures, in the general tradition of the
be-
Humanist
School. Since 1945, he has been strictly non-figurative,
but his non-formal compositions have
re-
among
the
tained a painterly quality that
younger
artists of
the
new
is
rare
school of which he
is
a recognized master.
Kolos-Varis
is
the
Zsigmond Kolozsvari
(born
of
Hungarian-born
1889).
has illustrated a fine haggadah
Though he
some years ago,
from
has
his
Expressionism towards Cubism and
original
generally
ever more abstract forms of
art.
In
recent
his
Tachiste paintings, he has distinguished himself
from most of trasts
his colleagues
achieved
colors
of
by the cheerful con-
in the irregular
which
his
patches of bright
compositions consist. Other
Tachistes or Abstract Expressionists of Hungarian
who have
origin
recently
achieved
certain
a
reputation in Paris include Paul Kallcs, George
Feher and Agathe Vaito. As these Hungarian painters
colorists,
seem
and brighter harmonies and
however,
to prefer clearer
to distinguish
them-
selves as virtuosos of the kind of "pure painting"
that
pseudonym
away
tended
Kolos-Varis
relies
exclusively
on
exquisite
color
and
texture.
One
of the
most outstanding and distinctive
abstract painters of the School of Paris
is
Jean
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
707
708
Lutka Fink (born 1916), was born
where
encouraged
develop her natural
Warsaw,
in
a
as
Hassidic traditions
the
of
spite to
was
she
child,
in
her family,
of
artistic gifts; at
the age of
seventeen, she exhibited under the sponsorship
Government. She
of the Polish
1936 and absorbed
in
at
Encouraged by
influences.
settled in
France
various
Fauvist
first
began
Picasso, she
mature slowly, becoming a non-figurative at the time of her two-year visit
United
the
to
artist
(1950-1952)
to
Her more recent work has
States.
a nebulous quality, with rare forms seeming to
backgrounds.
crystallize out of her iridescent
A
young painter who
among
was born
Albert
Avram
studied
Istanbul,
in
developed a non-figurative
gest
Bitran (born 1931)
and began painting there
which
architecture
in 1946.
He
own,
style of his
in
soon in
somber patches of color sug-
his generally
architectural
He
forms.
seems to eschew
however, and concentrates on achieving
outlines, effects
stranger
the Eastern-European or American Jewish
artists of Paris,
Paris
an utter
is
of extreme antiquity in his surfaces that
imitate those
produced
works salvaged
in
in the
course of archaeological excavations. Jean Atlan. Vegetation.
331.
Atlan (born 1913),
community
Jewish
who was born
An
in the ancient
Constantine,
of
Algeria,
in
in Paris before the war.
and studied philosophy
Spending the years of the Nazi occupation hiding in the same
in
Paris psychiatric hospital as
Schwarz-Abryss, Atlan developed his interest in
Both
painting. his colors
his
calligraphic composition
hark back to the decorative traditions
of North-African non-figurative art,
stripped of
its
and translated
folkloric
Polak
Amsterdam, lived paint
during
the
1948
settled
in
abstract
which he has
and craftsmanlike quality
into terms of a metropolitan
individualistic culture
Marcel
and
painter,
331).
(fig.
(bom in
1902)
hiding
German Paris.
and
but
born
American
and drool"
so-called "drip
school, has attracted
considerable attention in Paris in recent years.
Many
Sam
origin:
young painters are
these
of
Don Fink, Sam Spanier, Norman Blum, John Levee,
painterly
among
others.
John Levee, in
already developed
has
cular,
though he
owes many
still
effects
Chelimsky,
Jewish
Francis,
Oskar Chelimsky, Allan Zion,
of
like
Nicolas
to
a
of his
personal
more
de
partistyle,
strikingly
Stael.
Oskar
most of these younger American
painters
of
the
School of Paris,
in
concentrates almost exclusively on achieving un-
continued
to
usual and almost sculptural effects; he has been
and
in
known
occupation,
Primarily
younger
of
abstract or non-figurative painters, mainly of the
non-figurative
was
group
important
a
non-formal
Marcel Polak suggests,
in
his
boast that the color on some of his
to
canvases
is
ness of the
ten centimeters thick.
work
of
many
The
of these
marred by
effective-
younger non-
work, the surfaces of stones, the geology of vol-
figurative painters
canic craters, the structure of clouds. His color
larity
to
certain kinds of commercial art, espe-
harmonies are extremely subtle; he has specialized
cially
to
designs for textiles. Because so
in
gouache, collages, colored inks and colored
crayons.
of
these
style
is
its
young American painters
striking simi-
justify
many their
by claiming the Californian painter Mark
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
709
Tobey
as
What
ferred to as the School of the Pacific Coast.
whom had
Other Nazi victims, some of
master, they are frequently re-
their
710
no more than hint
work
in their
done
at their potential
must be mentioned more
Abrami
elements of design appear in then- work are sup-
genius,
posed to suggest the same aesthetic quality as
Mordkin from Yekaterinoslav
Chinese writing, but without the ideogrammatic
already been spoken of above, as also has the
the eyes of a Chinese art-
Cubist master Otto Freundlich and the painter-
meaning which,
in
one of the basic elements of
constitutes
lover,
Max
poet
who came
1943)
IX
Many were
the Jewish artists of the School of
who were deported and
Paris
mans during the occupation
A
1940 and 1944.
shown
them together
France between
of
selection of their
Though
vary considerably, of
by the Ger-
work was
an outstanding commemorative
in Paris in
exhibition.
killed
their
it is
and importance
styles
perhaps desirable to speak
here, in a separate section.
now remembered above
(1887-1943),
first
War
Born
colorist.
in
World
studied, he settled before the First in Paris.
Soon
as
Odessa, where he
his studio
became a meeting
plaje of artists and writers from
all
over Europe
and America. The party which he gave in
all
in
Warsaw (1884-
of
originally
1925
to Paris in
campaign
having
after
fought
in
has
us some delicately-composed landscapes.
left
the
Polish
of
liberation,
Jacques Gotko (1900-1943) emigrated as a child
from Russia to France with
came
and
a fine draftsman
and be-
his family,
Samuel
water-colorist.
Granovsky, born in Yekaterinoslav (1889-1942)
worked
an
at first in Paris as
studying
art.
artist's
model while
In 1912, his rather frank self-portrait
caused a sensation in the Salon d'Automne.
Outstanding among them was Adolphe Feder
a brilliant
has
Jacob.
George Ascher,
Oriental calligraphy.
briefly.
(1874-1943)
1923
honor of the Soviet poet, Mayakovsky, was
colorful figure in the
bohemian
life
A
Montpar-
of
nasse cafes and studio-parties between the two
Granovsky produced a large number
wars,
and
sculptures, mainly animals,
of
of paintings, often
representing picturesque types such as Paris cab-
He
drivers.
thus developed an uncomplicated and
spontaneous style that reveals his jovial nature
and
his lack of intellectual preoccupations.
David
long remembered in the annals of Paris bohemia.
Goychmann (1900-1942), who emigrated
to Israel
Feder had been one of the
from Russia
to paint
to collect African
first
and Ethiopic paintings, and
sculpture
ment and collectors.
In
his judg-
were famous among dealers and
taste
he travelled
1929,
bringing back a
number
which attracted much
of works
to
Palestine,
and sketches
He was
attention.
deported
and murdered by the Germans during the occupation of France, before his
ed the acclaim that Another
Henri
receiv-
deserves.
it
outstanding
was
victims
work had yet
artist
(Chaim)
the
Epstein
Nazi
(1891-
studying in Munich, and soon became a familiar
A in
in
the circle of Modigjiani and Soutine.
painter of landscapes, of the peasants at their fields
and
of
still-life
work
compositions that
are redolent of nature, he can truly be said to
have continued Pissarro,
in the great tradition of
Camille
which he assimilated and tempered with
elements of style that he shared with his friends of the Fauvist
and Cubist
schools.
as a halutz,
began
as
an art-student to France;
his nostalgic portraits
and landscapes often sug-
there,
life
later
deep attachment
gest his
of his
his studies,
somewhat
riors,
to the scenes
and the
childhood. Tobias Haber (Konstantin,
Poland, 1906-1943),
portraits,
among
1944), who, born in Lodz, came to Paris after
figure
came
1919
in
came
developed a very personal
lyrical colorist.
occasional
complete
to Paris to
style as a
His finely psychological paintings and inte-
still-life
remarkable for their warmth and sobriety,
number of museums. Hoherman of Warsaw (1902-1943) painted
are represented in a
Alice
delicate scenes of family
of
young
girls
life,
and her
reveal her very feminine talent as
a colorist with a sense of fashion
elegant
design.
sculptor;
and
a gift for
David-Michael Krever of Vilna
(1904-1941) worked
borate
portraits
in
Paris as a painter
somewhat decadent
stylizations,
and
at times in his ela-
he achieved
at
his
best,
a
mysteriously hieratic quality. Jacob Macznik of
Lodz (1905-1944) has
left
us, in addition to
a
gouaches
interesting
of
series
main
faithfully the
reproduce
that
many
features of
number
ancient synagogues, a
of Poland's
moving land-
of
families
range
limited
deep poignancy. Arrested
the
was painting death;
War
World
First
after
During
and a persecution-
other
of
portraits
(Lwow,
views
urban
certain
a
in
Leon Weissberg (Przeworsk,
"spleen."
public-
Galicia),
excelled as a painter of suburban
(1893-1943) industrial
landscapes of the Paris area, as
well as of hauntinglv imaginative Jewish topics.
His Jewish Bride
and
qualities of painting
European Jewish
example of the
brilliant
a
is
artists
Weinbaum
in
re-
1890-
(Kamenetz-Podolsk;
more
capital's
still-life
compositions,
studies
in
left
us a
number
Eastern-European
of
views
typically old-fashioned
neighborhoods, and has also interesting
great
urban centers of Eastern
found
their true genius in
the Expressionists. al
Vienna or
It is this
facts of biography, that
by
very variety of cultur-
work
the bare
in
determined to some ex-
his personal genius, the
the
among
scope granted to each individual
tent, within the
wonderful variety of
of these Jewish painters of the School
of Paris.
More Jewish
painters have lived
Paris since 1910, than at
any time
anvwhere
in the history of
and worked
else in the
Western
art.
in
world
Attracted
to the French capital mainly from Poland and
have con-
Russia, but also from other lands, they
tributed something very valuable to the traditions
and the reputation
of the School of Paris,
absorbed the rich heritage
has thus
of
which all
of
Europe, while giving a certain sense of stvle and
ly of
The
no possibility
contribution of
an expressionistic character that suited the
peculiar rals of
temperament
of Eastern-European libe-
when they
the beginning of our century,
sought to break away from the traditions of their
community
in order to express
themselves as
dividuals. Since 1945, a majority of the
foreign-born Jewish painters
Jewish
comes from the United States intellectual in their theories
There
Berlin,
and human experiences, concealed
of
types.
at
the
in
these Jewish artists has been, until recently, main-
and landscapes; he specialized
French
intellectual-
of painterly values in return.
productive as a painter of
of the
warmth and
have contributed
1943) came to Paris in 1910 and was extremely
interiors
world of ignorance and sheer
of folklore that Eastern-
cent decades to the stvle of the School of Paris.
Abram
of these painters actually spent
Europe. Others again, before reaching Paris, had
Rimer
of
with figures of typical
which are redolent
strollers
a
in
Alexander
painted
in Paris,
Viennese
a series of interesting
patients.
1889-1942)
gardens and parks
and
internment
his
Mandelbaum painted
clinic,
to
he remained subject
reprieve,
to acute nervous depressions
mania.
he
while
spy
was condemned
a landscape, he his
Poland during
in
a
as
express
to
color,
of
712
Others were born of culturally assimilated
The portraits and landscapes of Ephraim Mandelbaum of Lublin (1884-1942) manage, a
many
destitution rather than of
spaces of Paris suburbs.
within
Yet
fruition.
their childhood in a
ity.
a
MODERN TIMES
|EW1SH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
711
who
younger
flock to
or
from
and
less
in-
Israel.
Paris
More
immediately
restricted space
emotional or sensual, these painters are already
our disposal even to mention the names of
contributing a taste for abstraction rather than
more
is
artists of
work was
in the
the School of Paris
cut short bv the Nazis.
whose
life
and
Enough, however,
has been said already to indicate the loss to the art of
Europe by the Hitlerian massacre.
To many
readers,
the
history
of
Paris, as briefly listed here,
birth,
may seem
or Polish ghetto
and one assumes that
and keen
intellectual
genius at an earl) artistic
expression
individual
its
stereotyped.
their place of
warm
Jewish
life
atmosphere stimulated their
age, ii
was
and that the freedom
Paris then allowed
Impressionists
its
of
sudden
as
it
was practiced by post-
and Fauvists
of the generation cf
Soutine.
As long
East-European Jewish painters of the School of
The Russian
for self-expression
as Paris continues to attract such
num-
bers of artists from abroad, the School of Paris
can be expected to continue to be universal in
approach to
art;
and
its
as long as the Jewish ele-
ment among the foreign
painters of Paris conti-
nues to be active and important, the universal appeal of the art of Paris can be expected to
in-
clude some specifically Jewish characteristics, such as those
which one can discern
in the
work
of at
THE SCHOOL OF
713
some (and by no means the
least
guished)
PARIS
714
distin-
least
those whose names have been re-
of
corded on these pages.
XI
Jewish
artists of
names known ries of
of
II,
in the ateliers of Paris
and the
Europe and America. The names
them are
likely to survive
eration. It
is
by
galle-
some
of
the side of those
and pioneers
of the great masters
few
War
many more promise have begun to make their
Since the end of World
of the past gen-
possible here to mention only a very
of them,
who may be rather
representative
described as the most
than necessarily the most
significant.
Paris has
remained
as
always was for the past
it
century the principal magnet; though the Jewish painters
who have come
to the fore here since
1945 have generally distinguished themselves,
two wars, by abstaining from handling
the
fically
Jewish themes.
Chagall,
'
only on
if
manv
subject-matter of in
1927
father
The
in a small
speci-
how-
painter Maryan,
been acclaimed by
ever, has already
ne\
critics as
Born
of his earlier works.
town near Cracow, where
his
miracle from the extermination camps where
emigrated to
Paris.
a
A
duced a
332.
Maryan. Living According
and
all
after six years of suffer-
subsequently settling in
Israel,
truly visionary painter,
Maryan has
pro-
on Jewish themes,
fine series of paintings
followed later by more abstract compositions,
re-
black outline, which gives his paintings a quality that they share with pen-drawings
Mainly calligraphic
in
his
on
gradations of greys, with
his use of various
occasional touches of white and of brighter colors.
His views' of
cities
thus acquire a haunting
geneity of color and design, revealing
nizable subject-matter (Fig. 333).
mals,
and recently some scenes that seem emaciated hermits
and the dead
in a
yan's paintings
in
ani-
to de-
a desert or the dying
concentration-camp. But Mar-
on Jewish themes
offer
no
real
analogy with works of Chagall. Never humorous or lyrical,
Maryan
Jewish religious
seeks his themes in traditional
life
rather than in folklore
(fig.
Among
the post-war
"New
Realists" of Paris,
two Jewish painters have already achieved derable
ish painter
among
reputations.
The
style
of
Marek Halter (born 1932) wha has
consi-
the
"New
The
Realists"
homo-
many
art, in spite of their
Winsberg (born 1929), a native
of
recog-
other Jewis
Jacques
Parisian. In his
best compositions which portrav with great pathos
scenes from the
Spanish gvpsies, Winsberg
life of
stresses the
emaciated features of
symbolize
a
world
his
models,
who
by
under-
Alexandre
Garbell
characterized
nourishment, poverty and anguish.
The Russian-born (born 1903)
332).
Halter
composition,
a series of monstrous imaginary insects, a series
and other imaginary
or etchings.
seems to prefer harmonies that remain centered
the qualities of abstract
pict
Law.
since 1949, relies to a great extent on his use of
presenting creatures like knights in armor; then
of highly-stylized bulls
to the
the basis of the Jewish
was a baker, Maryan escaped almost by
his relatives perished, ing,
as
who became prominent between
opposed to those
of Paris
is
painter
another
artist of
whose work seems
acclaimed.
A
the post-war School
likely to
be widelv
Tachiste in his technique of noncha-
Warsaw-born
lantly placing patches of color
lived in Paris
yet remains, in
many
on his canvas, he
of his compositions, a figur-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
715
Marek
333.
ative
achieving
often
artist,
rare
a
of
effects
Halter.
Garbell has distinguished himself as an
quality.
unusually delicate
man shows have
Since 1954, his one-
colorist.
placed him in the front rank of
younger painters.
We may
mention,
two con-
conclusion,
in
have made a name
far-differing environments,
in recent years in Paris.
Though born
dam
has only
the
war.
moody
more attached
to their native Algeria or Tunisia
than integrated
in the art-world of the
Thus
French
capital.
Jules Lellouche (born 1903), a native of
scenes and types observed in the course of his visits
to little-known
munities. sitive
end
to the fore since the
and primitive Jewish com-
Lellouche has also painted some sen-
Spanish and Italian landscapes, though his
of
somewhat
and
romantic
a
in depicting
Aberdam has developed a manthat owes much to the fantastic
painter,
neristic
style
visions of his
come
artists,
than metropolitan
rather
1894, Alfred Aber-
in Galicia in
Rasically
716
at Acre.
Monastir in Tunisia, has specialized
temporaries who, emerging from far-distant lands
and
The Harbor
MODERN TIMES
Magnasco. In
his
more recent works,
color-harmonies have tended to
creasingly
dreamlike and somber
become
in-
334).
(fig.
The Sephardi, Corsia (born 1915), on the other hand, reveals in his painting the joyfully sensual character of his native North-African background.
Born
in
the Mediterranean seaport of Oran, he
spent his childhood in poverty and had to earn his living in a
to find
money
number
of
manual trades
for his art-studies.
A
in order
painter by
sheer instinct, he reveals in his work his jovful
acceptance of reality and of
A
life.
few other North-African Jewish painters can
truly
be said to have emancipated themselves
from
their
themselves
original as
Others remain, art-schools
artists
background of
the
and
School
imposed of
in spite of their training in
and sometimes
in
Paris,
Paris.
French
regionalist
334.
Alfred Aberdam.
The
Painter's Family.
THE SCHOOL OF PARIS
717 tends
style
to
somewhat academic.
be
Tunisian-Jewish
artists
self-taught artist
who
and, especially after
lives
visited the island,
painted a number of scenes of
Jewish
villages.
The haggadah
Edouard Benmussa somewhat that
still
garish
and
in
two
its
illustrations
unsophisticated
In
many
Algiers,
basically a post-Impressionist
some Fauvist
life
of
of Tunis are typical of the
haunts the work of
Jewish painters.
native Djerba
in his
Mane-Katz
Other
Robert Saad, a
include
folk-art
North-African
ber of colorful scenes of Algerian Jewish especially in
The
life,
more primitive com-
names
is
that they
suggest a hitherto-unsuspected reservoir of ability in the isolated
artistic
and backward Jewish com-
munities of North Africa, and by analogy also of the Levant.
It
may be
that in the next generation
there will emerge from these communities, too,
genius of the same caliber as has been
artistic
produced
num-
of the
significance of these
who
influences too, has painted a
some
munities of the South.
the painter Assus,
has absorbed
718
in the last half-century
by the teeming
Ashkenazi ghettos of Eastern Europe.
THE JEWS IN ARCHITECTURE PERCIVAL GOODMAN
by
If
we
look for a "Jewish architecture," as
for a "Jewish literature" with charac-
might look teristic
theme,
find
it
it;
and function, we
spirit,
not there to be found.
is
shall not
perhaps
It is
onlv in the most recent decades, in the construc-
America and
in
what
question,
and community centers
we
tions lead to architecture.
of these
Let us mention some
them through the
and the changes in
19th and 20th centuries, so far as they bear on our subject. art
social-planning in Israel that the
smiths, plumbers,
and
could be
Middle Ages, and indeed from antiquity,
specifically
be considered.
architecture, can even
other hand,
have said that several avenues and motiva-
an
synagogues
of
tion
We
we
in
Jewish
in
on the
If,
are looking for Jews practicing
architecture, then after a tardv beginning in the
It
)
1
(
is
"masons,
of
glaziers."
carpenters,
Throughout the it
is
from these craftsmen and their customary techniques that decoration,
we must all
derive both structure and
architecture
of
except the plan.
a bewilder-
Now
Jews were excluded, and would necessarily
ingly vast representation of Jews in every form
have
to exclude themselves,
and function
lity"
19th century, there
work
now suddenly
of building.
The name things. It
is
architecture
means
several different
the provision of shelter and a frame-
is
for carrying
on various functions;
is
it
the
man-made physical environment; it is the monuments of significant form that have both an
entire
and an
inside
different
outside. Likewise, there are several
avenues and motivations that lead to
The concurrence of several different operating in modern history has produced
and
and often mystical
religious
corporations of craftsmen. as
we come
building.
modern
into
from the "convivia-
Even when
times, there
the
rites of
And more
generally,
is
no Jewish
there are well-defined Jewish
communities, as in Poland, the method of build-
wooden synagogues, belongs
ing, e.g., the Polish to
the
Likewise, there
majority host-people.
nearly no Jewish plastic decorations.
(There
is
are,
be sure, some exceptions to these generaliza-
architecture.
to
causes
tions:
other
sections
of
this
work
will
have
the present situation of the Jews in architecture.
assembled the evidence. But, by and large, the
Modern
statement holds )
in
its
architecture, like
community and
all
tied
crafts, conditions, functions,
different
now in
architecture, to
its
rooted
is
site;
but
its
forms, and spirit are
from what they were and are such that
they not only do not exclude the Jews, but
some
respects are congenial to abilities
needs developed chances.
ment
We
the Jews by their historical
are not at this point
as to the
architecture
in
—
and
making
a judg-
worth of the modern condition of in
our opinion some aspects of
it
are good and promising, other aspects are disastrous;
we
are
insisting
merely that to explain
the role of the Jews in the architecture of the
20th century,
and
we must speak both
of the architecture.
of the
Jews
was
.
say that this people
visually starved; the views of the old ghettos
show no attempt to
One could at
beauty or order.
It
was not
be expected then that with the Enlightenment
and the Emancipation there could spring up Jewish
and painters from the
architects
below. Hence in the 19th century the Jews little
crafts
made
mark. Only in the twentieth did conditions
prevail in the crafts below,
where a Jew
of talent
can learn about buildings and develop ultimately into tions
an architect. In
Israel, of course,
the condi-
and balance are now completely normal
in
every respect. In Germany,
it
was another
1933 the Jews had
still
story.
Right up to
not gained entry into the
THE JEWS
721
IN
ARCHITECTURE
722
building or technical crafts; the feudal conditions
So throughout our period there
obtained.
still
were a couple of hundred Jewish architects who through
and
family,
religious,
connections
art
department
built synagogues, theatres,
stores
and
banks, but did not have the multifarious practice
and supports
that belongs to
(In the
builders.
many
Austrian Republic, by contrast, there were
more Jewish
among
architects
much
a
smaller
population, because of the preceding history of the polyglot empire).
In Russia,
finally,
we
which
see both extremes,
can roughly characterize as the north and
we
the south. In the north the Jews were excluded;
they had no artisans to compete with the Gentiles.
Rut
in
the Ukraine and along the Rlack Sea,
where the Gentiles were mainly peasants, the
were
Jews
And this
and
artisans,
were said
building-contractors
all
and
small-townsmen
be Jews.
to
since the Revolution, of course,
from
is
it
matrix of trained intelligence in a very back-
George Basevi. The Conservative Club in London. 1843.
335.
ward population
the
that
Jews have occupied
(not without a rousing resentment)
great a
so
We may
place in Soviet technical and intellectual activity,
Let us
(2)
now
George
architect
lish
as in architecture.
take as an instance" the eminent Eng-
(1794-1845),
Rasevi
cousin of Renjamin Disraeli and like take the contrary tack and vert to Christianity,
who was
killed, as
a
him a conhappens,
it
consider the status of the architect at the top.
the result of a
as
During
the
Ages
Middle
the
fall
from the spire of Ely
master-builder Cathedral.
emerged from the
became an
artist
artisans; in the
Renaissance he
The Conservative Club (fig.
SGc?)
is
exactly
19th century (less so nowadays), architec-
in the
ture has been a gentleman's profession.
Among
should be:
sober
what a Conservative Club
and
dignified
certain scholarly refinement. It
the fine arts
(1843),
which he designed together with Sydney Smirke
and since the Renaissance and especially
logy;
London
in
with a full-blown special ideo-
it
is
is
and having
more
solid
a
and
the most respectable, the least
work of the Rrothers Adam, aiming towards the much later, somewhat stone-like than the previous
bohemian. This
gentlemanly
status
and
its
correlated
schooling have been an avenue of entry to rich,
well-connected Jews in the 19th century.
common). What
version was, of course, tant
is
that a
man
of talent
is
(Conimpor-
accepted on
this
gentlemanly level tended to be fully accepted, at least professionally. If
we
consider the Jewish
architects of the 19th century
are civic,
given,
apparently
monumental, or
we
without
find that they
discrimination,
ecclesiastical commissions;
and they are granted the highest honors by professional compeers.
* The attempt is made here to expand the generalizations made in the text by a series of illustrated examples, expanded
by personal and critical notes. Naturally, in a limited space, there is an embarrassment to decide what to choose and what to omit. There are perhaps a couple of hundred artists worth exemplifying, because of their excellence or influence or quality of output. Some that others would have chosen have been omitted deliberately and odiers (e.g., the French architects Aldrophe and Hirsch, or the contemporary Italian Bruno Zevi) because adequate illustrative material has not been available. Otherwise, we have taken into account as far as possible geographical distribution, excellence, typicality, anil
their
influence.
In
outstanding Jewish chapter, on
some
cases,
architects
illustrations
may
synagogue architecture.
be
of
found
the
work
in
the
of
next
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
723
similar style of Stanford White. This
gives
away
amusing
its
work
is
it
Englishness with striking and almost
window on
Notice the large bay
claritv.
Relonging to the same element in Anglo-Jewry
such
Italian reconstruction that
an elegant piece of
724
as Rasevi, but faithful to his Jewish heritage,
David
Mocatta
He
(1806-1882).
was,
whose influence
to
cloudy climate. In general, the proportion of the
less
windows
responsible for a series of stations which
is
larger than in the strong,
dark-looking, sun-drenched Italian is
palaces. There
a complete treatment of the moldings, but they
will never cast sharp
shadows and
are, therefore,
And how to manner never made
not sculptural but applied. the chimneys in a
integrate for fire-
Reference
may be made
St.
don) which he designed
perfectly English
educated
is
in 1823, as a
a fresh
and highborn,
in Dr.
as befits a
travels in Italy.
native and
man
young
Rurney's school and by Sir
and made sunnier by a kind the young
young man
and youthful work,
John Sloane. Rut the Georgian
—
of Rasevi's
Mary's Church, at Greenwich (near Lon-
of twenty-nine. It
man
here to an indepen-
and rather surprising production
dent,
it
owed some
as a railway director
of his commissions:
he doubt-
for
he was
had a
considerable influence on railway-station design in
England
They
in the early days.
are planned
on the basis of repeatable units to make smaller or
buildings.
larger
libitum
one station
:
in
The
"style"
is
applied ad
Tuscan, another Puginesque,
neo-Gothic, and so forth. Although Horley Sta-
places?
—
as
happens, closely related to Sir Moses Montefiore,
the building's right; the longing for more light in a
to the stone
was
style
of
is
lightened
Greek influence,
has profited by his recent
The whole
is
more knowing than
at the
native,
simple and studied.
336.
1840)
tion (c.
is
more "modern"
a small building
in
was vice-president
Italy,
was otherwise tect.
He
the
to
typical
early
ceased
family fortune,
Council
the
of
London, designed in
same
in idea than the
larger works. Mocatta travelled
the its
of
336),
it is
architect's
and made studies
of the R.I.R.A.
and
gentleman-archi-
the
practice but,
on
succeeding
being Chairman of
Reform first
(fig.
Congregation
in
permanent synagogue
1851.
same time
In the same gentlemanly tradition was Georg
and both
who was connected with the famous Rerlin banking-family. Among his works, so characterisItzig,
David Mocatta. Horley
Station.
1840.
THE JEWS
725
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ARCHITECTURE
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;
*
"i"^ 337.
the
of
tic
Georg
Deutsche Reichsbank
Itzig.
were the princely Palazzo
period,
Revotella in Trieste and the Deutsche Reichsbank in
Berlin
we have
(1879)
work
the
is
and more
of the period.
more clear
The plan and
interesting than
and
the
the exterior.
elegant, based on a struc-
of groined vaulting.
The whole
is
and
There
an interior staircase that strongly suggests
not falsely picturesque.
controlled,
Charles Gamier 's Paris Opera, though
it
is
not so
good. Notice the Empire touches, like the winged contrasting
with
the
typically-German
much
same sphere
the
though somewhat less to
Messel
glass
The
338).
(fig.
French
interior
big, open, bright-lit space.
It
is
the verticals of
but obviously all,
this
is
not a stone vertical style at
but a reinforced concrete vertical
style.
The
confusion between the two shows up especially in the interior, its
mind how
the exterior
Now
is
which seems unable
it
means
to look.
an unfortunate
purified of
vertical style has
its
Gothic
had an
to
make up
(The mansard
bow
illustrious
and
later
kind of
progeny.
Perhaps a more interesting architect was Leo-
as Itzig, as faith-
Judaism as Basevi, was Alfred (1853-1909)
—
professor,
member of the PrusHe built, among other notable works, many banks, the Pergamon Museum and the villa of Academy
of Art.
the Jewish millionaire (the
mere
list
social milieu).
Eduard Simon
brings to
life a
whole
The Wertheim Depart-
ment Store which he
of
to convention).
flirtation, this
Geheimrat, and sian
is
stores of the period, a
pold Eidlitz (1823-1908), called by the Architec-
patterned brick work. In
and
after the
sidered himself as starting a "neo-Gothic revival,"
lighter
is
orderly
beasts,
stone, steel
modeled
remarkable combination of
a
is
it
the exterior that are most important. Messel con-
module
is
architecture;"
1879.
refined,
are
The plan tural
and cultivated
Berlin.
more French, than the corresponding
German work interior
Here once again
of a well-born
Jew: the total effect in this case
337).
(fig.
in
'j-A^^'i
;*
built in Berlin
(1904) has been called "one of the
important pioneer works of modern
338.
Alfred Messel.
The Wertheim department
store in Berlin.
1904.
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
727
and
decorative
the
pierced balustrade
dow with
its
detail
728
The
Arabesque.
is
Gothic, like the rose-win-
is
Star of David. Yet there are the high-
pitched Praguish roofs with iron cresting for effect against a gray sky.
domes
the
requires very
It
And
onion-domes.
into
especially in the
there
interior,
little
to turn
everywhere, a variegated
is
pattern of dark and light colors that belongs to
Middle-European peasants. Out of
somehow
the whole a
achieves a strong vitality and
kind of Jewishness, in the meaning of an immi-
who
grant is
mixture
this
has built careful Christian churches,
saddled with a pointless Moorish mannerism
in order to
who
be different from the Christians, but
Old Country com-
allows expression to an
The
munity
feeling.
was
misproportion.
its
chief fault in this building
The nave
the pretentious front; the effect
is
is
too small for
squat.
They did
not need so big a statement for so small a build-
And
ing.
the towers and minarets are meaningless
show when there
are neither bells nor muezzins
calling to prayer.
In contrast to the architecture that sprang from craftsmen, this post-Renaissance and 19th century Leopold
339.
Eidlitz.
architecture of the gentleman-artist
The Old Temple Emanu-El
New-York. 1868.
in
style
and
feeling. It
was
as
if
had
a different
a facade that
the "architecture" overlay on the structure tural
Record "the dean of our guild."
hand
Eidlitz built a
number
On
the one
of churches, including
one (Christ Church Cathedral
1867)
in St. Louis,
by the ous
was
made
The "style," in place of the indigenbecame an electric combination of the
builders.
stvles,
older stvles refined
and studied
as art-history. In
which the novelist Charles Kingsley called "the
such an eclectic mode, learning, travel, good taste
most churchly church
were the most valuable
in
America;" on the other
hand, he was the architect of the old Temple
architect like
Emanu-El (1868)
certainly one of the
White.
New York
Italian stock,
This as
it
town.
the
in
to
in old
architect
America;
much
and
main
the
"Moorish" in
that,
shown here
The
in
Stanford
his teaching the French Jew of Emanuel Pontremoli (born 1865),
member
elected a
1922 and was director of the Ecole des
At
Beaux-Arts from 1932 to 1937, laid
a
quick
is
glance
harking
back is
to
of
the
feeling
decorative since
is
Gothic
immi-
its
strength
the
—
Gothic
the neo-Gothic
in
appears
it
like
Eidlitz
movement
in
Romanesque;
intention
was
the
the preceding generation
Europe was considered appropriate
gogues.
So
as
France
of his youth. Yet the plan
was important
339).
much
of these an
who was
achievement
be Bohemian, out of Prague,
grant
(fig.
Basevi had as
and
loomed on an important corner
astonishing
originally
was
that
most notable buildings
things;
spires
are
to
syna-
made
into
minarets, the corbel-arches are almost horseshoe,
good
in
taste.
ontologie
the
work
Yet this
is
if
Humaine
in Paris
of a sensitive,
(fig.
340)
not "academic" architecture;
feels
of
is
it is
much
new way
power and con-
the basic proportions; there
detail tries to
(1913)
sober, early Renaissance,
attempting to express himself in a
trol in
on
all stress
learned and elegant man.
by going backwards. One
frieze
the Institut de
His building for the Institut de Pale-
more old-fashioned and as
of
is
scale;
the
be meaningfully original (notice the
subject matter
at
the reading level);
THE JEWS
729
there
ARCHITECTURE
IN
an attempt to be rough-hewn in the stone
is
work, and the effect
is
refined.
He
has
gifts,
he
cannot find his way, he goes backwards. Pontremoli has a great fondness for the Greek grandeur
and
Salomon Reinach,
for
a house. If Proust's this is the
The
for
whom
he designed
Swann had been an
architect,
kind of building he might have
problem seems to us
historical
be
to
modern times there was almost no
up
to
art
among
the Jews, no sculpture,
hardly any architecture. plastic
A
objects has pitifully
than ritual
art.
In
modern
little
Jewish little
to
built. this:
plastic
painting,
museum
of
show other
times, however, there
has been a small number, perhaps proportionately
adequate,
sculpture, art,
the
and
Jewish masters in painting,
of
architecture.
practice
of
the
For modern
modern
plastic
masters,
in-
tion
and more spontaneous
the plight of everybody
breathe again, and
to
Nouveau"
new
of
conventions that have become
and academic, and the attempt
vitality in
what
is
340.
to find a
nearer to primary percep-
Emanuel Pontremoli.
Institut
Avant-
that
"De
or
number there
we
among
consider "L'Art
Wright or
or the Rauhaus, there are
many Jews
among
the leaders.
the disciples and a few
(1887-1953)
is
conveying
master,
expressionist
logical
work
known a
whole
as the architect
it is
who
also profitable to regard is
a sculptor
by
and plan
his
Rut
peculiar
harmony and genius
of
strong in the struc-
is
as well, just as a master-musician
melody,
in
his
him
disposition,
rather than a constructor or a planner. course, like any master, he
as
psycho-
and depth-psychological content. For
as a
though
are
in architecture
"Expressionism" or the
Stijl" or
Erich Mendelsohn the
is
rebel in order
"International Style" or the school of
Urbanism
strong
the rejection
in
during the century, whether
ture
stifling
who must
numerous Jews. In the avant-garde
cluding a few Jews, has been for the past cen-
always
in expression.
garde belongs neither to Gentile nor Jew, but
tury an avant-garde art; and avant-garde
is
730
is
orchestration
may be
in
one
or
another of these. His Einstein Tower, in Potsdam
de Paleontologie
Humaine
in Paris.
1913.
(1921), de-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
731
make
signed to
and
experiments to test the relativity theory,
Expressionist sculpture
(fig.
The
341).
was
sketch
is
a sculptor's sketch. But the sculptural mass with
punched holes seems
its
ing animal from brutal
The Weizmann House
astronomic observations
certain
also like a kind of breath-
another planet.
and frightening,
as
if
It
is
perhaps
the aspect of this
same powers in a
French
in decline. It
mental, but
Rehovot showed the
is
merely "architectural"
effect
of the interior
is
more
we
have
alchemy and atomic power.
The expected curve appears
Everywhere
in
Mendelsohn there are curves,
asymmetrical curves; not that he distorts the plan,
but he seizes the opportunities in his
it
to
store at
Chemnitz (1929) can be
regarded as a middle resting-point tural-architectural
tug-of-war
and you
close your eyes
sketch, white bars
in the sculp-
(fig.
342).
Half
curtain-wall:
These
armature.
prising sier
lightness,
arranged:
and
flatness
a thin skin over a cantilevered
bands
flat
not
have been often
a fine elegance
French
Hadassah
buildings, such as the
United
States.
Among
Mount
on
Hospital
Scopus) Mendelsohn spent his
years in the
last
here were
his productions
some monumental synagogues and temples. *
after
like Albers:
and
sur-
Le Corbuthe detail
is
par excellence.
If
we
consider the plan as extend-
ing into the streets, the squares, the neighbor-
hood,
we may
say that architecture
external behavior.
naissance organically closely
Now
periods,
in the
when
religious
and
the over-all
medieval and Re-
community was
the its
is
political
cemented with indigenous family
structure ties, this
the irregular points of white
approach to architecture was precisely closed to
border of more delicate
the alien people. Jews could hardly be expected
at the top, the stair-tower
horizontals;
some important public
Architecture and theater are the community arts
but perhaps more
artfully
After his interlude in Israel (where he designed also
and black spaces. Yet he faces
The whole has
imitated.
are too
Let us revert to the underlying mass community.
by maintaining an absolute if
its
bay window,
pilasters
once see the sculptor's
at
without compromise the architectural issue of the
he achieves as
at the
uprooted.
is
be pretentious.
to
now-abandoned
not mathematical curves.
The Schocken
weak even
create
Baroque sculptural shapes. The curves are
the artist
site;
here isolated and
is
it
stony
its
German misunderThe building seems
a
standing of the Moorish plan.
but
be monu-
to
really conditioned to the climate;
new science that gripped the artist was not its humane mathematics and philosophy but its dark
out of place on
meant
is
doubtful that the patio
frigid. It is
it is
likely
in
he cannot make move. The sym-
style
and centered
metrical
732
for a
change the set-backs, pro-
bably required by law, are really studied.
make
to
the community-buildings whose integral
use they did not or were not supposed to under-
The church contained arcane symbols not without their magical force. Even if they knew how, Jews could not make fortifications when they were not bound to be soldiers. They could stand.
not lay out the squares
when they
lived in the
ghettos.
During the 19th century, the time of individual enterprise
and when architecture came
largely the application of of styles,
meaning
it
of
good
to
be
taste in the choice
could be said that the community building
lapsed;
it
was then not
strange for any one indiscriminately to build anything.
In our
own
time, however, there
is
again a
resurgence of the community idea in building, and
341.
Kncli
Mendelsohn. Einstein Tower
in
Potsdam. 1921.
*
See below, chapter xix.
THE JEWS
733
IN
Erich Mendelsohn.
342.
ARCHITECTURE
The Schocken
734
Store. 1929.
correspondingly a vast literature of city-planning.
functions of the corresponding architecture to be
But the idea of community has changed, under
pervasive.
many
the impact of the
technological changes.
community
spirit
even
peculiarly
spirit
of
cities,
clinics,
social
is
its
economic, and
present form, the
not only open to Jews but
congenial reform,
to
them.
It
slum-clearance,
is
is
the
garden-
settlement-houses; the architecture
of the general welfare lity
political,
In
of the society.
made them an
regarded as the responsibi-
The Jews, whose
intellectual
and
history has
critical minority,
with a strong sense of messianism and steeped in
have been leaders
public
law,
radical
politics,
philanthropy,
in
trade-unionism,
public
gressive education,
in
medicine,
and the
reform social
psychiatry,
loped from gical
its
work, pro-
social sciences. All of
these channels feed into the architecture of
munity and urbanism. In
and
Israel,
com-
which has deve-
Zionist beginnings in this sociolo-
atmosphere,
we would
expect the forms and
And
phenomena,
it
if
we
not surprising to find the Jews
is
Some
very prominent.
look elsewhere at similar
of the best workers' housing
was achieved
as early as
(1884-1923)
in
1911 by Michel de Klerk
Amsterdam. His plan
on Spaarndammerplantsoen
warm and pare
it
To
poetic.
with the
Dutchman, Oud;
appreciate
concrete or
(fig. it,
for
housing here
343)
is
we must com-
housing of another
more
extreme,
with
the
machine-d-vivre of Le Corbusier or the Seidlungen of
the school of Gropius,
whose
chief
concern
seems to be correct solar orientation. The feeling here
is
quiet, quietly controlled space, like Ver-
meer; and
like
flat
vertical accents.
what a richness
the Lowlands, with sudden
The housing
of texture
fits
its
street.
And
he gets from the virtuoso
brickwork! Notice the arbitrary and difficult brick projections,
there
is
drawing on indigenous
skills.
Also,
the clean contrast of the red brick and the
735
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
343.
Michel de Klerk.
344.
Housing
project
MODERN TIMES
on Spaarndammerplantsoen in Amsterdam.
Frank and Wlach. The Karl Marx Hof
in
Vienna. 1930.
736
THE JEWS
737
white
framing.
poetry
is
To be
sure,
this
IN
ARCHITECTURE
738
Vermeer-like
not something that can be taught, can
be found
but de Klerk was a master.
in a school;
Jews have been responsible for other notable town-planning achievements. Most famous among
them was perhaps the famous Karl Marx Hof Vienna, designed by Frank and
We
mav, however, take
stance, the pioneer laid out
Henry Wright in the
of
Radburn
(N.J.)
—
a highly interesting
reform the social pattern
to
commercial framework.
ward and an
344).
Stein in collaboration with
S.
345)
(fig.
American attempt
(fig.
as a less ostentatious in-
Garden City
bv Clarence
Wlach
in
A
disciple of
Ho-
of Parker and Unwin, Stein
associate
has attempted to incorporate the principles of the
Garden City
also in
more urban
concentrations.
Sunnyside, designed on the outskirts of the metropolis,
now
provides more possible neighborhood
blocks in the middle of a
crowded
city:
Stein
kept to the gridiron street-plan, only breaking the lot-lines;
more recent neighborhood
projects break
through the gridiron; on the other hand, Stein achieved a very low coverage, 70 acres
Garden City norm
families (the
the
The
acre).
of
imitated
345.
Clarence
S. Stein.
Plan for the Garden City of Radburn.
aesthetics, rather than the
and by pooling the yards, makes
usual chaos;
them
for 1,200
12 families to
neighborhood planning
unified
more urban
allows for
is
some
use.
Sunnyside has been endlessly
various
in
"garden apartments." Rad-
burn started out as a Garden City proper, on the "Letchworth" principle of an integrated
working community; but
it
living-
has turned out as a
dormitory-village serving the metropolitan center.
The essence
of the plan
is
to solve
by
cul-de-sacs
the typically American problem of the automobiles
—
a car to a family; as yet no better solution
has been offered.
Notice the large amount of
public land, playground-space, held in
common.
This has been a very influential plan in suburban
development
The most
New World
in the
United
States.
earnest designer of hospitals in the is
Isadore Rosenfield (b. 1893), whose
work has extended
as
far
as
Puerto Rico:
the
Adult Building of his Tuberculosis Hospital Rio Piedras (1949) Rosenfield
is
is
at
illustrated here (fig. 346).
probably the purest example of a
functionalist, completely dedicated to the physical
and psychological welfare
of the patients,
and
346.
Isadore Rosenfield. Tuberculosis Hospital at
Rio Piedras. 1949.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
739
it is
interesting to see, then,
such a building as
this
W.
Arnold
347.
how
sits
environment.
its
Meticulous planning of every detail from inside out must turn out handsomely. Rosenfield's
client's
crucial proof of
and even altogether
is
his
it
work.
The
fails
part of the present and the future
who designed tic of all
it is
Stadium
in
"horizontally," which he can always prove to be
he spent
the only rational solution. Whatever the soundness
athletic
of his "proofs," his buildings look well,
considerations he adduces his it
own plays
style:
tell
a
and two
good deal about
he prefers the horizontal because
down monumentalitv, and
it
allows for
somewhat
the one
New
little
York
(fig.
here: the
time or care on
for that purpose.
summer
town planning
concerts; in the
new
community center
a
admired; and the acoustics are
Rochester, Albany and
W. Brunner
(1857-1925).
Denver, was
an
But the Stadium
function the Tuscan
in
in
as
has never
it
colonnade and naive proportions have become
in
Baltimore,
Designed
has become the background for the Philharmonic
America,
Arnold
it.
stadium for City College,
been adequate
Lewisohn
347), for obviously
which sphere he executed pioneering work
in
realis-
most famous
ironic that his
we show
pointless than they were; the building
flexible expansion.
Very active
York Public Library), has
the civic centers proposed in the early
case
his
New
20th century."
is
in
the
been called "the most carefully studied and
Then
dedicated functionalists, Rosenfield
on some particular subject,
especially busy on civic
designed the Chicago park system, and Carrere,
building
fanatic
classical
and was
civic center for Cleveland, for instance
is
all
made many monumental
America, he
reconstructions
health of the community.
Like
his time
his
on a comprehensive, long-range program, so that is
most respected architects of
way
ultimate sense; and again, his insistence
every building
in
of the
York.
(on which he was associated with Burnham, who
rejecting
program, when he can show that
make
to
A
dedicated functionalism
of correcting
One
simply and easily
in
New
Brunner. The Lewisohn Stadium in
740
familiar to
all
is
less
in fact
and popularly
terrible.
Brunner 's
most effective building was probably the new
Temple Beth-El on
Fifth
Avenue
in
New
York,
.
THE JEWS
741
IN
an impressive gray-stone building with a large arched entrance at the top of steep steps.
The
situation in Israel
the bold concept
is
of a master-plan for the country as a whole, for
economic, for
social,
well-known
tically
every
ment,
from
and defense purposes. In historical reasons, there
kind
socio-economic
of
community
absolute
And
authority.
perhaps
the
Israel,
arrange-
chief
to
out of this
social
co-
state-
the
in
"necessity."
tecture
is
interests
of
"efficiency"
(The formal problem of
how
perhaps a related one:
or
even
Israel archito integrate
the wealth of incoming cultures with something peculiar to this site
and
in the
rational
very center, although there
there
in
and
is little
still
the
father of the
touch with the
last
thirty
(Yitzhak) Klerk.
We
years
in
of construction of
Israel
Kaufmann (born 1887), illustrate
(fig.
was
Richard
a pupil of de
348) his famous and
symbolic plan in the agricultural settlement of
Nahalal (1921).
What
pathetic picture! This
is
an island
in
348.
history,
naturally,
yet
a desperate effort to get
is
in those radiating
soil
Also, one cannot escape the sense of a
to the center.
What
bold scheme
this
farms
wagon-
somewhat
an alien land,
most problematic about
is
the lack of urban feeling.
is
Once given the frame, there scattered small town. This to
success
will
so
is
the problem posed
is
is
won, what
is
effect
right
is
over and
for? Unless there
it
than
better
the
old
is
high
achieving stability
of
be that the next generation
we
nothing but a
communalists; once the fight
all
drifts
away. (And
see on the plan, that the through-road goes
through the
monumental
Planning in
middle,
crossing
the
empty
axis )
Thirty years later
country as
a schematic, courageous, and
laid
is
of planted trees.
something provided
history.)
huge task
a
help and inspiration from below; and
again, there
and stands
is
These are
unembarrassed by
scratch,
previous
urban culture, the
The
axis.
and principled pioneers: everything
site
yet,
on the
of trees
out and made from the
yet there
elicit
rather than simply to annihilate embarrassing ele-
ments
own community; and
its
circle fortress against a potential attack, retreating
pluralism,
cultural
nothing
742
monumental layout
problem
facing the Israel master-planner must be to
the best
prac-
is
through
and individual enterprise
operatives,
centered in is
of course, especially
is,
interesting, since here there
ARCHITECTURE
a
we
find a master-plan for the
whole being proposed.
Israel,
by Arieh Sharon
(Physical
—
"at the
completion of stage one of the master-plan for
Richard Kaufmann. Nahalal settlement.
.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
743
Israel...
the population
The tendency
is
envisaged at 2,650,000")
to regard the
is
whole
com-
as the
look
MODERN TIMES
perhaps the norm; Ratner's building sug-
is
gests this
and yet
is
more modern than the
munity, rather than the ideal of the earlier com-
famous Y.M.C.A. building
munalism.
seems
Space
will
not permit the inclusion here ol
details or illustrations of
more than one
characteristic works of contemporary
synagogues
tects (other than the
to
two
or
Israel archi-
be spoken of
First, the
molding and shadows,
had
Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem
by Yohanan
Dean
wishes, however,
were the Greeks who
as
that sun.
In the offices of the Histadrut (General Fede-
Aviv by Dov Karmi
ration of Labor) at Tel
in the next chapter).
One
to us falsely regional.
rather
the same citv that
in
Ratner would have dared to be richer in
that
also
744
350),
we
(fig.
see the influence of the French version
of
the
of the International Style
School of Architecture at the Haifa Technion.
We
precedence over the German (Bauhaus) version
(fig.
349)
Ratner,
have chosen an early example of the Jerusalem style, all
his
work
to
show
given by the regulation that
buildings must be
stone-faced.
The
rule
is
perhaps arbitrary but not anti-creative, for the stone
is
local
unity; also ings.
An
and the
it is
city has
an ancient, stony
a fortress city with fortress build-
artistic
difficulty
occurs, however, be-
that
first
struck Israel.
(Le Corbusier) taking
may be compared,
It
with the Brazilian Internationalists,
e.g.,
too,
the sun-
screen and the elaborate louvers, to meet a some-
what
similar functional need.
We
must now consider a contrary extreme,
architecture as a business for private profits, as
an adjunct of real
Many
estate.
varieties of archi-
cause rough, hand-hewn stone does not express
tecture,
the concrete forms underneath. In Ratner's build-
ment houses and suburban developments, and
which give a more stony
every kind of continual renovation, depend direct-
ing, the small apertures,
expression,
are
functional
brilliant sunlight. In
for
the
excessively
such a style the older Arabic
and "taxpayers" apart-
office-buildings
ly in function, structure,
and form on speculative
considerations. These are the bread-and-butter of
the
vast
of
tribe
architects,
especially in urban centers,
and
in the tribe, as in the real estate
business
itself,
the
Jews
are
vastly represented.
Commerce and communitycombine in a curious way
spirit
in the fields of
entertainment and
merchandizing.
And
these ave-
nues into architecture the Jews
have taken
in large
Whether we consider
numbers. theatre-
builders in the grand style or
the innumerable host of movie-
playhouses everywhere in the world, signers.
we
shall find
Jewish de-
Or whether we consider
huge department
stores or little
shops, Jews have been extremely apt at creating the setting for
fashionable visual display. (Let us
mention,
French-born 349.
Yoh
lan Ratner.
The Jewish Agency Building
in Jerusalem.
1930.
in
America,
the
Raymond Loewy
and Henry Dreyfus).
THE JEWS
745
350.
Dov Karmi.
351.
IN
ARCHITECTURE
Office building of the Histadrut in Tel-Aviv.
Oskar Kaufmann. The Stadttheater
in
746
1954.
Bremerhaven. 1909.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
747
It is
tastic
always interesting to realize that the fan-
mannerisms that
cafeterias
and
we
see
were
once
artist.
So
movie-theatres
thought up by some inventive
everywhere
in
first
at the
beginning of the century, Oskar Kaufmann (born
1873)
thought up our theatres.
(with Strnad)
an earnest attempt to develop a modern is
Wright's of the is
a struggle to be original, but this originality
Ry 1914,
there
is
tecture that Reinhardt's staging has to drama:
Ziegfeld Theatre in
is
Milan
— — the
tional;
but in Kaufmann's works
viously
e.g.,
was monumental,
theatre
Stadttheater in Rremerhaven
and the Komodie Theater have the
La
the Paris Opera or
theatricality of a
—
The curves and
Scala in
to the structure
(1909)
in Rerlin
institu-
(fig.
351)
(1914),
we
monument, the scenery
externalized.
the structure;
New
in principle, the
is,
York a generation
and plan, they are
they look like plaster-board. This
Raroque turning
we
is still
some
relation
are reminded of the neo-
Gothic of Messel, softly pictorialized, the stone
is
show and kind of
a
we must mention
approach to architecture form of structur-
al engineering,
though
this
does not bear on our
As with
all
other parts of architecture, engin-
eering has undergone a revolution in the past
hundred
years; with the
coming
we may be
of steel
turning to soap. This manner was to climax in
inforced concrete
the Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts, 1925, and
architectural period altogether, the
so
for
into psychological effects.
For the sake of completeness also the
later.
the flood lighting have no relation
subject.
In the 1909 building, there to
no longer architecture, but a
This theatre
front.
Pre-
notably the
it
has not yet been crystallized.
glamorous
it
style;
The wings have a solidity like same period in America. There
not eclectic.
This style has the same relation to theatre archi-
the stage-designer's idea of a building.
748
become world-wide.
It
352.
is
not good, but
Dankmar
Adler.
it
is
and
said to be in a first
re-
new
such fun-
damental change since the flowering of the Gothic
The Auditorium Building
in
Chicago. 188/
THE JEWS
749
ARCHITECTURE
750
12th century. But here
in the
of the
the participation as a
IN
group
more
is
The
case
community
or
assess.
Jews
difficult to
not as with
is
commercial
building crafts; there seem to be, rather, isolated individuals.
There have been, again America,
whose
individuals
been
contribution
has
outstanding.
Louis
and
partner
in
trulv
Sullivan's
was
engineer
Dankmar Adler (1844-1900), and the firm van
of Adler
and
Albert Kahn.
353.
imperishably linked with the invention of
is
the skyscraper and the
modern concept
of func-
The Auditorium Building 352)
is
Chicago (1887)
in
work by these foun-
a characteristic
modern
ders of
was more the
architecture. Adler
field of
Mr. Sullivan has relieved the senior part-
ner
of
that
left
him
branch of professional work,
and
free to devote himself to the engineering
problems involved
in the
As Sullivan put
"Adler was essentially a techni-
it,
modern
office building."
an engineer, a conscientious administrator..."
Between the two there existed a
fine confidence,
and the handling of the work was divided and on
have
to
without It
was
was
temperamental
a
authority
final
a
sharp,
in that office
own
his
in
arbitrary
—
basis
being
line
each field,
drawn.
Frank Lloyd Wright
that
The
office
The Auditorium
this
admirable
is is
master.
is
and
delicate
the fine
and
thin the
Romanesque
Romanesque
to a professional
to
solidity
again, pales
away
a famous
into the constructivist expression. This
is
building whose real achievement
not visible
is
from any exterior view. There were serious problems of the foundation, triumphantly solved with great
originality,
auditorium
itself
and Adler's acoustics
were
so
of
the
advanced that they were
used as the standard for the Chicago Opera House
building here shown
It
a
is
first
is
historically
celebration of the
steel
There seems in the
West
artist,
barrassed as to
what
Sullivan, to
obviously em-
is
do with
this
new
thing
having an "Egyptian period," the bay
windows seem
to
be Tudor, some of the decora-
an upside-down Gothic.
It is
only more than
ten years later, in the Carson-Pirie-Scott ing, that Sullivan will
with sureness.
handle
this steel
Obviously here,
strange appearance, the is
how
made. To attenuate the construction
The base has
countries.
tion
a masonry building,
is
that Sullivan did so well, but in the total effect,
a certain
is
could not improve
above required the nice calculation of the Gothic
The decorative he
of
degree and yet support the massive weight
skeleton framework, the posts in their glass shell.
—
verticals,
forty years later.*
trained.
important.
and
on for two generations.
whole
"the pre-eminence in the artistic
horizontals
the fundamental expression
off
this genre, that other architects
As Adler put
adjusted
forthright
their
what
it,
Foundry Company building. 1940.
These early skyscrapers of Adler and Sullivan, with
"engineer," Sullivan the "artist" of the partnership,
cian,
Steel
caught right
tional style.
(fig.
The Ohio
Sulli-
main
constructivist, springing
in
build-
and
spite
have
to
be no especial
to engineering,
amount
link of the
of exclusion
from
it
in certain
where they are accepted, they
Yet,
sometimes
Thus,
excelled.
Albert
(1869-1942), was without question the most ential industrial architect of
Henry Ford
(for
bile factory at
Jews
and they have suffered
whom
he
modern
times.
built the great
Baton Rouge and almost,
Kahn influ-
With
automo-
we might
glass
of the
aesthetic statement
from the engineering.
* Synagogue Anshe Maariv in Chicago (1890), also by Adler and Sullivan, somewhat similar to that of the Auditorium but later and therefore richer, is spoken of in the next
chapter.
(See
fig.
365).
A.
say, the City of Detroit)
I.
Gegello.
The Botkin Memorial
he was the artisan of the
single-story factory for the continuous-flow assembly-line.
He
Packard,
built not only for Ford,
Cadillac,
but also for
and he has been the
etc.;
builder for the aircraft industry
— Willow
Pratt-Whitney, Curtiss, Glenn Martin, in the spirit of the jobs
he has worked
etc. at,
for
and worse, assembly-line production meinto
engineering
themselves.
The
and
architecture factory
shown
its
The
whole huge
structure
depends
its
from
working
all
tains of the
The work tects
about
steel
and the
possibilities of
would have ventured. The
it
the
man
curiously shaped metal bents, that only a
who knows
best.
glass cur-
wings hang from the cantilevers. of
may be
contemporary Russian Jewish archi-
instanced from a small and hetero-
genous group that
may
spite differences in style
On
At
.
hospital,
suburban
housing
isolation
of a
(fig.
like a
As
and an
design
is
dacha
style in the
same
direction. In
clumsy,
fairly
unable
sought; this
few pictures make up a poignant
lack
is
of skills
in
this
style
rical
and ideological drama.
Centrosoyus of Le Corbusier
G. Gewurtz
bv the lack of
from the pre-Revolutionary
craftsmen;
to is
unquestionably due in part to the
these
histo-
in-
springs
and the spread
of nearly
a
of the various
achieve the pleasant effect of lightness that
ally,
J.
project.
the decentralized plan
The suggestion
the
by
be placed together, de-
twenty years; for considered together chronologic-
is
model looks
individual buildings goes in the detail
won
generally quite unnecessary "efficien-
(No doubt
.
quite interesting
is
from the need for
diseases )
it
Diseases
turns against centralization
it
human and cy."
mind; but
Infectious
for
inspection the
first
good
its
the other hand, the Botkin
Hospital
Gegello (b. 1891) )
rather
also
and embarrassed by an aca-
make up
to
competition.
Memorial
354
engineering functionalism at
won
of the School of
very distinguished in the realm of interna-
demism unable
A.I.
is
norm, he
ideal
Leningrad (early 1920's) was a pro-
tional style planning
in
1940),
was the
and became Dean
Architecture of the Academy. His project for a
353 (the Ohio Steel Foundry Company Build-
ing,
the advanced
ject not
thods
of
when
great esteem
Also,
better
the professions
time and was in the avant-garde. In the twenties,
fire-station for
Kahn,
7.12
Hospital for Infectious Diseases.
Run,
more than any other man, has introduced,
fig.
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
751
for
instance,
craft
skills
on the part of the even in
the
renowned
Moscow was ruined
and material of the
THE JEWS
753
IN
necessary Western refinement. Gegello was well-
known that
House
for his
of Culture in Leningrad,
reported to have the best acoustics of any
is
factory at Belyi
glass
Trotskii's
(fig.
355), designed
more
masterly.
It
rican
factory
but
Bychek
in the nineteen-twenties, is
has the easy sprawl of an is
more
artistic
Ame-
than similar
American buildings of the period. Notice the
bound by the big
the diverse elements are
levered horizontal. In the rear (not is
way
canti-
shown here)
made of concrete bents, time. The whole seems to
a bold triangular shed
quite advanced for the
very quietly in
sit
typical of Trotskii's
genre.
When we
various styles.
754
(One
its
woods. This building
work
American
business
see this
is
in Russia
now
during that year)
.
A
confined only to Russians, was
"traditionalists,"
imitative
version
Great's imitation of Versailles
A
second competition,
"socialist
realism,"
the
sentimentalized
grandiose,
naturalism with a national message. This meant, in architecture, that the
Palace would be a pedestal
for a statue of Lenin: this
was
and
Iofan's idea
he was granted the commission, but work was stopped by the war. Later, he became the prin-
same
cipal architect for the rebuilding of Stalingrad.
Trotskii again, in
H. A.
Trotskii. Glass factory.
how
grad (1937), he has become a "traditionalist" or
nothing the Jews have come in a
project
is
lifeless, frigid,
an
imitation of an imitation. There has intervened official
the
Peter
and the Renaissance.
Let us summarize. To explain
The
won by
of
third competition finally hit on the ideal of
his project for the Palace of the Soviets at Lenin-
the
building,
skyscraper-style
of the period in other
355.
"neo-Classicist."
was Hector
of the winners
Hamilton, an American, with a quite ordinary
which apparently represented power and elegance
theatre in Russia.
H.A.
ARCHITECTURE
ban against "constructivism," "func-
tionalism," "formalism;" the
works we have been
it is
little
that from
more than
one hundred years to occupy a foremost position in
modern
architecture,
that they have
become
phenate" to the Gentile
it
is
not sufficient to say
"naturalized, though hylines of inquiry. It
is
not
from
so far discussing fall in these considerably over-
in the nature of creative excellence to spring
lapping categories. (The ideological leader of the
conformism and secondary adjustment. Rather,
pure "functionalists" was Ginsburg, another Jewish
is
architect;
and among the "formalists" and "con-
structivists," "international stylists,"
were the Jews
Langbard, Greenberg, Levenson and Turkus).
The
crisis
came
to a
head with the competition
for the Palace of the Soviet in
The
first
prize-decision
ended
Moscow, 1932.
in dissension
among
necessary to show that there have been changes
in the field of architecture itself that it
it
have made
receptive to the entry of people historically
conditioned like the Jews. This had been the case in the building-trades, in the status of the architect, in
in the
the idea of community, in real estate, and
modern
aesthetic (though not particularly
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
755
in engineering). art
among
The absence
of a native plastic
the Jews explains their slow
start in
the 19th century, compared to their rapid strides in, for
The
example, science, law, literature, and music.
now human
condition of the art in which they have
succeeded
is
not "alien" to them but
condition, both
is
a
good and bad, shared by modern
people everywhere. The question remains whe-
MODERN TIMES
ther on the basis of this
modern
art the
756
Jews
will
go on to develop a characteristic style of their
own.
If so,
America or the
we would
Israel or both;
peculiar
it
it
to occur in either
would spring from
needs and functions of relatively
stable communities. It style
expect
is
unthinkable that such a
could develop otherwise than from the matrix
of the universal
modern
stvle.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE by
While the
EDWARD JAMILLY,
nineteenth century was distinguished
by advances
in political
problem, could receive sympathetic treatment in
civilized
the hands of a capable and sincere architect of
sank into a morass of revivals.
From
was not
It
came
which
The
that
fact
early decades of
to terms
leading to the permeation of
into all spheres of activity
v^ast
number
of
and
into
new synagogues were now
new built
were low indeed.
to architectural standards that
Few
groups could have been as unfortunate to
embark on
their greatest building
cident with a
bad period
ingly, there are to
program
coin-
of architecture. Accord-
be found
in the majority
of
19th and early 20th century synagogues expense
and labor
in profusion,
and some
interesting deve-
lopments in plan form; but architectural quality is
to
employ the best men, and the quality
buildings
II
the 19th century provides a
few synagogues of the nine-
and
of interest
of transition in in
its
a
few
style.
number
of quality. This
European
national
dominant
was
were
Methods
a period
the
of construction
new
pre-
and
of
those of
still
to revolutionize construction
in the latter half of the century
been
half of
of buildings
was
still
past centuries; the impact of the that
first
architecture. Renaissance,
variations,
and enclosing space were
vaulting
materials
and design
had scarcely yet
felt.
The Roman
commonly adopted by synagogues since the dispersal was still predominantly in use, but two experiments, at least in
rare.
Architecturally
of their
correspondingly debased.
is
Despite the foregoing remarks, the
development.
geographical areas, had the incidental result that a
but poor or small communities,
faith;
with the
Jewish emancipation occurred
this period,
Jewry
another
particularly in provincial towns, could rarely afford
and devised a sure foundation on
to base further
during
until the
19th century
styles of the late
had been discarded during the
realities of life
design of a
marked
a
peaks of the Renaissance, the art of building
the 20th that architects
Furthermore, the
tenets.
synagogue, considered purely as an architectural
decline in architectural standards.
and aimless
own
his
thought and in sciences
and industry, these were accompanied by
eclectic
Dip. Arch. A.R.I.B.A.
basilican plan
plan form, occur. The
synagogue
first
of these
in the Seitengasse,
was the oval
Vienna (1824) by
teenth century compared in quality of design with
Joseph Kornhausel;
contemporary buildings of other
should occur in the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
may be
religions.
This
attributed partly to the fact that no Jewish
architects
of
any note had yet emerged.
The
Jewish community was, therefore, reliant on designers its
and builders
ancient
fitting
of other faiths to interpret
ceremonies and provide them with
surroundings. Often this produced the ine-
vitable result thdt the
building
non-Jew
which accorded with
built a religious his
merely modifying the furnishings to nial
objects;
occasionally,
himself faced with a
own suit
ideas,
ceremo-
the architect, finding
new and
strange problem,
produced a bizarre answer, simply
to differ
from
it
is
hardly surprising that
where rounded forms were favored elements richly-ornamented 356). Apart from teristic
classic its
style
it
of the
prevailing
(fig.
plan form, this was a charac-
Empire design, with giant Ionic columns
carrying the gallery at mid-height and running
upwards
to support the roof, very similar in pro-
portion to those used by James Spiller in the Great
Synagogue, London (1790); a domed ceiling over the
central
Avignon,
a
manner was
space terminated in a lantern. circular built
synagogue
by the
1846-8; recalling the
in
the
At
Roman
local architect Joffroy in
many monuments
of that
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
759
356.
Synagogue
in
the Seitengasse,
great civilization that remain in Provence,
it is
not
wholly unexpected to find a synagogue adopting a shape that has been popular in the Latin world since the
Temple
of Vesta
was
built in
Rome.
Perhaps the choice of plan form at Avignon also
may
have been influenced bv the precedent
when
set
Freiherr von Erdmannsdorff, at the time he
was laying out
his castle
synagogue
circular
and grounds,
at Worlitz
built the
(near Dessau)
in
MODERN TIMES
760
Vienna (1824), by Joseph Kornhaiisel.
side of a rigid symmetrical plan.
grandeur and richness, the
style
The is
interior has
as formal
and
correct as the dress of the congregants depicted in the
contemporary
print.
Paris provided another orthodox basilican ple,
the
in
exam-
Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth (by
Sandrie, 1819-20), although here the side aisles
were somewhat squashed by the narrowness the
site.
The
front elevation, of simple
of
and good
an Empire interior
1790. There are considerable differences in detail
classic proportions,
between these two buildings; the
with columns of the Doric order supporting the
interior of Avi-
gnon was lined bv superimposed columns and through the ceiling
roof,
lit
whereas Worlitz had a lower
and plain walls pierced bv bulls-eye win-
dows.
opened
upon which were
galleries,
to
set Ionic
arched and coffered
carry the
flat
were two
slightly
lit
this
design its cei-
The New Synagogue, London (1838) by John Davies, is more typical of this period (fig. 357). Here was the traditional basilican lay-out with
galleries
were screened
diagonal
trellis
the reading desk centrally placed, the ark in the
course, usual in synagogues of the
apse facing the two.
it,
Womi
and a processional space between s
galleries are
provided on either
ling
but
by
owing
full
this
to
There
entirely through
unusual features of
— the synagogue was
columns
ceiling.
to site restrictions; to
and the women's
their full
height by
work. The latter feature was, of
Middle Ages,
screening was beginning to be discarded
date in Western European buildings. This
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
761
Paris synagogue
but in
its
was
original
rebuilt in
762
1850/1 by Thierry,
form was supposed
to
have been
modelled on that of Bordeaux (1812, by Corcel-
Bayonne (1837)
le).
is
yet another example of a
manner;
basilican plan treated in the Renaissance
a strong
Roman
influence
evident here, in the
is
bold Tuscan columns, medallions, and clear-cut arch over the ark.
The
Sephardi synagogues, off
bv great
is
curtains,
ark, as usual in set in
French
an apse and veiled
which are partly raised
during the service.
The Obuda Synagogue Landherr 1820/1)
Budapest (by Andras
at
possesses a bold Renaissance
front with a portico of six Corinthian (fig.
358). In Munich, the Frenchman
who was much
in
demand by
Metivier,
the court, under-
took two ecclesiastical commissions tant church,
J.
columns
and a synagogue. The
—
a Protes-
latter,
com-
pleted in 1826, was a notable building of the classical
later
school,
by the
fine
by G. Hetsch,
and was followed a few years synagogue
Copenhagen (1832) university and other
at
architect for
The Obuda Synagogue, Budapest (1820/1)
358.
by Andras Landherr.
public buildings in the Danish capital.
The
New World had
in the
first settlers
follow-
ed the meeting-house traditions of their European contemporaries; and the early American synago-
gues of the eighteenth century, in
Newport,
R.I.,
contained
New
York and
suggestion in their
little
domestic exteriors of the use to which the interior
was
put.
At the end of the 18th century, however,
American synagogues began
new
take on a
to
undeveloped
character, as yet
Old World.
in the
In this virgin country, where the Jewish settler
was on
a parity with
synagogue began
to
pression
of
to
simplicity rior
that
and lack
all
other immigrants, the
assume similar external
ex-
and the former
churches,
of ornamentation of the exte-
gave way to monumentalitv and attempts at
glorification
The Beth
of the religious building.
Elohim Synagogue of Charleston, S.C. though with
its
the
raised
interior
was arranged
established
a tower
Sephardi
in
(1794),
accordance
tradition,
and steeple above
its
even
Georgian
Colonial facade. Ill
In 1841, three years after the 357.
The New Synagogue, London (1838), by John
Davies.
first
building,
the
loss
congregation
by of
fire
of
its
Charleston
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
763
MODERN TIMES
terian church at Nashville
Egyptian revival
was
a small
Israel
features:
(1848-51) are
experiment which led the architect
Synagogue had another distinguishing the semicircular interior was contained
within rectangular walls and
by means
ceiling
the
in
perhaps the synagogue
and more ambitious design. The Mik-
to his later
veh
style;
764
lit
through a domed
Another
of a central lantern.
Philadelphia congregation, the Beth Israel, built
a synagogue in 1847-9 in the Egyptian style: architect
was Thomas U. Walter, a pupil
land and the
Washington
its
of Strick-
man who gave the U.S. Capitol in great dome and completed the
its
building of the Congress. In England, free use was
made
of
Egyptian motifs
Canterbury
in the tiny
Synagogue (1848), while three years tralia
The Beth-Elohim Synagogue, Charleston S. C. (1841), designed by Cyrus L. Warner, built by David Lopez.
359.
opened L.
its
second synagogue designed by Cyrus
Warner and
by a Jew, David Lopez. Be-
built
hind the heavy Doric portico
—
a very correct
first
produced another building
later,
Aus-
in this style, the
Adelaide Synagogue (1851).
The Greek and Egyptian common, that both endowed
revival
had
in
a building with an
appearance of massive construction, of
and permanence. The use
this
solidity
of these styles
is
an
rendering of a Greek hexastyle temple (probably
indication of self-assurance, eloquent proof of the
modelled on the Theseion
rapidity with
at
—
lies
a
More
classically-moulded wood-
aggressive synagogue architecture of the late 19th
the
Greek
were
a
few
Egyptian revival synagogues. Egyptian motifs architecture reports
had
century.
359).
(fig.
than
curious
exteriors of the
18th century were developing towards the almost
work. This lavs claim to be the best of the Greek revival synagogues
which the timorous
a shallow curving
gracious white interior with plastered ceiling and
Athens)
in
a limited span of popularity as
came back
Europe and then America
to
who
from archaeologists
followed in the train of
campaign. Private houses,
Napoleon's Egyptian
places of assembly, libraries and churches were built in the
more
manner
inconsistent
of the pharaohs. It
synagogues
for
to
was no
adopt the
dress of their ancient persecutors than that of the
Greek; both were derived from pagan buildings, but the former was a Israel. So, in
as long as
it
little
the davs
closer to the
when any
style
William Strickland (1822-5). in
of
would do,
was the fashionable one, the Mikveh
Israel congregation of Philadelphia
gian
home
to
design their
He produced
form
but
with
commissioned
new synagogue
a design basically Geor-
Egyptian
details
(fig.
360). Strickland Mas a well-known architect, but of his buildings on'v this
synagogue and a Presby-
360.
Synagogue of the Mikveh Israel Congregation (1822/5), by William Strickland.
in Philadelphia
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
765
IV
blooded Arabic detail by the well-known Viennese
Untill now, synagogues had followed the
pre-
valent styles of their time in the countries of their
When
birth.
churches began to forsake classical
architect
in
and
partly because Gothic
was thought
to
Ludwig von
planner
city
Forster,
with Theophil von Hansen.
Forster was also responsible for the synagogues
architecture for the Gothic styles of the Middle
suit,
and
in conjunction
Ages, synagogues (with few exceptions) did not follow
766
Vienna (Leopoldstadt) at Pesht
,
at Miskolcz,
— the
(1860)
nally with colored bricks,
latter
Hungary
banded
exter-
facade interspersed
its
with stone and terracotta, decorated with angle
be identified too closely with Christianity. Perhaps the revival of interest in the Jews of
towers and cupolas
(fig.
361). The architectural
medieval Spain was responsible for a return to
historian,
the architectural style of their synagogues. In a
1891, describes this synagogue as "the most
spirit of
Fergusson, writing about Budapest in strik-
romantic escapism, the
Jewish bourgeois of the indus-
age evoked the splendor
trial
and gardens
of the palaces
of
the Alhambra. Reports of the
synagogues
now
Toledo,
of
used as churches, began to percolate.
Perhaps there was also
the thought that the Jews derived from
and
Middle East,
the
in Islamic
countries,
had
enjoyed a greater continuity of residence and respect than in
West;
the
architectural
their
association with Saracenic detail
would therefore have been
of longer duration than other styles.
As early fried
1838/40, Gott-
as
Semper
built a squarish
synagogue in Dresden of Byzantine form with a simple exterior, a
timber
dome 69
feet in
diameter, and having two stub 361.
The Synagogue
Hungary
at Pesht,
by Ludwig von Forster.
(1!
towers crowned with cupolas flanking
the
entrance;
the
internal
detail
was
ing building in that city;" truly
it
was one
of the
Moorish. This modest building seated 500, but
richest in Europe. Yet despite the romantic orna-
was followed by more ambitious examples. At
ment with which
mid-century,
synagogue,
the
interior
of
the
Cologne
Sy-
like
was covered, the Budapest
it
the
nagogue, designed by E. F. Zwirner of Berlin,
London, remains
a church architect fond of florid Gothic and at
ly a classical building.
that time charged with the restoration of Cologne
Cathedral, shows
how much more
elaborate the
New
York
architect)
(
in
Houses
of
Parliament
in
plan-form and mass essential-
The
old
Temple Emanu-El,
1868, by Eidlitz, an important church
(see
fig.
339) reconciled a Gothic plan
Moorish decoration had become since Semper's
and
comparatively restrained interior at Dresden. The
its
synagogue
peasant feeling. In Philadelphia, Frank Furness
in the
Tempelgasse
in
Vienna (1853-8)
contained 2,000 seats and was carried out in
full-
details
with Moorish decoration, yet for
pretentiousness,
and George Hewitt
all
retained a middle-European
built the
Rodef Shalom Svna-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
767
362.
gogue (1869/70)
a committee of architects and engineers headed by Falcini.
in their
own particular brand dome "a study,"
—
according to a local historian, "from the Arabic, particularly the style of the Calif's
Tombs
outside
Cairo!"
elaborate angle towers which charac-
were an accepted feature of
the Moorish style; they were adopted in
many
crowned with balloon-like cupolas or
onion-shaped
and
bulbous
synagogues of varying
domes.
They
sizes at Liverpool,
and
New
the
same motifs are repeated
form.
excessively
modern
flank
London
York (Lexington Avenue). Elsewhere
in more fanciful The new Florence Synagogue of 1880, de-
ornamented and somewhat
the craftsmanship and spaciousness of this inte-
dome dominates
while the
city in
which
it
A
the prevalent style.
(who the
built
synagogues
Romanesque
book
in
in protest against
Jew, Albert Rosengarten in Cassel
style),
and Hamburg
in
wrote a popular hand-
1874 on architectural
found "not the
the sector of the
was placed.
But there were voices raised
styles, in
which he
slightest historical justification for
the adoption of the Moorish style as normal for
Jewish synagogues;
signed by a committee of architects and engineers
of partiality
headed by
unauthorized
Falcini, represents the "ultima Thule'
restless to
eyes, one cannot but admire the consis-
tency with which decoration has been applied,
rior,
terized this design,
countries,
768
The Florence Synagogue (1880), designed by
of ugliness with a bulbous
By 1866,
MODERN TIMES
it
has been merely a question
and perverted notion
taste,
and a vague and
imparting
of
an
Oriental
of Moorish decoration: within a Bvzantine build-
aspect to the buildings; the Moorish style
ing directly inspired by "Santa Sophia," Constan-
inconsistent with the purpose of the building on
tinople, lieb
achieved dui
one of the most elaborate interiors ig this
period
(fig.
362). Although
religious
grounds as
it
is
on
is
as
historical."
During the whole time when the Moorish
style
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
769
of ornamentation
was fashionable,
exam-
isolated
that
it
was applied
largely to Byzantine designs.
ples of synagogues in the former Classic or Renais-
Where
sance manners were
cathedral dimensions, the Byzantine
gle architect
H.H.
being
still
would turn
Often a
built.
hand
his
Collins, a Jewish architect
sin-
to several styles;
who
built a
num-
ber of London synagogues, could design a Sephar-
and follow
di synagogue in a Saracenic manner, it
with two others for Ashkenazi congregations in
the same city a
few years
order, coffered ceiling
and
later,
using a Doric
florid Italian
who
Renais-
many
Greek
a large square building
the
in
(1859/66, by strated
was desired
dome
Oranienburgerstrasse,
of
over a
plan was an obvious choice.
cross
synagogue
770
The
Berlin
Knoblauch and others), demon-
J.
the enormous
capacity of this form;
it
seated 3,000, and vestibule and lobbies were en-
larged proportionately to receive the congregation (fig. 364).
The Byzantine dome was
flanked
noble
either with barrelled or gabled transepts, occasion-
design a Renais-
sance synagogue (Vienna, Turnergasse, 1871/2)
endowed with corner towers and cupolas or miniature domes. Florence has already been men-
with
tioned as the striking example, but there were
sance detail. Karl Konig,
mansions
in
Vienna, could
Forster's
Oriental
still
built
examples
Rome and Warsaw were two
before
capital cities
him.
which
refused to be swayed by the Moorish; while the latter
adopted the Renaissance
influence
was natural
in the
an
style,
Synagogue
of
ally
phically close to the prototype for
Italian
and
Rome,
America,
as far west as the
occupying a prominent position on the bank of the
nati,
Tiber on the
narets!
site of
the former Ghetto
(fig.
363).
e.g.,
the
(Ohio), with
Plum its
thirteen
Enough has been Moorish
tectural
said of the almost universal
detail of the
mid-19th century to show
363.
The Rome Synagogue on
style
in
use
—
all
Great Lakes of North
Street
But there was another
V
— geogra— them
others at Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria
Temple
of Cincin-
domes and two mi-
definite type of archi-
the Romanesque.
The
synagogues of Breslau and Strasbourg (now destroyed) were surprisingly pure copies of
the
bank
of the Tiber.
Roma-
,
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
771
which does not
one or the other of
into
fall
772
these groups, or into Oriental "mish-mash" grafted
onto a Renaissance form. Moorish, Arabic, Saracenic and Turkish detail was applied freely to
groups, but the use of horse-shoe arches, of
all
graffiti-
work, of inlayed materials and internal richness of
ornament are more characteristic of Byzantine
designs. Often details reminiscent of the
—
Europe were intermingled
Ages
in
and
machicolations
to
windows,
gables,
rose
corner
turrets
roof
crenellations
and arcading;
arches,
octagonal
particularly
these associated with the Romanesque. Yet
by no means unusual
to find, in the
gogue building, forms and
details
and
towers
lines,
stilted
Middle
were it
was
same syna-
drawn from
half
a dozen historical styles of architecture and mixed
together with remarkable lack of taste and consistency.
Materials varied widely:
often
all
were used
on the same building. Instead of the serenity, beauty and repose to be found
364.
Synagogue
J.
Knoblauch and
others.
nesque churches, favoring the German its
(1859/66),
in the Oranienburgerstrasse, Berlin
by
in a building of
with
style
picturesque turrets. Often the traditional basi-
lican
synagogue plan found expression
in
the
of the early churches of Northern Italy;
manner
typical of these
was the end
elevation, consisting
and lean-to
of a gable terminating the nave,
aisles
window Mannheim
arcading beneath the eaves and a rose
placed
centrally
over
Synagogue (1855), so in general
is
entrance.
a fairly obvious derivative;
is
form are the elevations of Karlsruhe
—
although the
distressingly complicated
by too many
and Stuttgart
(1875) former
the
(1861)
borrowings from other
styles,
and the
latter
a
hybrid example of Romanesque detail foisted on a
Byzantine
of Paris
Rue
domed
— Rue de
des
interior.
la Victoire,
Tournelles
bv
The
synagogues
by Aldrophe
Varcollier
(
1874
(1879)
)
and
Romanesque in style: while the supreme example was the Temple Emanu-El in New York. Brussels
There
(1880)
is
(fig.
hardly
a
365)
are
svnagogue of the period,
365.
The Synagogue
in
Brussels
(1
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
773
good proportions using simple materials these synagogues threw
m
well,
to the winds,
restraint
774
clamored for attention, and by piling extrava-
gance upon
exposed their vulgarity and
artifice
ostentation from the prominent city sites
now
occupied. In fairness
let it
be said that errors
were by no means confined
of taste
they
Jewish
to
places of worship; under the respectable cloak of
the Gothic revival, cardinal offences were often
committed by church
while
architects,
secular
architecture gave unbridled rein to the forces of architectural disruption.
VI
As has been pointed adopted
synagogues
although
out,
medieval
contemporary
the
style,
synagogues of the 19th century shied away from Gothic. Nevertheless, a certain
be detected, mixed
detail can
amount
of Gothic
with the domi-
in
nant Romanesque, Byzantine and Oriental styles
—
sometimes
windows
the tracery of
in
or in
forms of vaulting, in the use of clustered columns at:
ached
to piers, occasionally in the introduction 366.
Synagogue
in
of a pointed arch.
a pleasant surprise to discover in the
It is
Beth Jacob Synagogue setts, a
dows
gable end.
At Archshofen, (built
New
window
rose
The building
and has a
detail
a
it,
is
otherwise Georgian in
England clap-board
structures.
For
Mikveh
full-blooded
we must
go to
Israel,
having commissioned a church
was given such
a building in
details as the
memorial
tablets.
Perhaps Vienna
had more Gothic synagogues than other towns, due
to
the beliefs of one man,
Working
in a citv of Classic
with a
(1883/4)
pendants
Mullnergasse
(fig.
complete
(1888/9)
and the Neudeggergasse (1903), manner. In to
flat
366), the
with
towers,
in Early English
was sup-
his choice of style, Fleischer
have been inspired by the ancient syna-
Max
towards the end of the 19th century,
Moorish craze had passed
built
its first
when
the
flush of novelty
and excitement. They were accompanied by a few others in the Gothic style, usually in provincial
towns
(e.g.,
where
church
Sheffield
1877,
even to the design of such internal
consistent
Schmaltzhofgasse
the
gogue of Prague. These synagogues were
Savannah, Georgia, where the ancient congrega-
architect,"
in
detail in basic-
a
example of a Gothic synagogue,
which
religious
buildings and designed three Gothic synagogues,
at the center.
un-Gothic
styles
for
exterior.
windows with an up-
But these were merely tinges of
tion
he considered profane and pagan
posed
ward quirk
(1883/4),
Fleischer.
he steered firmly away from
tecture,
celling decorated with
1865) was rescued from banality by the
insertion of long pointed
ally
piercing the
Wurttemberg, the synagogue
in
Max
little
Massachu-
of Plymouth,
simple arched entrance and pointed win-
flanking
Schmaltzhofgasse, Vienna
by
and Leeds
architects
were
in
England),
employed.
The
and
true
exceptions, however, prove the rule,
that no great or notable synagogue in
it is
any capital
town chose the Gothic. Fleischer.
and Baroque
archi-
Let us pause and consider one or two interesting sidelights in the history of nineteenth-century
*
He
is
popularly believed to have used, on a reduced
scale, designs
already
made
for a church.
synagogues. patterns
We
have
and trends
in
been
following
general
planning and design, but
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
775
The Stockholm Synagogue (1878), by
367.
two buildings
F.
W.
776
Scholander.
unusual to
building of two storeys, a square base and cupola
The Stockholm Synagogue of 1878, designed by F.W. Scholander was described
of heroic proportions bearing a steeple; the spire
most
building arose out of the desire of the Jewish
there
are
sufficiently
deserve comment.
in
a contemporary journal as "one of the
noticeable
galleries,
of
edifices
Although
it
Swedish
the
capital."
has a simple rectangular plan with
nothing quite like
ance occurred elsewhere
it
(fig.
in external
appear-
367). There
is
a
reached the fantastic height of 250
community its
of Turin to express
feet.
This
gratitude for
its
recent emancipation by means of a structure
which would be an architectural ornament city.
to the
Unfortunately, the project turned out to be
were de-
machicolated parapet with a top-heavy appear-
far too ambitious; funds ran out; there
ance, slightly projecting stub towers at each corner
lays
and dominant end
Ultimately, the municipality relieved the Jewish
walls.
Perhaps due to
moteness from the battle-ground of popular
re-
its
styles,
the Stockholm Synagogue evolved a peculiar detail of
own
its
—
triangular heads to long
and hexagonal frames
A
windows
is
to circular.
the "Mole Antonelliana," designed as a
synagogue
Novara
in
Turin by Alessandro Antonelli of
in 1863,
later (fig. 368).
and not completed
The
until 15 years
architect, after
whom
it
was
named, was apparently inspired by the dome Florence tour
Cat
de force
dral
md
to
attempt
raised
upon
community
battles over the cupola.
of the burden,
taking over the un-
building and completing
finished
monument.
It is
now used
as the
as
it
a
Museum
civic
of the
Risorgimento.
second building to which attention must be
drawn
and long drawn-out
this
a
of
structural
columnated
The
last
century also provided a number of
examples of churches converted to synagogues, thus reversing a trend which since
had been
a
common
Roman
times
occurrence in countries where
Jews had been oppressed. Jewish use of churches in the
19th century was not the result of
and unhappy persecution; rather was
it
strife
significant
of the succession of immigrants, the inability of
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
777
modest communities
and
selves,
to afford to build for
them-
between communi-
of friendly relations
numbers
large
ark
778
of seats as close as possible to the
and
platform,
a
as
structural
form
was
between the con-
capable of bridging greater areas than the nave
gregational worship of Jews and non-Conformists,
roof of the basilica. Largely for the latter reason,
ties.
As a
result of the affinity
their buildings
were often similar
in architectural
and chapels acquired by Jews were
character;
the
square
came
(and
later
by Orthodox
into use
congregations, which
often converted satisfactorily into synagogues.
of
maximum
octagonal)
capacity.
had
domed
as well as to
plan
Reformed
meet the problem
The combination
of
bema
and ark -platform and the introduction of a choir VII gallery over the
We
have
so far considered synagogues
from the aspect of
style in
mainly
outward appearance.
by Orthodox
on the Continent and
But the 19th century brought about important
hand,
changes in plan arrangement, which were intim-
land,
connected with the increasing popularity
ately
of Byzantine forms.
When,
in 1818, the
synagogue or "temple" was founded a
movement was
started
which was
in
lican plan
which had been used
because
turies,
and ceremonial
Jewish fitted
it
in the
U.S.A.
resisted
Indeed, in strongly Orthodox communities, Re-
layout into a point of principle.
far-
the other
by Sephardi communities.
Hamburg, have
On
did not become popular quickly in Eng-
and was
form innovations led
The basimany cen-
for so
it
Reformed congregations,
Reformed
to
reaching effects on synagogue design.
Ark was adopted quite commonly
as well as
Finally, for a
to elevation of the traditional
form of service
in
which the con-
gregations sank to the level of an audience and
the minister took the position of leading actor,
furnishings
liturgical
was immediately
so well,
questioned as soon as the form of service under-
went of
revision.
came
Coupled with the simplified form
introduced in Reform congregations,
service
a greater emphasis on the rabbi's position.
Greater importance was placed on the sermon.
The rabbi became
were introduced, and the form
by degrees
and organ
a preacher, choir
to resemble in
came
of service
many
respects that of
Christian worship.
The tionary,
gues.
on synagogue planning was revolu-
effect
and was not confined
From
Reform synago-
to
his traditional position in the center
was elevated
of the congregation, the minister
The
a pulpit.
central reading desk
the platform before the ark, and
came concentrated Once
this
at
all
merged
to
into
activity be-
one end of the building.
change had occurred,
it
became
desir-
able to provide good sight lines for the congregation, ly
from
plan.
and the desire
sermon
distinct-
seats led to a reshaping of the basic
all
Form
became
to hear the
follows
function;
shorter, then square,
first
the
basilica
with fixed seating
stepped up on the sides from the center. As congregations cross
grew
plan with
in
the
domed
became the accepted
larger central
towns,
a
Greek
space gradually
solution because
it
brought
368.
"Mole Antonelliana"
in Turin (1863), by Alessandro Antonelli.
779
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
theater plans
became an obvious
and
solution,
of this century are to
Reformed synagogues
in
be
found fan-shaped auditorium plans with raked floors; these are
minutely studied for good vision theatrical concen-
and acoustics and have almost tration of lines of the ark
pulpit, with
lighting cleverly used to create an
and
rials
and
As
tional effect.
mate-
emo-
striking changes,
felt,
fined to half a
more than
which came about withsixteen centuries. After
the Reform
movement had been
the emphasis had changed from a congrega-
tional worship, in
which the minister* was a leader performance
in the center of his flock, to a staged
00 ,
hitherto con-
dozen symbolic devices. Rules go-
verning the orientation of synagogues were also
while plausible religious reasons were
relaxed;
advanced
for a departure
from convention,
be
to
generation,
this
may be
it
the end of the 19th century, as the Oriental style
passed
its
zenith, there
came a
further spate of
borrowings. Having exhausted their sour-
stylistic
ces of ornament, architects turned to a final flurry of
revivals.
Germany
In
particularly,
a curious
bastard style which has been called the "Rundbo-
emerged;
genstil"
reached England with the
it
Reform Synagogue
building of the
Curiously enough, in discarding Orthodox ritual
(1870) and was characterized by a
observances and adopting forms and customs ap-
mentation of Italian Renaissance.
much
.
noted that towards
with the minister pontificating before an audience.
parently very
was
it
usually lack
upset a plan form which had been
full effect of
(or rather reopened)
the door to representational art
sent
traditional for
the
Talmudic ordinances opened
Before passing to the achievements of the pre-
galleries.
These
general relaxation of
(except
regation between the sexes, such plans
in a century,
A
gave great scope.
style
780
admittedly convenient on a valuable or restricted 000 urban site to able discard restriction
the result of the abolition of seg-
where capacity determines shape)
MODERN TIMES
simpler and more liberal, Re-
Classic,
in
London
florid orna-
Renaissance, Georgian, Colonial,
Em-
—
form synagogues achieved an atmosphere more
pire,
Baroque came back
overpowering than had ever previously obtained;
now
grafted onto steel skeletons and sometimes
this
was done by the staging
of services, timing
handled more
of musical interludes, the significance given to a
cessors.
few special prayers recited
lin
Hebrew, and the
in
emotional character of the architecture.
As the Reform service grew
skillfully
than their riotous prede-
The Synagogue on
the Lindenstrasse, Ber-
(1890/1 by Cremer and Wolffenstein ) seated
nearly 2,000 within
close to that of
in swift succession
—
rior
its
pseudo-Renaissance
inte-
"Hanoverian" or "Wilhelmian" was the
synagogue, particularly in America, coming to be
new name for it. In the U.S.A., the Byzantine dome was made of reinforced concrete and clothed
regarded as a Jewish church and assuming ex-
with a Spanish mission flavor on the West coast;
ternal forms as demonstrative as those of churches.
in
Christian worship,
Stylistically, as
temple,
we have
the
as
chosen to
call
For
the
dome
seen, the
synagogue —
or
Reformed synagogue had now
—
itself
pression which ches.
not surprising to find the
is
it
would
a while,
it
sought an external ex-
differentiate
from chur-
it
chose almost unanimously
which came
of Byzantine origin,
to
to
fit
new form nities
the square plan
The
of service.
and the
full
now adopted rise of
citizenship
to suit the
enjoyed bv
Jews, gave opportunities for architectural display
and
artistic
New
Government
pressive
York, was rebuilt in 1897 in
The enormously imTemple Emanu-El (1929) was construcClassical.
ted on one of the most fashionable streets of
New
Perhaps the most remarkable examples are to be found Temple of Los Angeles, U.S.A. (1929), where the characters and events of Jewish history are portrayed in a series of murals within the synagogue. For representational art in the synagogue in former ages, *
in
wealthy commu-
now
Shearith Israel,
U.S.
style.
be
regarded as a symbol of universality and happe-
ned
Chicago and Cincinnati, the Greek temple came
back; Atlanta, Georgia, revived the Colonial
adornment, for which the Byzantine
the Wilshire Boulevard
see chapters
V
and
VII.
*
Synagogues, like churches (which obviously reflected in this the former synagogical convention) traditionally faced towards the Holy Land in Europe or North America towards the East (mizra/i) or South-east. To effect this :
*
The wtml
"minister"
Traditionally Judaism
congregation and
a
is
had a
rabbi
used here in a general sense. hazan who prayed with the
who was
essentially
a
teacher.
on
sites
where main entry in the normal direction would
have meant an incorrect orientation, some synagogues were planned for entry at the sides or at the rear of the ark.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
781
York on the
lines
Romanesque
detail.
Synagogue
Gothic cathedral, with
a
of
architects
were no more adventu-
They
than the body of their profession.
rous
782
evolved no fresh approach to problems of design;
new
they substituted the
now
materials
available
only where these had economic or structural ad-
A
vantages.
such as David Mo-
classic architect
(whose work has been spoken of
catta
used cast iron columns and
chapter)
previous
the
in
brackets to support the galleries of the earlier
London Reform Synagogue
1851, but clothed
in
them with irrelevant stone mouldings executed in plaster. In the latter half of the century, the
use of cast iron assumed larger proportions as
by which
architects appreciated the relative ease
spaces could be bridged with the material. If only casting
the
was
moulded
suitably
—
something entirely different for
example
—
represent
to
an acanthus
was sometimes allowed
it
leaf,
to show.
The Central Synagogue, London (1870), made considerable use of cast iron in this way, while
Rue des
the synagogue in the (J
expended one-quarter
879)
can preference for
concrete
dern technique was
new
materials
until they
present
The Ameri-
domed synagogues
symbol
(a
wedded
most
the
construction;
Roman Empire
of the
budget on
its
Co.
gave early employment to
of universality),
inforced
of
&
ironwork supplied by Eiffel
mo-
in the East. Gradually, the
into
buildings,
garments and superfluous ornament
more
their structure
mass-
materials available to him.
Among
to architectural forms
became absorbed
to take greater interest in the general
ing and modelling of his design and to explore the natural textures and contrasts inherent in the
century did synagogues begin to shed
and express
began
re-
became the mainstay. Only during the
their eclectic
Kehilath Anshe Maariv Synagogue of Chicago (1890/1). by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan.
369.
Tournelles, Paris
the
break away from eclectic
to
first
style was the Kehilath Anshe Maariv Synagogue of
Chicago (1890-1) designed by the Jewish archi-
Dankmar Adler and
tect
(see
his partner Louis Sullivan
page 749), who exerted
influence on interior
American architecture
of this
profound an
so
place of worship
(fig. is
369). The similar
to,
honestly.
though richer than, that of the Auditorium BuildVIII
Following the
various revivals and the final wel-
heterogenous styles
ter of
ing in the
which marked the end
of
the 19th century, and after the engineering exploits
and the introduction
first
of
new idiom began
ing, a
of
all,
and the
new
materials into build-
to appear. It
of too
itself,
in
1913
like the
at
architects. It
Essen
—
a
was followed by Korner
domed
building, reached
Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue of Berlin
through a its
designed somewhat earlier
series of vestibules.
lack of derivative detail,
Yet
it
was
fresh in
and made bold and
The facades
effective use of coursed rubble stone. Zurich also,
with a synagogue built in 1923-4 (by Henauer and
conducive
Witschi) following a competition in 1918, shows
restless,
to a sense of dignity, repose, strip
the ornament was the
Once
this
hardly
and solemnity. To first
step
to
the return to sanity after the Byzantine dream.
The German architect Peter Behrens, another name in the Modern movement, designed
take.
had been done and the form and mate-
of the building
by the same
city,
many synagogues had
in a simplification of design.
interiors
been exuberant and
rial
showed
same
were revealed, the architect
great in
1928 for 2ilina
(Czechoslovakia), a
domed
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
783
784
synagogue which, by comparison with
manv
its
of
predecessors and
its
contemporaries,
was altogether admirable 370).
possessed
It
of simple its
(fig.
a fine sense
proclaimed
dignity,
purpose and was composed
well in
all its
and design
shape
parts; the
dome owed
of the
nothing to Constantinople, but
developed uniquely and natu-
from the reinforced con-
rally
crete system used.
During the brick sy-
nineteen-twenties,
a
nagogue
Amsterdam-
built
at
Oost (by Harry van Elte) was simpler
building
new
even
than
Rehrens'
and exemplified the
interest
in
effects
obtained by using local materials
was
also a time
the influence
of
when
371.
Synagogue
in
Amsterdam-Oost (1938), by Harry van
Elte.
be
to
(fig.
architecture
Cubism and,
in
371). This
came under consequence,
This building had a well-planned interior, and
although the elevations appear stark to our eyes,
was necessary
it
time to try and clear away
at the
buildings followed strict geometric lines.
the cobwebs of inherited irrelevancies in order to
German Modernism produced a Liberal synagogue at Hamburg in 1931 (Ascher and Fried-
provide the basis for a
mann), which was perhaps
at
as ascetic as
any
(fig.
372); here perfectly plain stone walling, as in the recent
Temple
of the Sinai Congregation,
(by Friedman, Alschuler
&
Sincere,
Chicago
1952,
fig.
new
Germany produced
style to develop.
other notable synagogues
Plauen and Rerlin (by H. Rosenthal and Na-
than). In England, during the 1930's, a famous engineer, Sir
gogue
Owen
Williams, designed the syna-
at Dollis Hill, a
suburb of London, using
373), was used entirely unrelieved by any orna-
poured concrete walls throughout with an unplas-
ment. The reaction from the bastard Moorish syna-
tered
gogue architecture had gone
built of brick
to the other extreme.
Other London synagogues were
interior.
and
relied purely
on that material,
coupled with window proportions for decorative effect; their
slit-shaped openings lar
and angu-
forms produce a curiously
Slavic effect in these buildings
(Willesden and N.W. Reform
both bv Landauer, Wills, and
Me-
Kaula). In Rudapest, the morial
Temple,
built
before
1935 (Vago and Farago),
relies
on the pure forms of square
and
circle,
rectangular base and
superimposed dome for fect;
fe^ru-^^LM. 370.
Design
oi
Synagogue
for Zilina, Czechoslovakia
(1928), by Peter Behrens.
and its
its
ef-
on the plain white wall triple
arched portico, with
shadows, for contrast
(fig.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOCUE
785
786
ber of synagogues built between the two world
wars was salutary
in that
the majority were
swung
the blind alley of eclecticism and be-
away from
came timid and non-commital, troducing a
little
most part being prepared for
in-
reminiscent detail, but for the
inoffensive.
new
occasionally
The ground had been
ideas.
IX
The new ings of
all
architecture started
forms. Excess of ornament entire lack of
by stripping build-
and exposing
irrelevancies
their
naked
was replaced by an
adornment: such
is
the nature of re-
The pioneer synagogues of Europe between the two world wars had a sound functional action.
basis and,
though lacking human touches, were
honest in their external expression and not without a gaunt internal solemnity. Rut
been
satisfied
by
men have
integrity alone,
rarely
and a natural
desire for greater artistic content in synagogues
gave free rein to the imagination of contemporary Synagogue at Hamburg (1931), by Ascher and Friedmann.
372.
374
)
The
.
architects during the last decade.
Liberal
concession to romanticism
sole
The
IS
a
and along
its
simple,
is
one of richness. Denmark provided a
simple
little
building at Aalborg
competition designs for the
effect,
though
program immediately following the Second World
War, synagogue designs were stage of development stlye
(1934). The
—
to reach the next
a richer
and more
The important work
of this period lies in the
new
two decades; the win-
in
ning design by A. Elzas
much Dutch
to
J.
J. P.
and had an
admirable purity about
The way
owed
Oud, the leading
architect,
it.
of the pioneer
is
hard; these and similar buildings of the 1920's
and 1930's
now seem immature and
lack-
ing in refinement, too bald and constructively
rather
experi-
mental. Their value lay in the
complete
break
which
they
made with the Oriental stvle. The effect of the few buildings mentioned upon the large num-
373.
Temple
lyrical
emerged.
Amsterdam synagogue of 1938 show how far architects had
come
of
the pioneers had pointed the way; in the building
battlemented motif running around the building flanking arcade.
The work
of the Sinai Congregation, Chicago (1952), by Friedman, Alschuler and Sincere.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
787
veloped
temple
MODERN TIMES
recent
in
now
greater
kitchen,
.
and
stage, a
— the two often interconnected — classrooms, a
library,
and administrative
club-rooms
is
offices;
included for week-
the whole group
services;
American
large
flexibility
occasionally a small chapel
day
The
consists of a social hall
temple for prayer for
years.
788
given natural
is
surroundings where possible.
Foremost among the architects commissioned for the larger projects
he
settled in
to
seize
temple
was Erich Mendelsohn,
after
America (see pages 730-733). Quick
the opportunities inherent in the
new
programs be planned a succession of
notable Jewish centers,
all
of
which are highly
imaginative and emotional and monumental in
had
design. Mendelsohn's liking for curved forms
been displayed previously, not only on many cular buildings, but on the chapel
which he
se-
built
the Hebrew University Medical Center on Mount Scopus in 1937; and a sketch dated 1936
for
for a
synagogue
in the
Judaean
hills
shows the
very plastic and expressionist nature of his design.
His American projects include the Park SynaThe Memorial Temple, Budapest (1935), by Vago and Farago.
374.
gogue of Cleveland, Ohio (1945)
med The
U.S.A.
large
and prospering body
rican Jews, living in cities that
centrated and of recent growth,
need
for buildings than
world.
had a
distance
of
and many
little
city
sited
on a ridge
Synagogue,
St.
(fig.
375); the B'nai
more, Maryland (1948) and Grand Rapids, Michi-
of
its
gan (1948), using a
triple barrel vault
made
and suburban with
sites for
synagogue centers, often
prominence and beautv. with the change
in
synagogue planning came ancillaries
main
to
be attached
The
building.
to the
reversion
to the ancient conception of the
three-fold function of the syna-
gogue as house of prayer, house of study and
given tious
full
Amoona
any other country of the
possessing considerable natural
Parallel
roofs
Louis, Missouri (1945), with a dra-
importance,
equanimity semi-rural
flat
matic parabolic roof; the Jewish Centers of Balti-
acquired
congregations
Ame-
a great do-
temple springing from a cluster of
greater
The automobile, and the acceptance
use by Reform Judaism
their
of
were intensely con-
—
eeting place
was
sco x c in the ambi-
community groupings de-
375.
Park Synagogue of Cleveland, Ohio (1945), by Erich Mendelsohn.
and butter-
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
789
fly
respectively.
roof
before
shortly
Finally,
he
death,
his
the centers at
built
790
St.
Paul,
Minnesota (1939), and Dallas, Texas (1951)
came
which he be-
in
interested
in
conical
forms of the main temple and
demonstrated so the
modern
clearly
style could rise to
great occasions and, in his
words,
"lift
and
Many also
own
the heart of man."
Mendelsohn large
how
built
for
the
communities.
rich
smaller synagogues have
been
and these
built,
many ways approach
in
nearer to
376.
Hillel
Foundation,
the Jewish tradition of congregational worship;
shorn of pleasant;
ir relevancies,
the brick temples at Tyler
and Dallas (Tifereth both designed by examples. buildings
economically planned and
Among may be
(Reth-El)
Evanston
centers at
111.,
Champaign,
and Evanston,
111.
around
planned
by Harrison and 111.,
(Hillel
Abramovitz.
(Frankel Memorial)
Foundation)
courtyards
and
(fig.
with
376),
circular
both in Texas and
temples, by Harrison and Abramovitz; the unusual
Howard Meyer, were modest the many notable post-war
diamond-shaped plan and cleverly handled roofs
cited the sophisticated Jewish
(Gabert, Mackie and Kamrath); Loebl, Schloss-
377.
Israel),
of the
big Temple
Burning Bush by H. Farber on front of B'nai Architect
—
Percival
Israel
Goodman.
Emanu-El, Houston, Texas
Temple, Melbourne.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
791
have
been
also
built in
792
Winnipeg, Canada (Shaare
Zedek Synagogue by Green, Blankstein and Russell,
1951), and Milan, Italy (Manfredo d'Urbino
and E.
Gentili,
— the
both Jews; 1954)
latter con-
taining an entire reconstruction of the old syna-
gogue destroyed
War, behind
in the
its
existing
facade.
The wholesale
destruction
gogue destroyed
in
German
of
the war, behind
its
syna-
existing
those mentioned above were reduced to rubble),
has led to rebuilding for the tiny residuary com-
One
munities.
of the
West End Syna-
the
first,
gogue, Frankfurt, was internally rebuilt in 1951
(Kemper, Hadebrand, and Leistikow); unfortunately the Byzantine plan of Franz Roeckle's
1908 remains, but
bastic building of
been
struction has
modern
and
clarified
bom-
in the recon-
simplified, with
work added.
stained glass and mosaic
A
small synagogue recently completed at Woodford,
near London, acting as a is
Burning Bush by Abram Lassaw on Beth-El Temple, Springfield, Mass. Architect
—
man, and Bennett's temples
Percival
at
(Beth-El), and River Forest,
Temple
111.
South Bend, Ind.
(West Suburban
Isaiah), both boldly sculptured. Quite the
most interesting and
prolific
designer
Goodman, whose synagogues*, though embrace
is
Percival
rarely large,
the arts associated with architecture
all
in a fresh
The
Goodman.
and exhilarating manner
(figs.
377, 378).
styles
were is
on
and painting, weav-
with success.
emerging
in
A
simple and friendly pattern
is
synagogue design by the use of basic
materials and the honest
and imaginative approach
appear in synagogue
to
modern in
a
architect
more
than was previously possible.
It
studies
scientific
way
hardly seems
credible today that the beginning of this century
could see
synagogues
in
Paris
and
North Africa so similarly designed as
in climate
ing and glasswork are brought into the synagogue
the
climatic requirements
distinguished for their re-examination of ancient
arts of sculpture
universal
imposed, a regional cha-
artificially
design,
indication
them. The
when
design. Apart from the effect of indigenous materials
and are
symbols and creation of fresh design forms for
it
England.
now beginning
create pleasing effects
to
in
racter
materials
and textures
simple lines
its
garden in which
In contrast to the 19th century,
make play with
smaller buildings
to the treed
can perhaps be taken as a sign of
placed,
awakening 378.
(Weinrach), with
foil
in
their
in
French
to give
no
appearance of the variation
The modern Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem (E. Stolzer, M. Rubin, R. Friedmann, 1934-5) with its window openings
reduced East
between
their sites.
to suit the strong sunlight of the
(fig.
Middle
379), and the recent synagogue at
Herzliya (Mohilever and Canaan, 1950), protected
by
large
perforated
sunscreens
appropriately
of younger architects collaborating with artists in
moulded
to
allied fields.
illustrate
the effect which climate can produce
While the United States provides the vast majority of exai
pies, interesting
modern synagogues
on design. The impressive synagogue (1935) would be memorable that
in
Millburn,
Baltimore, Denver, Lebanon, Lima,
New
Lon.
n,
Miami Beach,
Providence and Springfield.
the form of the Shield of David,
it
was designed by
a
if
at
Hadera
only for the fact
woman,
Judith Stolzer
(wife of one of the group responsible for Yeshu-
run in Jerusalem )
.
Built before the State of Israel
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY SYNAGOGUE
793
Yeshurun Synagogue, Jerusalem (1934/5), by E.
379.
came
an area where Arab attacks
into being, in
were frequent,
it
conception
the
of
old
vided shelter sons, while
to
have provided
emergency
in case of
from the tower
would be possible
synagogues in
fortress
The courtyard was
Poland.
some extent the
revived to
for 2,000 per-
for
a
Stolzer,
M. Robin,
glass-towered
favorite atmospheric
794
R. Friedmann.
pyramidal
manner
(fig.
temple
in
his
380).
He
has
been followed by other non-Jewish fired
architects,
with the possibilities inherent in synagogue
design; Pietro Relluschi
and Carl Koch collabo-
it
survey
to
the surrounding countryside for
marauders. Israel
due
is
young, and
many demands on resources, chief among
to the
building
them housing and the
ment
resettle-
of immigrants, has so far
been unable to provide many urgently ings,
needed
civic
build-
and yielded few syna-
gogues of any note.
The synagogue inspires the
project
major names of the
Modern movement. pupil,
Frank
published
now
in
Sullivan's
Lloyd 1954
Wright, a
design
380. Design for a glass-towered pyramidal temple by Frank Lloyd Wright (1954).
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
795
rated at Swampscott, Mass. (1954), on the design of the novel Israel,
and
interesting hexagonal
while Philip Johnson's vaulted design for
the Temple Knesseth Tifereth ter,
Temple
New
York (1954),
is
Israel at Portches-
both simple and
lyrical.
The program
MODERN TIMES is
spurring to
796
the
imagination;
the materials and the vocabulary are on hand.
There need be no fear of hands of the right men
it
of creating fine buildings.
this
has
new all
style;
in the
the possibilities
WORLD
THE JEWISH ARTIST IN THE MODERN EDOUARD RODITI
by
The troubled
mass emigration and
history, the
when Serge de Diaghilev
ception of theatrical art
the halting emancipation of the Jews of Russia
introduced his work to the Western world
during the past two or three generations has given
such ballets as Cleopatra (1909), The Fire Bird
the Western world
—
rica
—
throughout the
first
and Ame-
with some account of
artists
artists of
the "Fin de Siecle,"
creator of a kind of Russian Jugendstil, distinct
country of their birth and whose main
both from that of Vienna, Munich and Berlin
Of the
art of Soviet Russia,
played by Jewish painters
and from that
it.
and of the part
in its evolution since
1920, the Western world has only a few some-
what vague
notions.
early years
great
Beardsley and the
Bakst reveals himself, in most of his work, as the
life
rooted in the
productions were bound up with
thd
belated
manship and the decadent exoticism of Aubrey
Jewish
of
who were more deeply
of the
A
(1910).
Romantic who had been influenced by the pen-
contemporary Jewish those
and Scheherezade
artists
number
natural, therefore, to begin the survey of the
It is
(1910),
half of the twentieth century.
surprising
a
especially France
in
number
many Jewish
of
of
the Persian and Turkish
for instance, that
which sought
to renovate the
the
Revolution witnessed a
accomplished
this
experiments and
that
participated in these attempts
Marc Cha-
gall
and Jacques Chapiro, among painters who
later
achieved prominence in the School of Paris,
were already well-known
as innovators in Soviet
Under the tyranny
of
Stalin,
however,
of
art
Caucasus.
the
While representing the Western-European trends
know,
to renovate the pattern of Russian art.
Russia.
forms and his colors, to Russian folk-art and to
We
artistic
artists
Bakst reverted, for his
of Paris.
conceptions,
to
the
before
existed
by
Bakst
art,
many
of his
forms and styles that had
academic
nineteenth-century
Realism had threatened to art.
idiom of
reverting, in
stifle
of Russian
all
Bakst thus achieved a synthesis of the two
spiritual traditions of nineteenth-century Russian
the
art,
When
Slavophil and the Western.
emigrated
to
Paris
with
the
Diaghilev
he
ballet,
the dictatorship of a single style, called "Socialist
Bakst began to exert, especially between 1912
Realism," ruthlessly eliminated, by a series of bru-
and 1920, a
purges,
tal
all
those artists
who were accused
formalism or of bourgeois decadence those
all
who
of art of the
Though
of
in fact,
dissented from the party definition
and English conceptions
He
moment.
on French, German
of theatrical decor too.
remains one of the few truly great Russian of the early years of the
artists
ment
in
The
painting.
modern move-
Polish-Jewish miniaturist
the masters of
and cartoonist Arthur Szyk should be mentioned
few well-known Jewish pain-
here as an imitator and popularizer of the Oriental
there have been,
Socialist Realism, a ters, their
—
lasting influence
work remains
among
as impersonal
and undis-
and mediaevalist
and techniques
styles
of Bakst.
tinguished as that of their non-Jewish colleagues.
Among
Russian
artists of
the early years of the II
Revolution and the decade that preceded
had been, nevertheless, guished Jewish painters. is
there
number of truly distinLeon Bakst (1866-1924)
a
remembered everywhere
cal
it,
as a
master of theatri-
costume and stage-designing. His gorgeous
inventions indeed revolutionized our entire con-
The most Jewish the
art,
early
important development
years
of
the
Revolution,
group of Jewish painters to
in
Russian-
however, was the emergence, during
formulate
a
national
who
of
a
small
consciously sought
Jewish
style
of
art,
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
799
which
poster-work,
in
Constructivism. a
strong
among
After
influence
lichkeit School
known
generally
is
1920,
this
Germany
in
German
the
800
as
exerted
style
especially
too,
Neue Sach-
Dadaists, in the
and among the designers grouped
around the famous Weimar Bauhaus.
own
Altman's
Jew
1912, his
of
Self-portrait
of 1913, his portraits of the
Old
Russian poetess
Anna Akhmatova and of Chaim Nachman Rialik, all reveal him as one of the most outstanding among the many painters who, throughout the world, had taken to heart, in those years, the Cezanne
teaching
of
twenties,
Altman enjoyed,
dom
one of the
as
the
recognized masters
art.
Eliezer or Eli Lissitzki (1891-1941)
was
analogous to the particularist styles which other
Empire were be-
nationalities of the vast Soviet
ing
encouraged to develop.
officially
another
is
outstanding Russian-Jewish modern master
Nathan Altman. Portrait of Dr. Pasmanik. Pen and ink drawing.
381.
early
in Russia, great free-
officially
contemporary Russian
of
In
381).
(fig.
Centered
around the Habiinah and the Moscow Jewish
even reported to have died
is
Rom
concentration-camp.
had studied engineering ed
and purges,
a victim of Stalinist persecutions
and
who
a Soviet
in
Smolensk, Lissitzki
in
Germany, but return-
in
to Russia at the time of the Revolution
and
Art Theatre, for which this group designed sets
joined the Russian Modernists Tatlin and Rod-
and costumes, the Jewish Art Movement
chenko
early
years
Revolution
the
of
to
Constructivist art
tra-
the
to Jewish
popular
and humor, much
as Rakst
had already
Russian
reverted to
and
folk-art
folklore.
Pro-
among the artists of the Jewish Art Movement were Nathan Altman, Issachar Ryback, Marc Chagall, Eliezer Lissitzki and the minent
in
Altman
(1889
—
studied
)
art
first
Odessa, under Alexander Exter, and then for
a year in Paris, after which he Petersburg. At
first,
a
Impressionist,
latter-day
during
his
brief
Cezanne's theories and,
position
like
stay of
worked
in Saint
most of Exter's pupils,
in
Altman
Paris,
a
became,
convert
draftsmanship
to
and com-
from 1913 to 1917, practiced a
mild and somewhat rationalistic style of Cubism.
he
modified
elements
the Raijonu
matism
his
derived
me
of ^
and basically
Cubism, from
of Larionov
lievitsch,
proun
1918
ing
utilitarian
art,
tricks
(fig.
Lissitzki
he produced apparently
and
Europe.
realistic
of illusionist
man
Russian Constructivism to Western collages,
Lissitzki's
in
which he com-
bined details cut out of photographs and mounted within his tions,
own
designs of imaginary construc-
revealed to
illusionist
art.
German
He
artists
collaborated
a
new
also
field ot
with
the
Dadaist Jean Arp in the publication of a book,
he organized, of a
chitectural art, especially fruitful
real
mainly remembered as the
is
who brought
from
new
are
experiments
382).
some
and from the Supre-
and
ments of a basically two-dimensional and non-
incorporating
so as to develop a
to invent style
an engineer to the require-
his skills as
all
Isms
Futurism,
own
triumphs of architectural draftsmanship; adapt-
1922,
Italian
describe his
to
Lissitzki's
efforts.
to
In the revolutionary years, from
which soon led him
word proun
constructions, full of surprises
stage-designer Isaac Rabinowitsch.
Nathan
experiments in abstract and
in a series of
the
and
folk-art of the ghetto
ditions
reverted
of the
in the Arts,
famous
(Zurich, 1925). In Hannover,
Landesmuseum, the display
for the
collection of abstract art that
was
subsequently dispersed by the Nazis. In 1928, Lissitzki
there
returned to
was no news
of
Russia.
him
For many
until his
years,
death was
THE JEWISH ARTIST
801
announced
laconically
occurred
having
as
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
802
in
1941.
Among Jewish
known today as
painters,
(1888
(1890
—
At
and
)
mention here the Revolu-
time of
the
—
both well-
),
as sculptors, deserve too.
the
associates,
Pevsner
Naum Gabo
brother
his
Antoine
artists
and
friends
Lissitzki's
they happened to be in Norway, and de-
tion,
Gabo had
cided to return together to Russia. studied
physics,
Germany; Pevsner had studied
engineering in
and
art in Russia
in Paris. Pevsner's almost ab-
and Gabo's sculptures
stract paintings
three-dimensional
loid,
achieved
that
portraits
cellu-
in
very similar to certain Cubist or Construc-
effects
by Nathan Altman, represent
paintings
tivist
and
mathematics
chemistry,
a
5
$m fill
valuable and distinctive contribution to the his-
modern movement. In
tory of Russia's ill-starred
for a while in the
group founded by the Con-
master Tatlin, but soon quarreled with
structivist
him and,
published their famous Realist
in 1920,
Manifesto, reaffirming a conception, in principles of space
and
of time, as
art,
of the
opposed
to
the imaginary time and the imaginary space of
pure
the
the
But
Constructivists.
Pevsner and Gabo was of
382.
still
of
from being that
far
being founded
Realists,
Socialist
Realism
the
on a
hundred and
Russia,
were
Gabo was in
considered
undesirable
active, until the Nazis
even
in its
Germany, then
in Paris
Pevsner
achieved
sculptor
and innovator
his brother, in
and
and
and
nized as an
artist
whose
of the dreadful fate that
sense of the precariousness of his
later,
as
with
In the the
Ukraine
yet be generally recoggenius, in this field, bears
Ukrainian city of Elisavetgrad (now Kiro-
was
expected
consecrate
to
painter's international reputation. It
vetgrad that a
ghastly
wave
of
was
in Elisa-
pogroms had
way
of life
and
pogroms that swept over of
and
revolution
Ryback was away from
1919 and 1920, Ryback was practically starving in
Moscow, though
this
was
also the period of
his first enthusiastic association with the artistic
avant-garde of Soviet Russia.
interested
the
to
was murdered by Cossack bands which looted and destroyed his birth-place. In
man show, planned by which
any
at
his father
Ryback began
the big dealer Wilden-
might
mere present.
wake
counter-revolution, while
home,
constant
upon the community
of
the
in
this
devoted, Ryback acquired a
so
new wave
vo), Ryback died in Paris, on the eve of a one-
stein,
loose
of the sheer fragility of the
a
comparison only with that of Marc Chagall. Born in the
From
of the officials.
which he was
America.
who may
had been perpetrated there
of the horrors that
within living memory, under the very eyes of the
power,
The most important contributor to the Jewish Art Movement in Russia was Issachar Ryback (1897-1935),
remained haunted,
it
moments, by an awareness
Russia.
celebrity
in Paris,
idyllic
moment break
London, while
in
considerable
to
most
that
feel
in
came
Though Ryback's own
Pale."
was happy,
Tsarist Russia
1920, they were both forced to emigrate, under
which made them
"the
as
childhood, in this typical Jewish community of
knowledge
pressures
some
other towns and villages within
fifty
the area of Jewish settlement known, in Tsarist
military
they
Gadya. Lithograph.
started at Easter 1881, rapidly spreading to
"dynamic" notion of space and of time. After
political
Had
Eliezer Lissitzki.
Moscow, Pevsner and Gabo worked
revolutionary
in
and
also
he managed
was now
that
to develop his style as a Cubist,
structural
rhetorical devices, tions,
It
means
his
taste
experiments
mainly
to express intense for
folklore.
In
as
emo1921,
to travel to Berlin. Here, his pecu-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
803
MODERN TIMES
804
father's
his
which he
will
and
felt
com-
still
pelled to celebrate in his
A
art.
series of dry-points
which
he
executed
in
some of
Paris illustrates
the felicitous aspects of the
spiritual
artist's
change. His tender feelings for the lost world of
he
tragic fate, easily
its
become maudlin; had once
he
that
no longer obsessed
is
by
now
childhood,
his
all
felt
that
and
communicated so urgenta
as
ly
testimony only
degenera-
avoids
barely
ting into the sentimental
383.
Pogroms
Issachar Ryback.
1919
in the Ukraine,
or
of
humorous anecdotes
genre painting.
Shtetl
Cubism soon
expressive style of
liarly
the attention of critics and collectors.
Ryback completed
attracted It
was
The
no longer haunted
Ryback's conscience, and his art ceased to be
in
obsessed with his desire to identify himself with
series
the Jewish masses of the small-town ghettos within
of lithographs depicting scenes of Jewish life in
the "Pale." Ryback also designed a very delicately
imaginary Shtetl. Together with his water-
decorative series of figurines representing various
Berlin that
this
colors
immortal
his
on the theme of the pogroms, these remain
ghetto types.
Ryback's most important and personal contributions to a consciously Jewish tradition in art
(fig.
modern
383). They seem to express, with the
vividness of compulsive feelings of guilt or grief,
the
artist's
intense
filial
devotion, discovered too
world he had once abandoned and
late,
for the
that
had been destroyed while he was away, no
longer present to defend
In
it
Ryback was invited
1925,
Soviet Russia to design sets
Moscow
or to perish with to
return
and costumes
From now
increasingly romantic
Whereas he had previously expressed
and
nostalgic,
his
he had witnessed or barely escaped,
in
Expressionist
These were
distortions.
intended to communicate,
ambivalent
atti
of the world
\\
temporary Jewish out the
first
art,
which expressed, through-
half of our century, traditions
an attitude towards
human
tragedies in
in con-
life
and
that one of the greatest
history
have meanwhile era-
The "Jewish painting"
of Ryback, like
same
aspirations
towards autonomy in the Diaspora as the Yiddish literary
movement. Wherever
literature to
have
this
briefly flourished,
have been doomed
to
art
they
and
this
now seem
an early and often a
tragic death.
from the horrors, which
tragic sense of liberation
structural
relatively
Western world, yet he remains
that of Chagall, expressed the
even
still
one of the great masters of a movement,
to
on, Ryback's art
elegiac.
to the
died,
dicated.
for the
became
unknown
Ryback
it.
Theatre, but in 1926, a changed man, he
finally settled in Paris.
In 1935, Issachar
Ill
Cubist or
in plastic terms, his
own
The flow
of emigration of Jewish artists, even
after the Revolution,
and especially between 1920
des,
both his love and his horror
and 1930, indicates that Soviet Russia was
ich
he had abandoned against
far
from offering their
still
talents the kind of scope
THE JEWISH ARTIST
805
384.
that they found
America.
Many
Zygmunt Menkes. The
more
readily in
IN
Rejoicing of the Law. Jewish
France or
in
of these Russian-Jewish painters
have now obtained recognition
as masters of the
School of Paris. Others, like the ill-starred Simon Glatzer
(d.
1953),
are
unjustly
THE MODERN WORLD
forgotten.
native of the province of Minsk, Glatzer
was
806
Museum, New-York.
close friend of Soutine, but developed in Paris
a
far
more
naturalistic
and
less
His scenes of Russian peasant
terms of Slavic folklore,
much
tortured style.
life
transpose, in
of the
humor
of
A
Breughel's scenes of Flemish peasant-life. In his
a
handling of Jewish subjects, too, Glatzer tended
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
807
to
be
melancholy than most other painters of
less
Eastern-European Jewish
had
years, Glatzer
During the war
life.
and
his reason
seems to have been
permanently affected by the constant
what
avoiding
been
have
might
of
strain
considered
normal and sound behavior. In some
of his later
he thus continued to achieve, without
paintings,
One
history
was
contemporary Polish
of
well-known
also
the
flow
the
emigration
of
youngest
the
continued to bring to Paris, Berlin, London and
brothers
New
York considerable numbers of Jewish pain-
their
ters.
Marcin Katz, however, was one of the more
and
assimilated
successful
between
Poland
two
the
painters
Jewish
of
life
and almost
massive
sculptural
Paris Fauvists,
Katz has given
Old Cobbler, proof
his
owed of
such works
very
his
youngest son to follow
ther's footsteps,
in his
artistic
flects
thirteen
famous bro-
hoping sincerely that he would
Leopold
talent.
was
encouraged
who had
the genius of their older son
inherit
years
and of
The parents
sisters.
died before giving the world the
qualities
us, in
of
family
a
of
four
death,
his
Jewish
design and composition to Cezanne and to the
as
child
and
Maurycy Gott-
born
premature
Translating
people in terms of a modern idiom that its
younger brother
the
wars.
themes borrowed from the
in
A
was
Gottlieb
latter's
though he
art,
of the great Polish-Jewish painter
Leopold
too,
is
France as a distinguished
in
painter of the School of Paris.
after
Poland
of
(1883-1934),
generally listed as an outstanding figure in the
lieb,
From
384).
the most painterly Jewish artists
of
effects as in those
same macabre
and
rich
past,
(fig.
our century, Leopold Gottlieb
painted while he was pretending to be insane.
simulation, the
and innocent
sensual, elegant
to simulate insanity in a Paris
psychiatric hospital in order to escape from Nazi
persecutions,
memories of an almost pastoral
.SOS,
full
measure of
career indeed re-
Gottlieb's
the great changes that the artistic world of
Eastern Europe had witnessed in recent decades.
Though
he
his
instruction
first
received,
like
his
brother,
Cracow Academy,
the
in
older
Munich, he was immediately influenced
later, in
stolid
and healthy aspects
by the Paris Impressionists and decided to study
of the life of the craftsmen
and manual workers
in Paris.
feeling for the
more
unknown
of the Polish ghetto. Almost
outside of
Poland, Katz deserves to be remembered as a
sound
who
artist
New
might, in Paris, in
York
have gained a much more lasting
or in Israel,
Roman Kramsztyck (1885-1943) was ly recognized in Paris as
general-
one of the most repregeneration.
sentative Polish painters of his
tween the two wars, he acquired
in
Be-
Warsaw
a
considerable reputation as a portraitist; his tender
and somewhat
studies
lyrical
are particularly eloquent.
Germans
of
two wars, and
(1896
later to
brilliantly sensual
—
)
New
York.
decorat
between the
A
painter of
feminine nudes, of appetizing
arrangements and of joyful allegorical
of a Slavic
by
by the
was well-known Paris,
Menkes has developed Rubens or Renoir, which
compositions,
an
fatherland;
his
its
design.
e
elegii
warm
.
sense of color and
The world
representation
of
a style, that
distinguishes its
extremely
that he depicts
the
artist's
is
own
sketches
his
of
Gottlieb
Cracow. In 1926, he
and
Museum
of
Poland, where he had
recognition as a great patriot
official
as a master of
left
on the
action
Russian front are preserved in the
contemporary Polish
and
art,
again in Paris, where he died in 1934.
settled
Whereas Maurycy Gottlieb had never had occasion to assimilate the influence of
ism,
French Impression-
Leopold Gottlieb had rapidly acquired, from
his contacts
extremely of
Poland before he moved to
itself
killed
Warsaw.
in
Zygmunt Menkes
still-life
young women
He was
World War,
First
fought in the Polish Legion for the liberation of
been granted
fame.
in
During the
with the art of Western Europe, an
delicate
and sophisticated awareness
contemporary trends
and,
had
1918,
after
proven himself an active contributor to the experimental
work
of the School of Paris.
became a member
He
seems to have avoided committing himself vely to any style.
On
sought,
means of
and
exclusi-
the contrary, he remained an
eclectic, trusting only his
immediate
never
of any specific school,
experiments
own as
taste
an
by constantly renovating
and
artist.
his
He
his style
own thus
and
his
of expression, to communicate, with a sense
immediacy and a
vision that never ceases to be
THE JEWISH ARTIST
S09
with which he handled
fresh, the lyrical feeling
themes that presented themselves
all
and
IN
to his
human
Leopold Gottlieb's admir-
artistic sensibility.
ably composed portraits testify to his very personal
THE MODERN WORLD disciples of the his
810
French Fauvists, Farkas expressed
powerful personality
in rich
and somber
color-
harmonies that generally suggest a tragic sense of
doom. Browns, deep and translucid blues and
of
greens characterize his paintings, and his land-
Cubism, which he had assimilated without ever
scapes acquire thereby an esoteric quality, mys-
the
terious settings for his almost ghost-like figures. In
interpretation
of
great
his
sacrificing
the
philosophy
structural
interpreting
for
gifts
natural appearance of his models. In his gouaches,
some
with their clear and diaphanous
Farkas developed a
elongated
cately
figures,
colors, their deli-
has
Gottlieb
given us the purest expressions of his
perhaps
unnecessary detail and extremely sensitive in
their draftsmanship, revealing the almost anxious
quality of a Jewish sensitivity disciplined
by the
awareness of the virtues of an art that
artist's
mains laconic
(fig.
re-
385) while his etchings, espe-
cially his series entitled
The Clowns,
pieces of contemporary dry-point
brilliant
same general character
are master-
critic
as that of the great Fauvist
Andre Salmon has written
about the
art of Farkas,
Hungary and
Israel,
it
but
yet remains, except in little-known.
deserves to be collections of
more generously represented
modern painting and
in that
the middle
illustrates, since
has always revealed as close an
it
that are
affinity
with that of Paris as with the art of neighboring
Magyar
rather
founded
Amos
than with
close affinities with
Slavic
folklore.
(1877-) the
contemporary
Jewish religious traditions in his paintings and
Hungarian-Jewish Cubists, Bela Kadar achieved
promience,
Sturm exhibitions
in
a
for
Berlin
while,
around
in
1920.
Though more
decorative than the Paris Cubists,
Kadar
some
has, in
quality,
of his earlier work, a lyrical
derived from the folk-art of his native
land, that offers analogies with
of
Leon Bakst
(1890-) spite
in
is
or of
another
some
of the
work
Chagall. Imre Szobotka
Hungarian- Jewish
Cubist;
of an element of naturalism, his
distinguishes itself
tender
its
Marc
by
its
solid construction
and harmonious
style
and
color-arrangements.
Szobotka represents, in contemporary Hungarian art,
the Western or Parisian tradition, as opposed
to Kadar's
more native
or Eastern-European
Cu-
bism.
Of the many Hungarian-Jewish
artists
who
as victims of Germany's criminal persecutions, of the most outstanding
1944) and Imre in Paris
as
died
two
were Istvan Farkas (1887-
Amos (1907-1945). Well-known
one of the most remarkable foreign
The
expressed his deep awareness of
Austria and Germany.
Among
dic-
in Nagykallo, a center of
most truly Jewish of Hungary's painters,
in
fads.
Imre Amos was born
of the nineteenth century, an interesting anomaly
of
the decades between the two wars, Istvan Farkas
Hungarian Hassidism revealing
Hungary
Almost
on objective appreciation rather than on the
art.
IV of
enthusiastically
more than any other Central-European painter
tates of fashions
The art
and gouaches,
graphic style of the
master Raoul Dufy. Though the French poet and
art.
His drawings are classical in their avoidance of all
of his sketches, water-colors
385.
Leopold Gottlieb. The
Plasterers.
Drawing.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
811
being
lino-cuts, a series of fourteen of the latter
symbolic representations of the main Jewish re-
many
ligious holidays. In
Amos
of his paintings,
has represented sleeping figures; as in the works of Chagall, their
dreams are represented
but
too,
with the reality of
in a color-range that contrasts
German
art-world between 1920 and 1930, and
Hitler's
anti-modernist
of art that failed
mediocre and conventional
to
own
his
very
In the great
tastes.
he sponsored
purging the German museums, a majority of
These compositions, where almost incandescent
painters
and
lumped all styles
exhibitions of "degenerate art" that after
pinks, greens
conform
to
purges
by Jews,
cultural
together, as Jewish or corrupted
the world from which the sleeper has escaped.
whites contrast with the darker
812
whom
he had banned happened to be
In the minds of the general public,
non-Jews.
tones of the real world, deserve to be classed
however, they were often remembered as Jews,
among
and many non-Jewish German
the most remarkable achievements of con-
temporary Jewish painting.
Hungarian book-illustrations between the two
Many
wars attained a truly remarkable perfection. outstanding
these
of
book-illustrators,
wood-cut
Budapest were Jews. here. Lajos
Two
artists
has
decorator,
to seek refuge
whole
were forbidded
and
etchers of
a distinguished
many
illustrated
years,
of talent
artists
abroad
or, for
to paint or to exhibit
Anti-Nazi propaganda, on the other hand, especially in the
Jewish press in England and America,
tended likewise, though for different reasons, to over-estimate the importance of Jews in the
art-movement
dern
Germany.
in
Hungarian books with wood-cuts and book-orna-
suggested, at times, that contemporary art, if
After 1930, his art
decorative and liberated folkloristic
itself
became much
less
completely from
memories. Sandor Kolozsvari
its
(1896-
1945), a brother of the painter Kolos-Vari, was
well-known finest
work
in
Hungary
one of
as
contemporary book-illustrators; is
his greatest
a series of beautiful wood-cut illustrations
for a very finely-printed
haggadah, with text
Hungarian and Hebrew. Kolozsvari
Hungary
as a victim of
From an important
may
country's
his
Nazi
also died
artist
of
most
our time
well be the abstract sculptor, painter and
closely associated for
German Dada
many
who
years with the
movement, then with the obstract
art-movement that developed, under the influence of Eli Lissitzki's Constructivism, in the
Weimar
Bauhaus School between the two wars, enally with the Bfl»/iaus-in-exile in Chicago.
of
Jewish
its
German
would remain
talents,
now be
very poor indeed. Both arguments should
The Jewish contribution to contempoGerman art, especially after 1910, remained honorable but, on the whole, rather modest. With dismissed.
rary
exception
the
School
German
be
can
painter
actually
sufficient proof,
single
listed
today
than
rather
and
our age,
of
among
belongs
Paris
of art. It
no
Freundlich,
major innovators
the
Freundlich the
Otto
of
German- Jewish
among
of
photographer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-),
was
in
terror.
international point of view, the
Hungarian-Jewish
in
purged
mo-
was thus
It
ments inspired, to a great extent, by Hungarian folk-art.
twelve
in their native land.
type-designers,
only need be mentioned
Kosma (1884-1949),
and
architect
printers,
were forced
painters in
of
a survey
has often been claimed, without
that Franz
Marc was
partly of
Jewish extraction; Lyonel Feininger too, in spite of his Jewish wife, his half-Jewish children his
many
Jewish friends,
often said.
Among
of the group
Jewish
artist
duced by
was not
a
and is
so
the major Expressionist painters
known
as
Die
Briicke, not a single
can be found, though
this
Jew
as
all
works pro-
group were banned by the Nazis
as Jewish or corrupt art.
To be
sure, the Jewish critic
warth Walden
and
(1878-1941), born
lecturer Herin
Berlin as
Georg Lewin, exerted a profound influence on Ger-
man The contribution
of Jewish painters to the evo-
lution of contemporary is still difficult
to assess.
German and
Austrian art
Nazi propaganda at one
time over- estimated the influence of Jews in the
art.
After studying music,
Walden founded
in 1904, in Berlin, the Verein fur Kunst,
promoted public readings and unconventional
of the
writers.
cessful theatrical ventures,
which
works of young
After a few unsuc-
he founded,
in 1910,
THE JEWISH ARTIST
813 the famous
Expressionist periodical
number
and, in a
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
814
Der Sturm and
of galleries in Berlin
else-
where, promoted during the following two decades innumerable exhibitions of modern
German and began
taste
many
foreign.
show
to
both
art,
By 1917, however, Walden's signs of
becoming
erratic; in
of his writings, his passionate rejection of
forms of Italian or French Classicism and of
all
Impressionism, together with his praise of the
more Gothic and "Germanic"
now sound
Expressionist art,
of
characteristics
almost nationalistic.
Russia,
Walden suddenly emigrated to Soviet somewhat embittered by his waning suc-
cess in
Germany;
guages
institute in
In 1929,
"formalist"
after teaching in a foreign lan-
Moscow, he was arrested camp.
in a Soviet concentration
who
Other Jews art
as a
and a "counter-revolutionary" and died
movement
were pioneers of the
include Gustav Wolf
Germany
in
modern
(1887-1947), Rudolf Levy, Jacob Steinhardt and
Ludwig Meidner. A pupil of Matisse, in Paris, Rudolf Levy introduced Fauvism to Germany as early as 1908. An artist of exquisite taste, more trench
than German, Levy has
in his affinities
only recently begun to earn the that
he had
World War in Italy
many
for
II,
years
Levy was
tration-camp.
some other
deserved.
arrested
and died subsequently
praise
critical
During
A
truly
graphic left
artist
Book
of Job (1944)
effects of color
and book
and
art of
illustrator,
us in Confessio (1908)
of Genesis (1913), to the
some
Book
and to the Psalms (1947) reveal
a visionary quality that
Wolf
be a pioneer of Expressionist
His self-portraits reveal most clearly his some-
what tortured
style of caricature,
closely allied,
at its best, to Soutine's in its masochistic delight in sheer ugliness (fig. 386). In his black-and-white
of the earliest examples of abstract art. His illustrations to the
to
work, his etchings and lithographs, Meidner re-
his generation.
Gustav Wolf has
art.
Meidner
the nineteen-twenties,
had already ceased
Nazi concen-
much German
texture that characterize so
By
pressionism.
Self portrait. Engraving.
by the Gestapo
in a
More painterly in his style than German modernists, Levy always
avoided the somewhat crude
Ludwig Meidner.
386.
shares with William
mains an line
and
artist of
outstanding talent, his sense of
of composition having always
sound than
been more
his taste in colors.
With Ludwig Meidner, Jacob Steinhardt (1887-j had founded in 1913 the Berlin Expressionist group known as Die Pathetiker, which guished
itself
mainly in the graphic
at all times the emotional significance
of both subject-matter
and forms. In
neo-Gothic or Biblical like
style,
and content
his
somewhat
became
Steinhardt
Gustav Wolf, one of the
distin-
arts, stressing
finest
wood-cut
Blake. After his emigration to America in 1937,
artists of
Wolf's Vision of Manhattan (1944) expressed the
nique of engraving his blocks and his use of color
apocalyptic quality of the
New
York
our age. Steinhardt's very personal tech-
in his prints give these unusually large
sky-line.
composi-
1910 that Silesian-born Ludwig Meid-
tions a kind of painterly quality, especially in the
ner (1884-) began to attract attention in Berlin.
treatment of skies; his work avoids having the
It
His
was
in
almost
prophetic
visions
of
mechanized
warfare and of metropolitan disasters revealed in pictorial terms the
same apocalyptic pessimism
the poetry of the leaders of
German
literary
as
Ex-
dead empty spaces which characterize wood-cut
art.
had served Front,
in the
where
so
much
War I, Steinhardt German Army on the Eastern
During World
his
contacts
with Jewish
life
in
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
815
Artur Segal. Fishing Boats
387.
Lithuania awakened in him an awareness of the poetic
and
After a
plastic trip
first
values to
Israel
of
Jewish traditions. 1925,
in
Steinhardt
1933 and has revealed himself a
settled there in
the
many
attracted attention in
wars, a to
number
Walden's
in
Sturm
Wollheim taught
Diisseldorf,
in
one, at times, of Gauguin's South-Sea paradise.
Her hauntingly sad
her suicide, which occurred years
—
In
same
the
His somewhat tortured and emotional post-Im-
which tended
Eli Littitzki, all three of
art,
German
art
and
to distort
to
many
whom
influence.
Born
Artur
painter
Impressionist,
in Jassy in
Segal
but
grotesque or shocking aspects of
Cubism. Segal's
to
obtain
later in
much
reality.
In exile
America, Wollheim failed
recognition.
Anita Ree
(1885-
1933) remains a tragic figure among Jewish
pictures to
be
very
a
in
gradually
distinctive trick
four
somewhat
of
equal
his
at all times striking
monotony
of
her
qualities of design
at
lived
first
developed, of
and
an
after
prismatic
many
tends,
fields
remain
intolerable
was
style
schematic
though
the
Germany
of
dividing
artists
from
influ-
Rumania, the Cubist
(1875)
of her generation. Basically an escapist, she sought
refuge
profoundly
years and exerted a considerable
1905,
France and
and
two other foreign-born Jewish painters who
suggest pathos or anguish by stressing the more
in
when
enced certain aspects of contemporary German
there for
of his generation,
later,
In addition to Lasar Segall, Jankel Adler
were never well-known outside
very typical of the
to foresha-
completed for a Hamburg school.
was
)
influence on younger painters of the Rhineland.
is
seem
self-portraits
school as Jankel Adler and exerted a considerable
pressionist style
an exotic
in
dream-world that reminds
she heard that Nazi cultural policies had led to
exhibitions. art
stylized
the destruction of a large mural she had recently
then exhibited
at first a pupil of Lovis Corinth,
Hamburg background
who
of other Jewish painters deserve
be remembered. Gert Wollheim (1894
regularly
middle-class
the two
Expressionist painters
Germany between
816
Bornholm Harbor.
and somewhat
dow
great teacher.
Among
in
MODERN TIMES
of
his
however,
monotonous,
and construction
(fig.
387). In 1910,
Segal became one of the leaders of the Berlin
THE JEWISH ARTIST
817
IN
Neue Sezession, which grouped the younger artists who were already revolting against the Impressionist artists of the existing Sezession,
Max Liebermann, and was until
he emigrated
in
Spain and
to
first
Kulviansky (1892-)
Issai
At the age of
same kind
of
morbid temperament
The in
village of
Van Gogh and
as
Lengnau,
Soutine.
in the canton of Aarau
Allemanic Switzerland, harbored for genera-
community
tions a small
of
Jews among
whom
the
was born
in
Lithu-
Guggenheim family was prominent. To these belongs the naive painter Alis Guggenheim (1896-)
he came
to
Vilna,
who began
then to England.
ania.
818
of genius, he remains a painter of the
founded by
influential as a teacher
1933,
THE MODERN WORLD
fifteen,
her
career
artistic
and remains
age
the
at
of
though
where he was a pupil of L.M. Antokolsky. In
twenty-six,
1918, after an interlude in Paris, he settled in
she had tried sculpture and ceramic art before
and was active
Rerlin
advance-guard School
when
in a
groups,
it
was
still
number
including in
of post-war
Bauhaus
the
Dessau, the Novernber-
entirely self-taught,
concentrating on painting. Her work con-
finally
mainly of naturalistic landscapes, naive in
sists
and
their technique
their unconscious stylizations
gruppe and the Neue Sachlichkeit movement.
and deeply romantic
Kulviansky's paintings Death of the Carpenter,
of curious genre scenes of Jewish life in a rural
to
My
Swiss ghetto, remembered from her childhood.
the sturdy qualities of the Eastern
She paints almost exclusively from memory; scenes
European Jewish
artisan-class. In 1933, Kulvian-
living in France.
and sculpture
As a pioneer Kulviansky
too,
work only
kerchief in the
Lengnau
Synagogue
Lengnau
now produces
charm.
hi
ve
prevented
and
figu-
of his
many
emigrations
from
acquiring,
Kulviansky
through continuity in his exhibitions, the kind of international reputation that he certainly deserves.
Most
of the Jewish painters of Switzerland
have
in
The
Village Fountain or are
an elegiac
of
full
New
In Paris before 1940 and later in
The circumstances
occasionally.
of his unsettled life
such as The Centenarian Janne Washes his Hand-
of abstract painting
sky emigrated to Israel, and since 1950, has been
rative
or else
Parents are fine
The Jewish Carpenter and tributes
in their sentiment;
York,
the Basel painter Kurt Seligmann has achieved
prominence,
considerable
Abstraction-Creation
and
realists
phic
artist,
at
first
group,
post-Surrealists.
later
An
he sought much of
the
Paris
among
Sur-
in
outstanding gra-
his best inspiration
achieved, with few exceptions, only local promi-
from the almost
nence. There are, however, one or two exceptions.
rizes Swiss art of the Renaissance, especially the
Willy Guggenheim
world as Varlin, at
one time
(1900-)
is
in Paris.
known
who
a Zurich painter
A
the art-
to
friend of Soutine
lived
and the
dealer Zborowsky, Varlin has remained faithful to an Expressionist
and very emotional conception
of painting that often disdains the
more painterly
techniques of composition and execution. In his interiors of hospitals
and of restaurants, he com-
sadistic violence that characte-
famous Basel Dance of Death. Seligmann has with
revived
brilliant
glass of Swiss,
raising
the
There
Surrealistic compositions.
liant
much
of Seligmann's art,
affinity
painting
on
Bavarian and Austrian craftsmen,
unprecedented virtuosity
to
it
success
also
a
in his brilis
curiously
thus, in
Germanic
with the painters and sculptors of the
Renaissance.
municates a sense of sheer alienation that over-
comes certain
sensitive individuals
ly lost in a setting
who
intended for everybody but
adapted to the needs and tastes of nobody particular.
but rarely the
by
in
Mainly inspired by horror and disgust,
Varlin 's art borders at times on caricatures;
negative even than that of Soutine,
VI
feel utter-
more
S.
of
J.
Mak van Waag's
1870
to
occupation objective,
of
Holland and,
was forced
it
expresses
brackets after the
latter 's secret sensuality.
Obsessed
who happen
his fear of void, Varlin imprisons his figures
in a truly
haunting emptiness that he never seeks
to furnish
with decorative
detail.
On
a lower plane
commercial
Lexicon of Dutch painters
1940 was published during the Nazi
to
though admirably
to brand,
artist's
by adding
name,
all
be of Jewish extraction.
artists
and
a J in
those artists
Many
book-illustrators are listed
there as Jews, but
few are Dutch-Jewish
outstanding talent
who would
artists
of
deserve our atten-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
819
them and
colors without mixing
much
S2<>
in
and warehouses
city-scapes of cranes
techniques
Cubist
of
with
perspective,
Delaunay, the founder of Orphism,
Tower. In some of
of the Eiffel
compositions, such as
wald resorted
to a calligraphic
(fig.
and
costumes and
Among
the
Delilah, Isaac
outstanding
creative
generation.
the few refugees from Nazi terror
their
at
his designs
sets for the stage, especially for
among
is
artists of his
(ioteborgs
His
Fauvism that borders,
Oberon and Samson and
Griinewald
found
cari-
genera-
painters.
on German Expressionism. In
the operas
Griinewald. Portrait of the Painter Pascin.
in his
his portrait of the painter Pascin
Bohemian
morously
for
Tree, Griine-
are masterpieces of the kind of hu-
388)
times,
views
and almost
that,
was used only by very few
self-portrait
in his
his less realistic
The Singing
catural kind of composition tion,
several
had been developed by
vanishing-points, as they
Isaac
in the port
Stockholm or of Goteborg also adapted certain
of
388.
patches,
flat
as did certain Paris Fauvists. Griinewald's
way
to
Sweden,
Ernst
who
Benedikt
(1882-), former editor of the Vienna daily Neue
Kunstmuseum.
Freie Presse and son of the famous Viennese edi-
indeed surprising to see
tion. It is
how few Dutch
tor
and newspaper-publisher Moritz Benedikt, has
Jews, after the great contribution of Dutch Jewry
made
to the art of the Netherlands in the nineteenth
lop, in exile in
century, have been active in our age. Only Paul
Beginning at the age of
Roelof Citroen
Cerman
of the
1896
—
the most of his enforced idleness to deve-
Sweden, a
and associate
hibited
extensively
Expressionist masters and a close
Martin.
His
(
),
a friend
Banhaus move-
collaborator of the artists of the
which he
style,
calls
talent as a painter, too. sixty,
he has now
ex-
under a pseudonym, Ernst an Expressionist Primitivism
Intensivism,
is
always figurative,
ment, has achieved distinction in Holland as a
with a dreamlike quality in which color predomi-
modern
nates.
artist.
countries,
onlv
Sweden
had Jewish painters wald \
of
Similarly,
has,
above
one
most
modern
of
ideas
the
and
in
Scandinavian
recent decades,
of importance. Isaac Griine-
(1889-1946),
cars
the
styles in
all,
was
for
many
promoters
active
of
Sweden and throughout
Scandinavia. After the
World
War,
Matisse before
Griinewald
settled
in
fantasies, his paintings
wonderful skylines of fantastic
domes and
below our
situated either above or
level of reality
an analogy between his art and the
autistic thinking of certain "directed
day-dream-
ing" techniques in contemporary psychotherapy.
formed him, from a
jective vision of the outside
still
with weird
into imaginary worlds that are
A
brilliantly inventive Fauviste
cities,
towers. Martin's tendency to escape
in his paintings
Stockholm, where his great successes slowly trans-
revolutionary, into an almost conventional but
suggest imagi-
nary explorations of a submarine world, or the
suggests
studving in Paris with
First
As
firm believer in the integrity of the child's ob-
the child's
own
world as well as of
subjective fantasies, Martin has
much
outstanding modern painter of society portraits
sought a return, in
and
Swedish landscapes. Isaac Griine-
ces that inspire the paintings of children; in other
very brightlv
works, he has also allowed his conceptions of
of typically
wald painted, colored
until
landscapes
about
and
1920,
portraits,
applying
his
of his work, to the sour-
music, whether as a melodv or as thematic de-
)
THE JEWISH ARTIST
821
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
822
velopment, to suggest themes which he develops
are so deeply rooted and widely diffused that
in plastic terms.
the
VII
individual
artist
and assimilate
styles
can
acquire
easily
without
skills
development
this
necessarily corresponding to an equivalent spiri-
Similar tendencies
It has been the misfortune of Italian Jewry to
tual
come
one of
can be detected in the work of two other leading
and
Italian-Jewish painters, Corrado Cagli
of age, in the field of painting, in
the less brilliant periods of Italian
have
lost
genius,
creative
greatest
its
art,
to
Amedeo
Modigliani, to the School of Paris. In the
among
who were
the Futurists
contemporaries of
the so-called Pittura metafisica, no Jewish painters
were prominent. Only
later, in
a second genera-
tion of Italian post-Impressionists or Fauvists, did
the
and writer
painter
emerge
Carlo
Levi (1902
—
an important personality.
as
Carlo Levi's painting has his writing,
which
much
in
with
very often more typical of a
is
painter's sketch-books, with all the freshness of
immediate perception that a
professional
Much
as his writing
sonal, relying
is
this
implies, than of
considered
novelist's
impressionistic
narrative.
and per-
on the vivid techniques of reporfrom the very
tage, his painting too,
start,
has
community he
Rome
in
and
writing.
In
own
was
alien
Italy,
(fig.
389).
of Levi's painting
to
his
memories
of
he
to
seems
have discovered himself and
have inspired
to
the barenness and poverty
Southern
mains, in his
mind and
symbolic of man's justices
that
corrected
which
Italy,
fate,
may
and,
at
and
land
artistic
considerable
encouragement
official
Fascist regime,
which seemed
monumental or heroic
to execute a
number
buildings.
He was
of
some
of his
thus commissioned
of mosaics
Nevertheless,
of in-
same
diversity
be
389.
the
especially his rhetorical ability to praise
that he painted.
official
from
to appreciate the
qualities
re-
traditions
distinguish
modern world. Until 1938, Cagli thus received
Italian art, that of a
whose
to
artists,
Mussolini's notions of Italy's cultural mission in
the
one of the weaknesses of contemporary
tried
and the Re-
heart,
of Levi's painting seems to
he
year,
classical antiquity
destiny that allows no escape. eclecticism
in
naissance and which happened to coincide with
time, of the sheer tragedy of a
The
time
are supposed
indeed be the
first
man which
to
of
coast.
from the School of Paris by reaffirming those
have become deeply attached to
the
Rome" which would
landscape
a
utterly
childhood
Northern
much
The next
enforced
his
communion with that
almost traditional
haunts
1932.
for
conceptions of art and of
all
now
exhibited
"School of
a
work and
still
on the Adriatic
promote, with a group of other Italian
remained true to immediate perception, which
Lucania
Ancona,
of
studying art under a number of Italian
After
masters,
he conveys by means of a number of Fauvist devices that are
and Enrico
Cagli was born in the ancient Jewish harbor-
itself
common
ripening.
intellectual
Donati (1909-).
two
major schools of contemporary Italian painting,
or
Carlo Levi. Landscape.
and murals in
for
1939 Cagli
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
823
New
and
career in Paris
824
York as a commercial
before attracting attention as a painter ot
artist
and Abstract Expressionist
Surrealist tions
among
himself as one of the leaders generation
much
composi-
Donati can be said to have imposed
to.
Surrealists
whose
the second-
has
art
now
lost
and the compulsive emotional
of the anxiety
content which characterized the earlier Paris Sur-
now seems indeed
Surrealism
realists.
have
to
entered upon a manneristic phase.
The son
of the
Emmanuel Romano and
studied
At
dance.
at
one-man show
first
Glicenstein,
Rome
(1905-) was born in
first
age
the
Henryk
sculptor
under
he
twelve,
of
gui-
father's
his
held
his
Munich Kunstverein,
in the
then exhibited extensively in Italy and Switzerland before emigrating in 1928 to the United
A
States.
skilled
has matured slowly, producing
work
Romano
draftsman and painter,
much
of his best
in recent years in the course of his various
visits to Israel.
Inspired to a great extent by the
fresco-work and the mosaics of classical antiquity,
came
France and
to
Portrait.
later to
1945.
to a
America as a
re-
legendary Golden Age of humanity of which
finds surviving elements in the patriarchal sim-
shepherds in Judaea or in the
plicity of the life of
fugee.
In spite of the mannerism that can always be detected,
whatever
his
some
of
The (1891
in
style,
all
of his attempts to record the horrors
that he witnessed at the time of the liberation of
the starved inmates of the
Ruchenwald concen-
tration-camp. Since the war, Cagli has lived most of the time in Italy
neo-Realistic phase
and has undergone both
and a non-Figurative one
which he has sought discoveries of
to
modern
hilly regions of
to infuse real inten-
current
he has managed
Cagli's work, sity into
he
a in
paraphrase some of the
physics. In
most of these
illustration
men-
ginary scenes, dreamlike landscapes of the kind
in the past.
doned wrecks and desolate
architecture, remain intensely personal,
many
literary
mediately claims one's attention, though his
work remains but
A was
much
of
strikinglv decorative.
to
us and
by
he made a successful
his
the picture, to the reality of the dreamlike scene that he faces or to self
its
intimate relationship to him-
as sole witness.
This device, which creates
two
\lter 1934,
figure,
his presence within
herited, perhaps unconsciously,
Jewish family,
human
one presumes, turning
testifying,
second-generation Surrealist, Enrico Donati,
Milan of an ancient North-Italian
spite
that he depicted nearly always inclu-
bom
in
in
memories that they suggest.
ded, in the foreground, a single the painter himself,
rhetorical brilliance that im-
light-houses, his land-
scapes with Gothic ruins and fragments of classical
back
and a
and Turner painted
Nathan's unreal sea-scapes with aban-
He
cal virtuosity,
Nathan painted ima-
that Claude Lorrain, Poussin
time being, to have engaged his eclectic attention. has revealed, however, an astounding techni-
Arturo Nathan
sophisticated production of the painters just tioned. Entirely self-taught,
The scenes
programmatic
390).
more
to transcend a kind of
theory of art happened, for the
(fig.
contrasts strangely with the
of the
new
contemporary Italy
art of the Triestine painter
— 1944)
various experiments, Cagli has unfortunately failed
of whatever
back
style that harks
he has developed a pastoral Emmanuel Romano.
390.
levels
tics of
of
reality
within the picture
is
in-
from the aesthe-
sixteenth-century mannerism.
)
THE JEWISH ARTIST
825
On
IN
the whole, the art of Italian-Jewish painters
expresses an unusual serenity, a feeling of adjust-
ment
and
to their social
are rare in the
work
cultural backgrounds, that
many
of Jewish painters in
other countries; on the other hand, few Italian-
THE MODERN WORLD
and the provincialism which
seem
be the bane of much contemporary
to
Ita-
Wolmark was movement which, since
In this respect,
thirty years
ahead
of the
the end of
World
War
than the indus-
life less colorless
revolution and Victorian prudery left
trial
Bomberg
David
Birmingham-born remains the
it.
(1890
—
outstandingly creative painter
first
of native-born English Jewry. His earlier Cubist
or Vorticist
lian painting.
much towards making
has contributed so
II,
England's daily
Jewish painters have yet transcended the eclecticism, the virtuosity
826
work included some Jewish
which he depicted
in a stylized
scenes,
manner. In por-
VIII traying,
It
significant that the first truly
is
novators
came
among
the
Jewish
creative in-
England
of
artists
neither from the old-established trader-com-
for
an audience
instance,
London's
in
East-End Yiddish Theatre, Bomberg relied mainly on architectural or sculptural
in his use
effects;
of color, he restricted himself to the sober range
munities of provincial towns, nor from the pros-
that characterizes the
perous upper middle-class of the metropolis or of
slums. Later, in his
the newly-developed industrial centers. Instead,
Petra and Spain, and especially in his flower-
they were the Warsaw-born painter Alfred A.
Wolmark (1876-1961) and Sir
the
New
York sculptor
Jacob Epstein (1880-).
compositions, pressionist
most of London's
of
life
more Fauvist landscapes
Bomberg developed
of
a brilliantly ex-
freedom of design and a somber
rich-
ness of color.
1906,
During the Second World War, Bomberg ab-
where William Rothenstein had timidly shown
stained for several years from practicing his art
In the Whitechapel Art
a
couple
of
of
interiors
the
great
him
to try his
Exhibition of
synagogues Sargent
John
portraitist
hand
at
because
had urged
Jewish subjects, Alfred
Wolmark's forceful personality
once attracted
at
the attention of London's few perceptive earlier
paintings,
portraits
mudic
students.
critics.
work had included some genre
Wolmark's
of
venerable rabbis
These he depicted
in a
or
tal-
Rembrand-
tesque manner that had been revived by Jozef
and
Israels
Isidor
Kaufmann. But Wolmark soon
tired of the limitations of so conformist a
In Edwardian England,
among
his
more sober
quent apostle of sheer
show
Wolmark
thus became,
British colleagues, the elocolor.
At a Grafton Gallery
of the International Society of Artists,
other English painter dared close
manner.
to
his
own work
Wolmark's, for fear of seeming over-
powered by the proximity brilliance.
hang
no
Finally,
of
such
chromatic
Wolmark's work was placed
Van Gogh. In 1916, Wolmark published an article to propose the brightening up of Britain's drab towns,
next to that of
hospitals like
and homes.
music,
has
a
He
maintained that
healing
power,
bright harmonies can produce the logical
phenomena
and
color,
that
same psycho-
as richly orchestrated music.
atonement and mourning
as a gesture of
for the
tragedy of contemporary mankind and especially
European Jewry. Since he has returned
of
painting, his
work sometimes
to
reveals a rare hu-
manity and maturity.
Of England's Whitechapel ler
(1892-1939)
member artists
senberg
what
same small group
of the
of
Gert-
first
abandoned
Expressionist
a
East-End
as the poet-painter Isaac
soon
Gertler
crude
the most notable. At
is
and writers
Mark
painters,
some-
their
Subjectivism
Ro-
de-
to
velop a very personal and sculptural objectivity, a kind of lower middle-class
best illustrated
in
some
Classicism that
of his portraits
mother. His Jewish Family, which the Tate Gallery,
is
will
now hangs
in
when he had much in who
with Bomberg and Jacob Kramer,
be spoken of below. Inspired by the
of the
of his
a fine example of Gertler 's
earlier near-Cubist period,
common
is
contemporary scene
realities
London's Jewish
in
East-End, these three painters tried to develop, for
a while,
would
a
reflect
modern Anglo-Jewish the
emancipation which culminated in the Socialist
and the theatre
style
that
whole movement of Jewish
Bund,
in other countries
in politics,
in the
campaign
and
in literature
to raise Yiddish
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
827
to the level of a literary language.
of Gertler,
Bomberg and Kramer
These works
Claude Rogers, around 1937, was one of the
much
founders of the Euston Road School of London
art, in
Ryback and
others
sought to emulate the achievements of Yiddish
Europe. Gertler and his Bri-
literature in Eastern
eschewed, however, the bright co-
tish associates lors
and the
work
humor
who,
—
enthusiasm for the more
in those years of
modern
were
painters of the School of Paris,
sorely
neglected. Rogers thus remains one of the most
com-
delicately sensitive English painters of landscapes,
and coloring suggest a matter-of-fact qua-
),
to reaffirm the values of
and the English post-Impressionist masters
Sickert
who was born
in the
crowded beach-scenes.
especially
By
of understatement that are peculiarly English.
Jacob Kramer (1892
which sought
painters
that characterize the
of Chagall. Instead, their sobriety of
position lity
fantastic
manner.
less laconic
are English at-
tempts to formulate a Jewish style of the same spirit as Chagall,
have developed a
of Paris,
828
1934, the modern
had
art
movement
new
English
in
down, on the whole,
settled
to a steady
Ukraine, also revealed, in his earlier work, an in-
routine of imitating
teresting awareness of the compositional preoccu-
than of inventing novel and specifically English
pations of the Paris Cubists, and of the possibilities
styles.
that such a style offered for the treatment of Jew-
one could often detect an element of what Ber-
Atonement, for instance,
ish themes. In his Daij of
Kramer has expressed, by simplifying as in a
romanesque sculptural
In
Parisian trends rather
over-cautious avoidance of extremes,
its
Much
nard Berenson has defined as provincialism.
forms
of English art thus lacked the sheer inventiveness
frieze, a rare hiera-
and elegance which distinguish the work of a
his
Kramer has become
metropolis where styles and tastes are created and
increasingly reticent as a painter, almost obsessed
then imposed on peripheral areas. There was also,
with the fear of not achieving perfection.
in
In recent years,
tic quality.
The painting artists
straint
texture
of a majority of England's Jewish
by
distinguishes itself
its
qualities of re-
and sobriety from the richness
and the fantasy and
of color or
originality
of con-
the
work
many
of
English modernists, too
obvious a concern with popularizing, in the media of applied art, the
and devices England's
more abstruse
of Paris. In the
Jewish
artists,
or extreme styles
work
these
of a
number
of
towards
trends
much Eastern-European
provincialism and commercialization can be de-
Jewish painting, as well as from the extreme indi-
tected quite distinctly. In designs for theatrical
ception that characterize
vidualism of the
stylistic
painters in Paris
and America.
work, some of the
evolution of most Jewish
staid,
if
It reflects, in their
not demure, quality
of middle-class English life which, even in the capital, often
remains curiously provincial.
The Ukrainian-born (1891-1950)
as a chronicler of the First
of
which he depicted
himself particularly
World War, scenes
in a lyrical style that
and costumes,
for instance, the
more
were
skilfully
West-End
adapted
creative
Leon Bakst
to the tastes of
London's
stage by Oliver Messel, a gifted artist
of Jewish extraction. In the applied arts too, Bar-
painter Bernard Meninsky
distinguished
sets
ideas of continental artists such as
is
less
manneristic than some of his later paintings, and
nett
Freedman, who designed the King George
Jubilee
(1914 taste,
—
postage )
Abraham
and
stamp,
have popularized, with great
V
Games skill
and
forms and styles that had originally been
considered abstruse or highbrow.
with an objectivity that remained as free of Kip-
IX
lingesque heroics as the war-poems of his contem-
porary Isaac Rosenberg.
manuel Levy (1900
—
)
A
Manchester
Emmoody
artist,
has exhibited some
and almost Expressionist portraits of somewhat meditative
and almost neurotic types. Edmonci
Kapp's (1890
—
lias failed, in
recent years, to end adequate subject-
matter;
one
is
)
mordant
style of
dractsmanship
often left with the feeling that
he might, had he been an
artist
of the School
With the
advent of Hitler in Germany, a steady
stream of refugee to English art.
artists
began
During the war
some provincial
centers to
new life London and
to bring
years,
which Londoners had
been evacuated thus became veritable crucibles
where an unusual variety of traditions interacted
personalities
on each other
to
and
produce a
renaissance of British art and of the Jewish con-
THE JEWISH ARTIST
829
tribution to this art in particular.
refugee painters
ment
of
who
is
the
many
contributed to the establish-
what has been aptly called "The Conti-
London"
nental School of
The
Among
IN
artistic career of
typical, in
nuity that so
many many
have expereinced
in
THE MODERN WORLD be said
to
be Jewish
830
in that
it is
intended to trans-
pose, in pictorial terms, the characteristic qualities of
Hebrew
calligraphy. His
monumental
figures,
are the following:
stripped of the individuality of his original models,
Jankel Adler (1895-1949)
are reduced to their basic character as symbols or
respects, of the lack of conti-
and
types
(fig.
391). In some of his earliest paintings,
intellectuals
one can even observe a striking similarity between
our century. Born in Lodz, the
the style of draftsmanship of the whole composi-
Jewish
artists
some Hebrew
seventh of a Jewish miller's ten children, he was
tion
apprenticed at the age of eleven to an engraver.
but a detail of the whole, an inscription on a dish
After
many wanderings, he found
seldorf,
where he began
cess both as an artist
his
way
to Diis-
to enjoy considerable suc-
and
as a teacher.
and the
As a refugee blems.
College Art Association to exhibit there in an
member
international show, as a section.
of the
German
This inspired the Nazi Volkischer Beo-
bachter to conduct so violent a campaign against
him
that Adler realized that
no longer hope to
make
Germany. Emigrating
in Paris, after 1933,
new series An unusually
a whole
period; here too, he had occasion to meet Paul Klee.
York
is
on a book-
binding.
Here he
New
lettering that
in a still-life, for instance, or the title
painted most of the important works of his earlier
In 1933, Adler was invited by the
style of
had acquired
of personal
and
and especially
less
and
and
as a
pro-
wide variety of tech-
niques, so that the texture of his
matter relied
artistic
imaginative craftsman, Adler
or invented a
increasingly varied
Adler faced
rich,
less
work became
while his subject-
on anecdote. In
consequence of
Paris,
his association
he could
a living in
at first to Paris,
he found that he had suffered so serious a nervous shock that
no longer concentrate on
he could
his work.
the outbreak of the Second
War, he volunteered
Army and began
for the
At
World Polish
training in France.
In 1940, he was evacuated to Scotland,
where he was soon demobilized,
for reasons of health,
and where he
remained
He
last
first
acceptance
spent his
London area. twenties, the work of
life in
In the early Adler's
1943.
until
years of
the
period had found ready in
Germany.
Always
haunted by the problem of formulating a Jewish style of tried to solve
it,
Adler had
art,
unlike Chagall
Ryback, by avoiding the aspects of Jewish folklore
and
anecdote
and humor
so as to concentrate on those formal or architectonic elements
be
identified
and defined
which might as specially
Jewish. His style, based to a great extent
on
his detailed studies of tradi-
tional Jewish craftsmanship,
can thus
391.
fankel Ac
ler.
The
Priestly Blessing. A. Margulics Collection,
London.
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
831
392.
Jacob
Bornfriend.
The
Beer-Drinkers.
with Picasso, he devoted most of his time to a
vakia,
systematic re-examination of
parents' farm,
and values acquired years.
But
was
it
all
the techniques
in the course of his
German
after 1940, in war-time Scotland,
that he attained full maturity. Increasingly per-
and creative
sonal
managed
to
fuse
in
his
philosophy,
subject-matter,
he now
composition,
draftsmanship, texture and color-harmonies in a
phenomenon
A
1952.
Bornfriend
few years
spent
later,
many
to
to Prague. It
was here
more decorative and folk-art that had
of the
elements of Slavic folklore
been suggested
his
age
to Bratislava to study art.
he moved
that he discarded
on
until, at the
childhood
his
where he worked
he went
of nineteen,
832
him by the
culture of the pea-
sants of his native province. Instead, he
was now
the major international currents
that fully expresses his
exposed
to
unique personality. Like ideograms, Adler's figures
modern
art
no longer represent individuals or
an anecdote,
French post-Impressionism and Fauvism. In 1933,
During the war
Bornfriend turned, however, to Cubism, to which
years and after 1945, Adler thus began to exert,
when he experFrom his earlier training, he had retained, nevertheless, a warmth of color and of texture that is rare among younger
single artistic
but signify basic
human
tvpes.
tell
on younger English painters, Gentiles and Jews alike, a rare spiritual
and
artistic influence.
In his paintings completed since 1945, Jacob
Bornfriend (1904-) has provided interesting trations
of
how
a
illus-
vounger man of talent and
and underwent
he remained
of
at first the influence of
faithful until 1937,
ienced a brief Surrealist phase.
disciples of the Cubist masters.
Bornfriend escaped to England in 1939, worked
and was again
discrimination can assimilate the influence of both
throughout the war
Adler and Picasso and transmute them into a style
able to concentrate on his art only after 1945.
already personal. Born in a village of Slo-
His progress, since then, has been rapid, proving
that
is
in factories,
THE JEWISH ARTIST
833
how much
and
of exile
and
his slow schooling
of
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
834
his experiences
war have enriched him both as a as an artist. In The Young
human being and
Widow
and The Beer-Drinkers (1952)
(1952)
392), his formal concerns do not preclude a
(fig.
deep feeling
human
for the pathos of
situations,
but prevent him, at the same time, from lapsing into the anecdotic. His art, like that of
Max Weber
or of Jankel Adler, thus illustrates a peculiarly
Jewish talent,
it
seems, for synthesizing Expressio-
nism and Cubism so as to strictly
The
formal
never been granted
Only
Bloch
painter Martin
where he
new
life
in a
(1883-1954)
had
instill
art.
much
recognition in Germany,
1934, a sheltered existence.
led, until
in 1955, a year after his death, did his
receive some of the acclaim that his
one-man show deserved. Originally
tant
of Matisse
and the
Paris Fauvists, Bloch
work
impor-
first
a disciple
had
also
much from Cezanne, in his style of composition. From the German Expressionists of Die learned
he had
Briicke,
also acquired
whatever he painted
whether
mature
it
style
began
its
became
ability to
reduce
most dramatic elements,
be a landscape or a
his emigration to ally
to
an
portrait. Still, his
fully integrated only after
England, where his work gradu-
German element of overwhich mars so much of the
to discard the
dramatic distortion
Expressionist art of the 'twenties. Bloch's colors too, acquired, in
England, a more harmonious and
personal quality, a subtlety that had been lacking in
some
London
critic
observed that Bloch had taken to its
own
sake and not
because he happened to be here." Exile,
his case,
had been an enriching experience,
rating the individual from routines
which, in his native milieu, had
and
still
in
restrictions
cramped
his
Of the
Jewish painters
Herman
(1911-)
had
as the son of a
and help
living
to
all,
be a painter rather
also attracted him. In 1936,
painter Bobowski, a group of
who
artists,
pism
all
.(fig.
with the older
Herman organized
Warsaw
in
predominantly Expressionists,
set out to depict scenes
avoiding
from every-day
life,
forms of Romantic idealism or of esca-
393).
Herman emigrated
to
Belgium
in
1938. Here
the Realist tradition of Flemish art revealed to
him a conception
of socialism that
void of
is
all
notions of class hatred or of revenge.
he
1940,
In
time Britain, as
an
lore.
exile
escaped
Herman
to
England.
expressed at
by seeking refuge
in
first
In
war-
his anguish
memories of
his
childhood and in day-dreams of Yiddish folk-
He
thus tried to recapture, in a naive and
elegiac world reminiscent of that of Chagall, someof
is
post-war England,
the one whose
work
has been the most widely discussed. Born in War-
saw
own
to earn his
At the age of eighteen, he understood
than to study literature or medicine, both of which
own
X
day
all
Herman. The Clown.
Josef
that he wanted, above
libe-
style.
Josef
worked
his family.
of his earlier work. After his death, a
the English landscape "for just
393.
poor cobbler
embarrassed to find himself
who
afflicted
thing of his
memories
was at times
an
with so
too,
bril-
own
now seemed
past that
irretriev-
ably doomed. But this inner world of dreams and
art
Herman's longing for
failed to satisfy
which would express
his ethical aspirations
and he thus found himself obliged
to
impose
liant a child, the future painter felt impelled, after
on himself a new period
finishing his elementary schooling, to continue his
1944, he chanced to discover a Welsh mining-
studies for several years in night-classes while
he
village, Ystradgynlair,
of self-examination. In
which has now become
his
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
835
836
be particularly successful
to his
in
handling of typical aspects
of the English provincial scene, as
highly stylized but
his
in
very personal views of cathedral
towns, with a huge Anglo-
Norman
church, small houses
clustered around
almost like
it,
a hen surrounded
by
a brood,
394). Fred Uhlman's ca-
(fig.
reer
unusual
is
in that, unlike
most other naive painters, he has been privileged to be able
devote more than his Sun-
to
days to his art and to discover 394.
Fred Uhlman. English nocturne.
prime of spiritual
The uprooted Jewish painter background had been ruthlessly
been able
a world that
Among
home.
whose native
destroyed found here, at
last,
in
might well have seemed utterly alien
new
sense of
communion with
and a home where he has struck
monumental dignity
of the
in the fields,
These
on the sea or
all
to him, a
his neighbors
roots as a painter
of man's
toil,
whether
in the shafts of a mine.
show
figures of British toilers
that
Herman
an
his vocation as
to achieve, as
an
have found refuge
in
England, the Hungarian
Kalman Kemeny, a
painter
in
each individual case, a different material and
psychological aspect. Fred instance, as
a
as a
hold his
moved
one-man show
to
Paris
By 1936, however, sufficient
skill
to
here. After this he
especially in his representa-
life,
cemeteries with macabre widows maze of fantastic monuments, with tolerant amusement and a naive wonder
of Paris
alien's
in a
that suggested
and with some his
took up painting
England. In his earlier work, Uhlman
to
wandering an
(1901-), for
he had come
acquired
already first
viewed French tions
after
refugee from Nazism.
had
he
a lawyer,
originally
hobby only
Uhlman
an
affinity
so-called
with Maurice Utrillo "Sunday-painters."
In
more recent compositions, however, Uhlman
post-Impressionists
disciple of the Paris
and Fauvists, had already won
recognition in his native country. His delicately
London squares
post-Impressionist views of particularly pleasing,
and many
distinguished
commissioned
sophisticated;
he seems
for
some
native
painter
a
England's
of
has
(1898-) as
of
which have been
Chichester. His Crucifixion, in the
John
in
Waterloo Bridge Road
good example of
his
somewhat
cretely decorative style.
noblest
Church
in
is
and
sculptural
a
dis-
Feibush has also worked
produced some sculptures
years, has
of Saint
London,
in the field of color lithography and, in
in recent
which
his
concern, as a painter, with the problem of suggesting rounded forms on a a fruitful field of expression
A
flat
surface
(fig.
the
Polish-born
painter
now
finds
395).
virtuoso of sheer draftsmanship
color,
and
Feliks
also of
Topolski
has enjoyed ever since he arrived in
(1907-)
London, during the war-years, considerable po-
almost
more
England
A
churches, including even the ancient Cathedral of
his perspectives disposed in a series of receding
clearly
himself in
are
of his portraits
insight.
of religious murals, several of
pularity.
is
psychological
rare
has acquired a linear quality of composition, with
planes, that
who
other foreign-born Jewish artists
Frankfurt-am-Main, Hans Feibush
also assumes,
ma-
turity that naive painting generally excludes.
larism as an artist of truly universal character.
which
has thus
the kind of
reveal
Different temperaments react differently to the
He
his life. artist,
has transcended the limitations of Jewish particu-
spiritual experience of exile,
the
artist in
Enormously
all
prolific,
that he sees,
he seems
to sketch
and a veritable history of
our times might well be compiled out of this re-
THE JEWISH ARTIST
837
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
838
cord of historical scenes that he
men
has witnessed, important
whom
he has met, and typical
aspects of his extensive travels.
A
disconcertingly versatile ar-
Alva, also from Poland, has
tist,
with several
tried his luck
diffe-
rent styles, including a series of
somewhat
rhetorical but remar-
kably well-drawn compositions
on
Biblical
and
traditional East-
ern-European
themes.
Jewish
Walter Trier (1890—), a native
had already acquired
of Prague,
in Berlin, before emigrating to
England, a mordant quality of sarcasm
metropolitan
and
sketches
an
earlier period as
vealed
himself
his
in
395.
a painter in
kind
a
as
Daumier
with
idealized
underworld
nostalgia
a
which he
Expressionist
for
romantically
with
imitating
wit
great
a
pean
art.
In his earlier work, Segall had practiced the
deve-
kind of Rembrandtesque portrayal of Jewish types
and scenes that had been popularized, throughout
of
Eastern Europe, by Isidor Kaufmann. Segall de-
the
styles
Old Masters*.
various
mediately acclaimed as an ambassador of Euro-
cartoonist,
soon
Trier
types,
re-
of
loped a very individual style as often
Hans Feibush. The Prodigal Son. 1950.
After
cartoons.
veloped,
his
after
first
European modernism
XI It
in Brazil, a
is
former colonial area which
colors,
one of the major Jewish painters of
the past
years has
now been
living
and has
been contributing towards developing a national painting
of
which
in
acclaimed as a master. Born
(1891-1957)
left
in
he
in Vilna,
Lasar Segall
to
of typically
morbid
not
life.
On
work became (fig.
his
family
of
starvation,
396).
his
return to Europe,
In
he
1916,
German-occupied
in
somber,
increasingly
unemployment
undergo an
him
Memories
of Vilna, an
impressions
of
album
this
visited
a
city
fear.
My
Vilna,
and
if
of etchings, recorded
visit.
After his
refusal,
become
perma-
art, at
Liebermann, Corinth and the
painters of the Sezession encouraged
which he handled scenes
Russian peasant Segall's
his
extremely academic training. After a while, however, contacts with
in
already
is
1906 and studied
where he was forced
in Berlin,
first,
home
in Berlin, a style of angular
is
teristics, that
school
with Western-
Cubism, highlighted by bright and almost exotic
rapidly developing cosmopolitan cultural charac-
fifty
contacts
on
cultural-political grounds, to
nent
member
began
to play
a
of the Berlin Freie Sezession, Segall
an increasingly important part as a
non-conformist in the
artistic
and
political life of
to seek
war-time and post-war Germany. Together with self-expression in less alien styles. In 1913, Segall
went on
his first trip to Brazil,
where he was im-
Otto Dix, he also founded the Dresden Sezession which, especially after the First World War, was
*
A
number
are
also
the
Israeli
Vicky,
of
Jews
of other
—
Press,
the
Joss,
Sallon,
contemporary English cartoonists of of
the the
incisive
personalities.
Star,
Ross,
Daily
of
Mirror,
London News Chronicle, Victoria, of the Post, and Mark Wayner. Vicky in particular,
London Picture has become increasingly popular, liantly
London London
cartoonist
of
in
an outstanding center of experimental Segall's
pathos and a
literary
and
artistic
his
lar,
art. All
of
express deep
horror or of
mourning; his works on Jewish themes
recent years, as a bril-
London's
German period devastating mood of
works of
in particu-
such as his Kaddish, are unusually powerful
representations of sheer desolation and despair.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
839
3%.
Lasar Segall. Figure from the series "Wanderers".
In 1923, Segall returned to Brazil, where he
underwent
lived until his death. Here, his style
tion
in
of the
1942 when he painted a
composi-
tional
on such themes as The Emigrant Ship, War,
artist.
series of large
The Pogrom and The Concentration Camp, became much series
instance,
manner his
less
pastoral
of
Segall
somber, more hopeful. In a
he
landscapes
bucolic aspects
of
depicted,
Brazilian
life
for in
a
that reveals his profound attachment to
new home. His
Latin America include the Argentinian,
Mauricio
a significant change. Except for a brief period in
tions
840
Lasansky
United
(1914-),
States,
reputation
as
who
now
resident
a
has acquired an interna-
an unusually
graphic
fine
Lasansky's graphic style combines the
liant colors that characterize the
work
and other Spanish masters with an unusually sensitivity of design, inherited
a
monumental
similarities
bril-
of Clave free
from Picasso, and
quality, in his figures, that offers
with the work of Jankel Adler.
women were full was alien to much of his
portraits of
of a Latin sensuality that
XII earlier
low
work. In a series of paintings inspired by
life in
the prostitute's quarter of old Rio de
some
A comprehensive
and objective survey
of the
of the
Jewish contribution to the contemporary art in the
Europe,
United States of America would require far more
the
space than the whole of the present volume could
violent protest that characterized his interpreta-
provide. Never, in the history of Jewry, have there
Janeiro,
Segall returned indeed to
themes that had once inspired him but he treated them
tions of destitution
in
now without any
and
of vice in
of
German-occu-
now
pied Vilna.
Other Jewish
been so many Jewish painters
artists
who have
attracted atten-
in
in
New
at
work
as there are
York alone; and never has there been,
the whole history of Western
art,
as great a
THE JEWISH ARTIST
841
diversity of styles
and techniques, indeed
IN
as ex-
tremely individualistic an approach to painting,
THE MODERN WORLD
the
of
history
contribution
Jewish
to
American painting begins around 1910,
modern
reports of the revolutionary achievements
when
of the School of Paris
began
to reach
New
York.
work, towards the far more sensitive Ex-
earlier
pressionism that became his mature
Though
as in the highly competitive art-world of America.
The
842
some
of the
almost
reflected
dominant trends that seem to haunt
American
all
style.
work has occasionally
his
Weber
art,
remarkable diversity of preoccupations that
has affirmed, in a
permanent
styles, certain
his
reflect
true personality.
whole
His elegiac reconstructions of a vanishing Jewish
had already been awakened rather rudely from visionary post-Romantic dreams to face a its
world, for instance, are humorous in spite of the
Between 1880 and 1910, American
world of
shifting
had
or
in
little
realities
Resentful
and
is
As
stable
until the Civil War.
had nicknamed the new
New
York "the ash-can school"
one of the anomalies of American cul-
have been no Jews
tural history that there should
among
more
the
had dominated American
artistic life
journalists
Realist painters of
of art. It
which were often sordid
common with
idealistic traditions that
intellectual
art as a
as
New
(1864-1945), had begun, in
world of graphic
Himself one of the
art.
and encouraged more
talents
early modernists than
many
whom is
Among
patrons.
Stieglitz
now
the
daring in the great photo-
first
among New
York's
more
of Manhattan's
first
exhibited,
American painters
Max Weber
acclaimed
generally
as
one
(1881-) of
the
true pioneers of the art that has developed in
the United States since the era of the Impressionists
and the
Born
in
America
men
His elderly bearded habits
and complex
too, so
urban
Max Weber was
boy of ten and grew up
brought to in
Brooklyn
in their reasoning, so carefully
an almost
trate
and
incredible
and
plications too,
nostalgia
and anguish, of
fleeting nature.
its
Weber
A
in his
most formal
works, a very personal poignancy, a sense of pathos, a
deeply
human
rather than a religious sense
of pity, qualities that
Weber
shares with other
own
inherent absurdity,
its
resurrects
with the magic of
paints,
all
memory
rather than with the kind of immediate hedonism that seeks to praise
and perpetuate, arrested
course towards death,
all
world of emotion and
permanent society of But
that
it
style,
his
in its
sees. In a timeless
Weber
recreates a
own.
his style has constantly
changed. In The
heads of the three musicians
represented reflect some of the distortions that characterized Picasso's
work
of those years.
Geranium, however, Weber seems
decorative or architectonic a conception
its
sense of structure, an element
and reconstruction,
of sheer design
that
always conscious of
is
truly himself, a master of a
There thus remains, even
guilty
slightly
Though he underwent a phase of Classical Cubism that is well exemplified in his Two Musicians, Weber was never satisfied with the limitations imposed upon him by so of art.
illus-
pogrom and a future
before going to Paris, where he associated with the early Cubist masters.
strictly
in their
dressed but physically unattractive, seem to
Trio, for instance the
Realists.
Russia,
as a
Matisse or Pascin,
like those of
that they have not yet learned to trust whole-
commercially successful dealers and more wealthy art
an exotic Orient
but fugitives from Lower East Side sweat-shops.
heartedly. Weber's universe has metaphysical im-
of our century, Stieglitz fostered
artists
their
Stieglitz
new and
pion everything that was
and melancholy female nudes, with
heavily Semitic features, are no odalisques from
York, to cham-
however, Alfred
1905,
helpless
prosperity between a past
these few early Realists. early
anxiety and nostalgia that they express. Weber's
to
new kind
In
be more of
New
York Expressionism which sought to transcend the
limitations
that
Picasso
of the School of Paris
and the formalists
had imposed on much
of
art. In such works, Weber has indeed managed to lead contemporary painting back from Cubism towards human emotions and pro-
modern
blems that
we
The work
all
of
experience in our daily
Abraham Walkowitz
lives.
(1880-)
Eastern-European Jewish masters. Such emotional
has been sorely neglected in recent years. French
preoccupations alone might explain the evolution
influences have
of Weber's style, from the formal
Cubism
of his
Siberian-born
been numerous and varied
artist's
in this
work, ever since his lumi-
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
843
nous post-Impressionist studies of Venice, painted
Walkowitz exhibited
as early as 1907. Later,
city-
1944
in
as
art a manneristic style of imaginative
Known
that borrows architectural elements
temporary scene
in
from the con-
than those of
one of the city-scape
painters
in
the
understand
itself,
America's
the
peculiar
Manhattan skyline
as a
something organized and
her
life,
from exhibiting or
cated, ever to
a slightly art
his studies of dancers too,
Walkowitz has revealed an unusual sense of the dynamics of movement (fig. 397). (1892-)
is
Russian-born painter
another
distin-
among America's
pioneer Cubists. Never a very complex is
colorist,
often at his best in black-and-white
work. Similarly inspired by the city-scapes of
he rearranges,
dustry,
in
in-
many of his paintings, much as Delaunay
elements of factory architecture
398), in Paris, invented formal variations on
(fig.
the theme of the Eiffel Tower.
some
The
severity of
of Lozowick's compositions comes, in this
respect,
closer to the classical
Cubism
of Paris
who
of
its
refuses,
be quite "grown up," sometimes
the style of certain
modern
draftsmanship from the drawings of Aubrey
Beardsley, Florine Stettheimer has
ing
primitives. In
nouveau manner that derived some
comments on
New
York
left
artist
the age of pro-
life in
Among the painters of New York's Greenwich Village who might be compared to the Montparnasse Fauvists of Pari?, there were many Jewish artists
of
outstanding
Bernard Karfiol
talent.
(1886-1952) might thus be defined as a Derain of the School of
New
York.
Born
America as a
nudes, which he
endowed with
a
mellow and meditative
quality, achieved as a
throughout
on a limited number of familiar themes
came
an early
\\
an intellectual and
/
V/
v
dis-
v,
passionate painter of landscapes \
and
still-life
compositions which
are systematically stylized
owe much
and
1/7
of their sense of vo-
of
the past two
Ml l
became / /
conceptions of the social func-
much
{
in
interested in less individualistic
tions of art;
fir,
Ul/l
lumes and of planes to the Paris Cubists. Later, Hirsch
of his
A
work
\
\
decades has
thus striven to express his aspirations in an emotional stvle that
is
\
id
sometimes frankly rhe/".
torical. It
is
Hungary,
in
Karfiol soon attracted attention in lyrical painter of
age and soon distinguished himself as
us fascinat-
hibition.
his life,
at
onlv since her death
397.
through
however, sophisti-
Hirsch (1899-).
United States
all
any of her
selling
result of his concentrating all talent,
to the
one
witty unmarried
than any other American painter except Stefan
This German-born
as
more
works. Her carefully preserved naivete, that of a precocious child
emulates
Lozowick
elite
Jewish aristocracy, she had refrained,
an Alpine landscape. In
guished
York's
artistic
and
charming
three
New
daughters of a wealthy family of Wall Street's
to
Lozowick
to
and
intellectual
exuberant as a Gothic cathedral and majestic as
Louis
.modern American painting. years
of
aesthetic quality of the
phenomenon
exclusive
of
many
more formal and more fanreality. Walkowitz was thus
of twentieth-century
first
for
begun
has
order to rearrange them in
patterns that are both tastic
a
Stettheimer
Florine
fame that she had long deserved
pioneer
scapes of Manhattan that brought to American
composition
that
enjoy the
to
Ml
Abraham Walkowitz.
Isadora Duncan.
Drawing.
THE JEWISH ARTIST
845
398.
to
which he remained
by,
Karfiol
school
with
an
THE MODERN WORLD
Louis Lozowick. Changing
increasingly
The women whose bodies he
Shifts.
art-
from
his native Latvia in 1890,
personal
New
York and
portrayed,
monious
in
style of
New
tor
artists,
thus became intensely indivi-
is
America
and studied
art in
draftsmanship and composition
often suggest the artistic
York
to
Europe. His powerful and har-
generally professional models well-known to most
dualized and almost mysterious.
846
Maurice Sterne (1878-1957) came
As the years went
handled his almost impersonal
subjects
sensitivity.
faithful.
IN
temperament of a sculp-
such as Aristide Maillol. In his
colors, Sterne
always restrained, never rhetorical or emotional.
Though he has
many
spent
travelling
years
abroad, often in exotic surroundings, he has gene-
cism in which
balanced
less
artists
locate.
seek in vain
One among
Among the who have come from
emulate the work of Paul Gauguin.
many Jewish
painters
Eastern Europe to the West, Sterne
one of the
is
of
with
both
Ben Benn (1884-)
certain
Russian-born,
who were
offers affinities
and
Fauvists
Paris
some of the German Expressionists
Ben Benn came
boy and was one
victim remaining difficult to
actual
most unassuming and
the
of
in the
sensitive
the Russian-born American painters
were pioneers
in revealing to
New
York the
who heri-
tage of French Impressionism and Fauvism was
Samuel Halpert (1885-1930), whose beautifully
most naturally Classicist.
The work
the
center,
SIS
and confused crowd
scape, with a small
or exoti-
avoided the kind of primitivism
rally
to
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
847
of
to
Die
with
Briicke.
America
as
in
pioneers in establishing an American
any
truly representative collection of
American
art of the twentieth century.
William Meyerowitz
a
of the handful of Jewish painters
New
balanced landscapes and interiors deserve a place
of
disciples
Cezanne
remains one of
(1892-)
among
the most subtle draftsmen
and
the American
the
of
Paris
post-
York
Impressionists and Fauvists. Born in Russia, he has
before 1914. Since 1940, this tradition has earned
painted some deeply moving compositions on tradi-
tradition of experimental painting in
recognition as the School of tive
and
Though
New
School of Paris.
as productive as the
influenced at
York, as distinc-
by the
first
Paris Cubists
and Fauvists, Benn soon developed
qualities of
design that are almost akin to those of a cartoonist
Far
or of a Far-Eastern brush-work draftsman.
from ridiculing what he describes, Benn on the contrary,
in
order
of his subjects. In
simplifies,
to stress the tragic quality
much
Benn has
of his work,
tional Jewish religious
and
folklore
themes
his etchings, besides, deserve to
be
listed
among
the finest that have been produced in America early decades of the
in the
His wife, Theresa Bernstein, taste
of
and
also a painter ot
her decorative portraits, especially
skill;
children,
modern movement. is
her
and
landscapes
flower-pieces,
compositions, are deservedly popular.
still-life
allowed his Expressionism to serve the cause of a
Long before Salvador Dali and the
philosophv and thus earned considerable
imposed themselves on the attention of
social
as well
as landscapes of a rare compositional complexity;
Surrealists
New
York
popularity in the Roosevelt era, which compro-
in
mised him
that distinguishes the art of such European-Jewish
later in the eyes of the politically con-
formist critics of the
of
to the art of the School of
neglected,
contribution
his
New
York
is
often
Ben Kopman (1899-) had developed,
relatively
young
as
a
his
own, founded on
of the aims
a
artist,
ene
ot
style
his discerning appreciation
and means
thirties,
the
painters as Chagall
fifties.
Though the importance
the
of Matisse, Rouault
and
found too.
in the
kind
of
visionary
fantasy
and Balgley was already
work
of a
to
be
few American painters
Morris Kantor (1896-) came to the United
States
from
Russia
Less
folkloristic
in his fantasy
and humor
1911.
in
and more metropolitan
than Chagall, Kantor deliberately confuses the subjective
and the objective worlds, what one
what one imagines
same
the French Fauvists. Born like Chagall in Vitebsk,
actually sees with
Kopman
has developed, in his more mature works,
time. In one of his paintings, Kantor thus gives
an increasingly monumental boldness of design,
us a somewhat stylized but relatively realistic view
avoiding the mere subjectivism of nist art
and refusing
to express
tical aspirations that are
in
work
Expressio-
social or poli-
not intrinsically implied
of
New
Utrillo floor
York's
as
Maurice
from a twentieth
window, but with three huge imaginary red
roses floating in mid-air in the foreground, painted
of art should never seek to
compete
just as realistically as the rest.
sian
Lynching
planned
particularly
significant:
offering us a k id of pictorial
hatred,
it
believes
with a book or a speech. His composition The is
Union Square, much
might have painted
Kopman
the topic of each painting.
that a
much
any
at the
Kopman shows
instead
of
pamphlet on race-
a vast and brooding land-
Ukraine, Ben Zion
a writer,
to
Born
(1899-)
in the
had
Rus-
originally
be a rabbi, then sought expression as
mainly in Hebrew, and turned to paint-
ing relatively late in
life.
Extremely
literary in his
"3
>^
cu
£ c cu
H
THE JEWISH ARTIST
849
choice of subject-matter, mainly Biblical, and
almost caricatural
way
THE MODERN WOULD
850
in
Ben Zion has an
consciously archaic style,
his
IN
more un-
of stressing the
pleasantly Semitic features of his figures. In his
drawings and paintings, he seems to seek of a sculptural nature.
The
sculptor
effects
Chaim Gross
(1899-), after witnessing in his childhood and
youth the horrors
war and the
of
now
of Russian anti-Semitism,
bestialities
expresses,
in
his
paintings and drawings, as well as in his sculptures, a truly
remarkable faith in the humane joys His sensitive style as a painter
of sheer living.
owes much
to his sculptural
awareness of line and
of volume.
The New York critic and made a hobby, some years
ago, of discovering
American
"Sunday
Among
and
primitives
the artists
whom
dealer Sidney Janis
painters."
he thus discovered and
now
several Jewish painters have
collected,
ob-
tained wide recognition as truly remarkable talents,
and are now represented collections
in
leading American
and museums. The most
and
gifted
famous of these self-taught Jewish "Sunday pain-
in
bom
Morris Hirschfeld (1890-1956), was
ters,"
Poland and gave proof of
his childhood,
when he
his artistic talent in
already carved in
wood
a "noise-maker" for the traditional Purim celebraof
tions
his
community. This piece of typical
Eastern-European Jewish carvings that he
made
folk-art
later as a
boy
and were
still
proudly shown to
long after his emigration to America. In Hirschfeld worked hard
maker
for
of elegant slippers for
his retirement did
doir shoes" that
many
visitors
New York,
years
as
women. Only
a
after
he take up painting. The "bou-
had been
Morris Hirschfeld.
Courtesy of
Sidney
Nude with
Janis
Gallery,
cupids.
N. Y.
for his local
synagogue, caused a sensation among his compatriots
399.
and some wood-
his livelihood for
many
Eastern Europe and worked in
New
York
as
a
cabinet-maker until he too, after his retirement, took up painting as a hobby. His view of Fifth
Avenue
is
typical of the
human
perspective and of in
all
his work.
As
in
childlike
treatment of
figures that
one
finds
the vision of Ezekiel, a
wheel-like sun revolves in the sky of
many
of his
years continued to haunt his pictures, which are
landscapes. Only the facades of his houses are
remarkable for the strangely idealized eroticism
rendered with more sophistication and a greater
of his presentation of female nudes
and the almost
compulsively delicate treatment of their tiny feet 399). In his paintings of
(fig.
cats,
lions,
exactitude
of
detail
than anything else
in
the
picture.
and
Hirschfeld followed closely the primitive
tigers,
style
of
that
still
exotic
much Eastern-European synagogue imitates unconsciously,
beasts,
in
Byzantine
traditional
XIII art
reproducing or
Persian
York's
"ash-can school" towards the turn of the century suffered an eclipse in the years that followed the
models. Israel
Though the Realism advocated by New
Litwak (1868
—
)
was
also
a native of
great
Armory Show
exhibition
and the gradual
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
851
852
My
and Moses Soyer's
Family are
examples of a style that seeks
fine
to perpetuate the tradition of Real-
ism inherited from Franz Hals, Chardin and Degars
(fig.
401).
William Gropper (1897-) remains
most militant representative of
the a
Marxist
consciously
school
American Realism. Inspired extent
by the
Daumier and
New Masses
of
George Grosz, Grop-
gun
to
style as a
The Rebel Worker, and other
munist publications. York's
to a great
art of social protest of
per developed a mordant cartoonist in
oi
the
Leftist or
Com-
Born on
New
Lower East Side, he had work in a sweat-shop at
bethe
age of fourteen, for a dollar a day.
Under
WPA,
Roosevelt's
painted
some
striking
Gropper
murals;
his
paintings remain, however, basically political cartoons, of lationist,
which The
representing a proto-fascist
American senator,
is
an outstanding
example. Jack Levine (1915
Dada
of
was
Cubism, of Fauvism and of
had continued
to
be
felt
throughout these
years
and, strengthened by political intentions,
came
to the surface again in the years of depres-
sion,
after
1929, as a school of protest and of
significance."
"social
)
American art-world, a Realist under-
in the
current
—
Raphael Soyer. The Dressmaker.
400.
acclimatization
Iso-
The Jewish
and Raphael Soyer, born
painters
Moses
as twins in Russia in
1899, provide a link between the earlier "ash-
can" school and the more political painters of the Roosevelt era.
The
artistic
development of the Soyer brothers
has been unusually harmonious, encouraged from the start by parents, Russian-Jewish liberal intellectuals
to
whom,
as
Raphael Soyer has
said,
"Rembrandt and da Vinci were household words." For
all
their professed Realism, the Soyers
remained profoundly romantic spired
by
liberal
give to their lity.
have
in their ideals, in-
and humane considerations that
vork a meditative and mellow qua-
Raphael Soyer's The Dressmaker
(fig.
400)
401.
Moses Soyer.
My
Family.
J.
Arnold Collection. U.S.A.
)
THE JEWISH ARTIST
853
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
Jack Levine. Reception at Miami.
402.
immigrant slums of Boston and, pro-
ticularism or regionalism.
foundly influenced by Rouault, Soutine and George
the Ukraine, Geller had
born
in the
Grosz, developed as a
WPA
artist a
854
macabre
style
From
his birth-place in
first
gone to a private
art-school in Odessa. After the
1905 wave of pog-
un-
roms, he emigrated in 1906 to Canada and, in
equivocally Marxist awareness of social injustices.
1918, finally settled in Chicago, where he studied
of moral
comment
The Philadelphia is
which he expresses a
in
painter Joseph Hirsch (1910
—
a representative of a similar style of caricatural
but expressed in simpler and almost
Realism, sculptural
forms.
that
detail
gives
to
New
York's
great
wealth of
Levine's
paintings,
the
lacks
It
Jack
especially his Reception at in
less
Miami
(fig.
402)
now
Whitney Museum, the compulsive
quality of a brilliantly recorded hallucination.
The new Realism
in literature
and the
arts, like
under the great "ash-can" Realist George Bellows. Generally acclaimed as the dean of the Middle
West's Jewish
Geller
had acquired a
work
of Todros Geller
it
with success. The
(1889-1949)
into the general pattern of
fitted neatly
Middle-Western par-
mine of themes and
piration for a Jewish art that
national group.
Chicago, where a number of
his early association
lasting faith in Jewish cul-
tural traditions as a rich
lar, in
in
objects for synagogues in
with Jewish Socialists of the Bund in Russia,
soon struck deep roots in the American Middle
Jewish painters practiced
he designed stained-glass
Chicago and elsewhere. From
the earlier Populism of the nineteenth century,
West, especially
artists,
windows and ceremonial
would be
as
ins-
popu-
the appeal, as the regional art of any other
David Bekker (1897
—
),
born in Vilna, was
brought as a child to Palestine, where for a time
he was a pupil of Boris Schatz. Shortly before the First
World War, he
set
out for Paris, but re-
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
855
mained stranded
in
Rumania, where he managed
an appointment as engraver. After the
to obtain
war, he completed his studies in Paris and emigrated to the U.S., settling in Chicago. Bekker's paintings have a quality of
and volume that
line
reveals his experience as a sculptor
and designer
for
many
856
years as a concert entertainer and an
opera singer, devoting
all
his spare time to fur-
Upper Michigan
ther training as a painter. His
Avenue remains a
fine
and moving example
of the
Middle West, a man-made landscape
art of the
of
Chicago's sky-line as distinctive as a Walkowitz
of medals; his styles vary from the "Jewish popu-
view of Manhattan. His River Boat and Bridge
lism" of his native Vilna to a kind of Palestinian
a delicately formal rendering of a typical land-
Hassidic
art,
analogous to that of Frenel and
milarly inspired
by
Bekker has assimilated
si-
Safed. In addition,
to
visits
Romantic
in the traditional
style a certain liberating influence of the
major
Jewish painters of Paris and the basic Realism
Chicago school. His
of the sion as
spokesman
traditional
Jewry
mis-
for the artistic aspirations ot
at large has
helped him integ-
rate these conflicting influences in his
own
faith in his
works such
Rabbi Elimelech, which interpret
folklore in as personal a
manner
as
traditional
as Chagall or
Whereas Geller and Bekker remained attached, in their
S.
Schwartz
—
(1896
)
has
constantlv
affirmed his assimilation as an artist of the rican
though
Middle West. After coming
from Vilna
in
to
Ame-
America
1913, Schwartz earned his living
-103.
Church
his Christian Science
is
perhaps
too decorative a stylization of a small-town Illinois scene. In his portraits of
American farmers and
workers, Schwartz expresses his intensely or Populist love of
tic
in
all
that
Roman-
humanly
is
valid
American democracy. Nor has Schwartz limited
himself to studies of Middle-Western types and scenes. In
and
his
A
street in Asheville,
Homecoming
North Carolina,
that shows the fishing-fleet
returning to a village harbor on America's coast,
he has proven
his
New
broad and
in-
timate understanding of the American scene.
Ben Shahn (1898
Realism too, to traditional Eastern-Euro-
pean Jewish themes, the Russian-born painter William
scape of the upper Mississippi and Missouri basins,
England
Ryback.
is
ality
has
Russia, he
is
)
first
earned
In
the
his living as
twenties,
but revolted against
learned there, rejecting
Ben Shahn. Death
of a
a painter whose origin-
been vastly over-estimated.
lithographer. Paris,
—
Miner, 1949.
it
all
as
that
he
Born
in
an industrial studied
in
he might have
mere aestheticism
THE JEWISH ARTIST
857
(fig.
IN
THE MODERN WORLD
858
403). His series of Populist and somewhat
Sacco and Vanzetti
journalistic illustrations to the
case then attracted the attention of Diego Rivera,
who employed him
as his assistant
on the Rocke-
Center murals that were subsequently con-
feller
demned engage
Shahn
Communist
Paris
the
in
also
produced a
Tom
the life-story of
An
objectionable.
politically
as
artiste
terminology,
of illustrations to
series
Mooney, the martyr of the
American Labor Movement.
The work
Hyman Bloom (1913—)
of
an
trates the limitations of
inspired, in
early stages,
its
was
art that
by the
illus-
largely
careful study
of reproductions rather than of originals. in Russia,
Bloom studied
in Boston,
Born
where he de-
veloped an ardent admiration for the work ot Rouault and of Soutine, which he studied mainly
from reproductions.
A
disciple of their eloquently
emotional formal distortions rather than of their
stress the
macabre element
(fig.
his
interiors,
human
arrangements with amputated his Jewish types
Hyman
404.
to
Bloom. Jew with
still-life
limbs,
and
404), he seems to delight
joying
much
York
critics,
raised,
New
against the exclusion,
perhaps tawdry and
are
life,
among
endowed with the ral's
macabre compositions;
his least
brilliance of a Gothic cathed-
rose-window, they enchant with the magic of
remembered from
a Christmas-tree
childhood. Profoundly distrustful of
not
obsess
cination,
one's dazzled
him with the urgency
Bloom
that does
all
of
a
concentrates on a limited
of themes that
affect
him
intensely,
hallu-
number
frequently
painting several versions of the same picture, with
minute variations that are
in themselves
deeply
XIV In the years that followed the Roosevelt era, a majority of American less voluntarily
artists
cal or social opinion into a tion.
The decade
Jewish
more
of
artists,
withdrew more or
from the expression of any
politi-
realm of sheer abstrac-
os abstraction saw, in America,
an unusually large number of
many
of
figurative art for
whom had many
among
New cri-
other figurative pain-
Abraham Rattner
of
(1893
—
Born
).
Poughkeepsie, an idyllic small town near
in
New
York, Rattner lived in France from 1920 to 1940,
and obtained recognition
New
notaure group. In
as a
member
of the Mi-
York, however, he re-
mained almost unknown, exhibiting only occasionally after
1935 and
until his return to
America
1940. His training as an architect reveals
in
itself in
the massive structure and the monumental quality of his compositions. Inspired to a great extent
the formalism of
Romanesque rather than
by
of Gothic
windows, of Byzantine mosaics and
stained-glass
significant.
the triumph
ters,
and
Paris
York Herald Tribune protested
tic
dusty junk in real
the Fifty Years of
among
such a storm of controversy, the
mering compositions representing synagogue chan-
of the
When
success.
American Art show
in sheer ugliness and corruption. Bloom's shim-
deliers,
Scroll.
Brewster Collection, U.S.A.
everything that he
in
synagogue
In his
paints.
Bloom tends
techniques,
painterly
delicate
of Greek-orthodox ikons, Rattner's art
is
modern
use of color.
in
its
technical devices
Never tempted
to
and
its
rigorously
seek easy successes, he has
refrained from courting the gregarious and highly
competitive
New
his compositions
against a
flat
York art-world. The
seem
to
be molded
figures ot
in bas-relief
background, with their faces,
like
those of mosaics, stylized according to the laws
practiced a
of a three-dimensional art so as to contrast with
years without en-
the two-dimensional quality of the rest of the
)
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
859
picture. Generally avoiding Jewish themes,
preferred,
on
860
XV
he has
unequivocally
occasions,
several
MODERN TIMES
Christian religious subjects. In his works of recent
In the
years, Rattner seems to be experiencing a
the problem of a Jewish style of art
he has abandoned sculptural
conceptions
abstract-expressionist felicitous
earlier
his
final
analysis,
our age.
it
can truly be said that solving
is
Jewish styles of painting,
architectural
or
itself
kind
ot
seems, are originally a product of an acute con-
favor
in
crisis;
a
of
Tachisme that
is
not always
and, in spite of his superior painterly
in
consciousness of individual
the
in
flict,
between the
cultural traditions
of the
it
artists,
Western
technique, often remains nebulous and unconvin-
world and the familiar background of orthodox
cing.
Judaism from which they are breaking away,
Three Jewish to
conclusion, be said
artists can, in
have influenced American
in our century,
life
if
only as a consequence of their choice of a career in the figurative arts, a choice that
still
seems to
Whether
almost more profoundly than any others, whether
inspire
Jews or Gentiles. By ridiculing the machine and
nineteenth-century Holland, in the age of Jozef
presenting
it
always as something absurdly fami-
made up
liar,
need
of odds
and ends such
the
man's distrust
small
nobody
Rube Goldberg (1883
fear, the cartoonist
exorcized
as
of
—
contem-
occasional feelings of guilt.
Israels, in
in
Vienna
in the
in
age of Isidor Kaufmann,
Russia in the generation of Altman, Ryback,
Chagall and Lissitzki, in the Poland of Jankel
Adler and Marcin Katz,
among
Berlin's "Patheti-
porary America's increasing mechanization. The
ker" Expressionists Steinhardt and Meidner, in the
Raymond Loewy
group of the London painters Gertler, Bomberg
French-born industrial designer taught
America that "ugliness
and imposed on the vast
industrial
pav'
system ot
adopted home the more dynamic aesthetics
his
of "streamlined" forms in
not
does
and
of "packaging" that
harmony with the more
dern
art;
is
mo-
rational styles of
he thus achieved, though without
re-
verting to the styles and tastes of a by-gone age of
handicrafts,
that
the kind
of revolution
had been Ruskin's aim
in
taste
in nineteenth-century
England. Finally, the Rumanian-born cartoonist Saul Steinberg (1914 rica
aware of
its
—
own
)
has
made urban Ame-
foibles
and
follies,
thus
and Kramer, Paris, in
of
in various
groups of the School of
Max Weber's New York
Todros Geller, a Jewish
poses
itself
or in the Chicago
style of painting im-
only as a synthesis in this conflict,
never as something inherent in the Jewish cultural tradition alone.
As soon
as the Jewish tradition
ceases to assert
itself as
imperiously in the indi-
vidual tely
artist's
consciousness or to conflict so acu-
with other cultural traditions, the urge to
mulate a specifically Jewish felt.
The
earlier
style
for-
ceases to be
evolution of Issachar Rybak, from his
Jewish style to his later Romanticism,
helping the individual to become reconciled with
symptomatic,
the necessity of living in a crowd.
Jewish painting in our age.
is
in this respect, of the evolution of
JEWISH SCULPTORS by
Of all the most
alien
creative
the
to
of his nature.
A
been
prohibitions
Religious
drawn
conveying the impression of
in color, thus
more than
a painting
work
of a
of sculpture.
he had
Coins and medals, with special regard to the
to develop the tectonic qualities
graphic and the decorative aspects, became objects
grasp of configurations and forms
of the Jewish creative urge partly because of the
forbade him the plastic
no opportunity
sculpture has
arts,
Jew.
KARL SCHWARZ
had not entered
that
so
arts,
into the scope of his pictorial
was more con-
application. His spiritual outlook
intimacy implied in the attention devoted to mi-
nute
We
detail.
find in the 18th century
some
cerned with a rhythmic conception of things than
distinguished Jewish medallists such as the Abra-
with their physical form. Obviously, though, this
hams family whose work has been discussed
did not arise from a lack of symmetry or sense
a former chapter.
of proportion, since
he possessed a strong pre-
dilection for the ornamental
and the
descriptive.
the masters of previous generations.
The
On
Jew gave him no opportunity for creative acThe Jews and Jew-
sional with
definite relation to space, outline,
communities had no monuments, no statues
last
tivity in the field of sculpture.
any other public manifestations of
of heroes, nor
the decorative urge, except the reliefs with which in
the plastic arts represent
reliefs tell a story;
and reproduce.
plastic arts, the closely-circumscribed existence ot
ish
of this type links nine-
teenth and twentieth-century Jewish sculptors to
Apart from religious prohibitions against the
the
Work
in
many
regions gravestones were adorned.
Even
its
another level, the three dimen-
and rhythm was unknown century.
He
lacked
to the
the
vertheless,
in
this
in the nineteenth
came accepted
in
was
sculptural expression. For the
be represented as legitimate
ture on the
still
second
remote from
human
features to
on a medal was regarded
in relief
somewhat
earlier,
because the pic-
medal could be likened
to a miniature.
Moreover, the form as such had only to be suggested,
and physiognomatic
whom
confront the true plastic
a
way
no other
The Jewish charted
until then
un-
record of Jewish sculpture
vir-
II
In addition, the
The historical perhaps the
to take the decisive step
bolic
of
all,
in exploiting the
on tombstones,
rhythms inherent
script.
Later on, sym-
and pictorial representations were introduced
which eventually gave craftsmanship.
rise to a
Sometimes,
to
had accomplished.
new world, and unknown to him.
common
forms of the Hebrew
came
with asto-
achieved in a short time a lead-
artist
ing position in this
use of reliefs for ornamental purposes had been
in the
for himself
of his time
artists
tually begins with
and secondly,
and twen-
of sculptors
detail confronted the
artist.
first
Ne-
nishing perceptive faculties, and achieved results
urge for ornamentation also played a role here. The
for centuries;
number
the Jewish latent artistic talents
He hewed
the fore.
with none of the problems of form which
artist
experience
direct
so long barred to him,
field
he quickly produced
tieth centuries a considerable
in enlightened circles in the
until the
essential for free expression in plastic media.
the practice of having portraits made, which be-
half of the 18th century,
Jew
the
highly developed flat
relief
was
first
Mark Antokolski (1842-1902),
Jewish
arts. Historically, his is
artist of ability
who dared
towards the free plastic
importance was such that
it
necessary to speak of him at somewhat dispro-
portionate length: moreover, his reputation
one time enormous
was
— and not undeservedly
Though Antokolski was
to
move
to Berlin
at
so.
and
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
863
864
has remained his most celebrated work. With
he showed
it,
his defiance of the conventional neo-
had been transplanted
classical style that sia
from
his
courage
nineteenth-century
early
deal
to
—
gerous subject
mad
a
with
realistically
The
Tsar.
to Rus-
by
France, a
dan-
bloodthirsty
Ivan, an incarnation of the might and barbarity of old Russia,
of his
represented in the later years
is
clad in a monk's garment, with the
life,
Rible on his knees, and at his side the notorious
which he had
steel-pointed staff with
own
Tormented by
son.
killed his
his conscience,
he seeks
consolation in the Holy Scriptures.
This work reveals Antokolski's merits as well as
The head
his faults.
excellent, the facial expres-
is
convincing, the over-all composition good.
sion
Rut the excessive pre-occupation with extraneous detail
— the
diverted the
garment, the cushion, the chair
and
artist,
diverts the beholder,
the aesthetic aims of sculpture.
Mark
405.
Antokolski. Spinoza. Marble.
1882.
work which represents neither
Hermitage Museum, Leningrad.
—
from
The result is a a monumental
figure nor the terrible tsar the Russians portray.
where he resided during the second
later to Paris,
half of his
life,
his first impressions
set the tone for the rest of his
he saw no beauty instances
in the
and experiences Unlike Rodin,
life.
nude body. In the rare
when he modelled
nude, as
a
Mephistopheles, he remained awkward.
in the
Women
did not inspire him; they seemed to him physically
and was
intellectually all
Whereas Rodin
unattractive.
sensuality to the point of suggesting lust,
Antokolski was
whatever
his
faults,
more powerful century, one
intellect
all
Antokolski was one of the
artistic
who
and philosophy. Yet
personalities
of the
last
struggled against greater odds
than any sculptor before him. For he was born
It is
artist
was often over-shadowed by the
later years,
when he no
longer searched sufficiently
which tolerated no to great
advantage
statues
size
Spinoza
in the fine
thinkers
of
(fig.
In
Petersburg, he
ber of genre in
wood and
a scholarship
and
modelling
won
reliefs
on Jewish themes executed
ivory,
and ended
his studies with
which enabled him
After a while, he returned to
plunged himself His
Ivan the
woodcarving.
prizes with a num-
St.
to
go to Rerlin.
Petersburg and
into study of the history of Russia.
Terrible
made
the
twentv-eight-
year-old artist famous overnight, and to this date
such
heads of his
life-
Socrates
and
as
405), which he considered
his best
work, and also in his fine portrait busts. Also worth
remembering
is
Christ
his
bowed head and bare
before
feet, Jesus, a
Pilate:
with
kind of Jewish
peasant, stands before his unseen judge. Antokolski's
to
letters
whose eyes he was "the
in
revealed themselves
frivolity,
age,"
working
the other hand,
breadth of soul and seriousness of approach,
his
ing heder, the elementarv Jewish school, he be-
St.
On
for purely plastic revelations.
the wishes of his Orthodox parents. After attend-
gan
thinker,
the historian or the archaeologist, especially in his
ghetto of Vilna, and chose his career against
in the
unfortunate that in Antokolski's work the
and
the
critic
Stassov,
in
greatest sculptor of our
to other friends, reveal
how
earnestly
the artist strove to achieve the best, though doing so,
alas,
through spiritual rather than aesthetic
analysis. "In art there
tant than form. In
all
is
my
something more imporwork, everywhere
a faithful slave to meaning,"
and
finally:
I was "What
a relief to feel the ground under your feet, to
know
that
you were not mistaken
goal, to realize that
to
Reauty
understand what Reauty
is
in finding
your
akin to Truth, and
is."
JEWISH SCULPTORS
865
Today, few people would agree with Antokolski's
who
concept of beauty, and led sculpture to
1859-1939)
was not he but Rodin
new and unexpected
Antokolski's pupil,
of expression. (
it
is
,
of
little
interest to
heights
Ginzburg
Ilva
us now, though
one time he enjoyed success with pleasant and
at
He
rendered children's busts.
skillfully
however, a special place art because,
earned,
Jewish
in the history of
1919, he founded in Leningrad
in
Another outstanding pupil of Antokolski's was imaginative
1932),
pioneer,
who was
later to
make
(1866-
Schatz
Boris
name
a great
for
himself through the establishment of the Bezalel
School in Jerusalem, in which he hoped to realize
dream
his art.
A
of a national
statue
which
he
attracted
executed
such
and
notice
Hasmonean
the
dramatic
a
in
Jewish
folkloristic
Mattathias
of
pose,
King Ferdinand of
that
Bulgaria invited him to Sofia to found an
academy
His studio in the Baths of
States.
Diocletian was, for several decades, a center of
and
artistic
social
Rome. Among
in
activities
best-known creations
Ezekiel's
which B'nai
B'rith
a
is
commissioned him
monument to execute
The work
for the Centennial Exhibition in 1876.
represents Liberty as a
woman
of majestic appear-
ance, wearing the cap of freedom. In one hand, is
outstretched in benediction. At her side stands a
handsome young boy with
flaming lamp,
a
personifying Faith; at her feet, an eagle overcomes a serpent.
might
It
little less
Design
be
said
of
work,
Ezekiel's
all
would have achieved
a
a great deal more.
mercilessly sacrificed to accurate repre-
is
sentation, photographic truth
rhythm. While there
given priority over
is
a mystifying feeling of
is
unfinished about most of the works of Ezekiel
characterized by symbolic meaning and spiri-
Jefferson
he was concerned
Virginia,
there
technical
skill
For the next ten years, he modeled Bul-
as in the
work
Arlington
garian farmers and Jewish genre types. His
tuality: like other
Jewish
artists,
more with content than with
external form.
other hand, his point of departure
and he could not sional
concept.
free himself
beloved teacher,
his
fact that his Mattathias
Hebrew
On
from the two-dimenare
Marx, Rubinstein, and
Mark his
The
Antokolski.
was regarded
and that
ballad,
the
was painting
His most successful works
his portrait plasters of Karl
of
United
to the
Monument in the National Cemetery and in the Thomas Monument at Charlottesville, both in
of arts.
is
to leave this city, except for occasional brief visits
she holds a wreath of laurel; the other hand
the Jewish Society of Creative Jewish Art.
that
866
as
an old
and
sentimental
worthy genre scenes were praised
as true Jewish
Confederate Soldiers'
is
an
stops
him from giving
vigor
it
a second glance.
strength, Ezekiel's
interest
on
bordering
occasionally
work
to
one glance, but then
in
work gains our
Antokolski's
beholder
the
enables
that
encompass the work
an excess of
over-finish,
is
Whereas
through a barbarous
too refined, too cul-
tured, too neat for a generation nourished
on the
more
violent styles
many
of the idealistic artists of the period, Ezekiel
of Picasso or Epstein.
Like
art, illustrate
the outlook of the period on acade-
was, however, a good portrait sculptor, giving
mic, eclectic
art.
excellent likenesses of his
Enjoying a reputation almost equal to that of Antokolski in
his
day, though now utterly
sitters
without
much
concern for psychological depths.
for-
gotten except in very restricted circles, was Moses
Jacob Ezekiel (1844-1917) ing, perhaps, the first
American
enjoy world-wide fame.
mond,
Ill
as be-
plastic artist to
Ezekiel, born in
Rich-
Virginia, studied at the Virginia Military
Institute
and fought
Confederate
side.
Germany where, with a bas-relief, chael
— memorable
Beer)
foreigner.
He
in
the Civil
War on
the
In 1869, he went to study in
a few years later, he was to win, Israel,
Prize,
the coveted
Rome
(Mi-
never before awarded to a
then went to
Rome and was
never
Unfortunately,
only
these
two
nineteenth-
century Jewish sculptors, Antokolski and Ezekiel, are
still
remembered
who were
For example, the Hungarian Jacob
(1815-1852), remains an interesting
and pathetic at the
any extent, but others
certainly not devoid of talent are entire-
ly forgotten.
Guttmann
to
figure.
Apprenticed to a gunsmith
age of thirteen, he wanted to become an
artist as a child,
having shown
ability in carving
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
867
Museum
the Hungarian
of Fine Arts,
sands of reproductions of over
Italy.
A
all
considered
is
finest creations.
fortunate was a fellow-Hungarian Jozsef
Engel, (1815-1901),
who was
and sent
for the rabbinate
originally destined
to the yeshivah of the
famous Rabbi Moses Sofer
and
his father applied to
(whether or not
"decision"
While
in Pressburg.
studying, he persisted in trying his ture,
and thou-
were distributed
it
Peasant, at his Plough
one of Guttmann's
More
868
this
hand
at sculp-
the rabbi for a
was permissible
according to Jewish religious law). The answer
was unfavorable,
for the master obliged his pupil
to disfigure all the
As soon
human
as his father died,
faces of his sculptures.
however, he moved to
Vienna, later establishing a celebrated studio in
Rome. Final recognition came where of
his
Queen
in
England, his busts
Victoria
tition for the
and
of the Prince Consort
were
latter.
was
international reputation
granted the award. six
to
By the time of the compemonument to Szechenyi, in 1865, his
acquired by the
modify
him
group Amazons Fighting and
so great that
He was
he was
forced, however, to
times the main figure in the group and
the four allegorical figures; as a result, the
ment, which
now
monu-
stands in one of Budapest's finest
squares, lacks spontaneity. Enrico
406.
Glicenstein.
Woman
The
Pioneer.
Another once-famous figure was Samuel Fried-
Tcrra-cotta. Arts Center, Ein-Harod.
rich toys.
At eighteen, he trekked
No
he learned engraving.
to Vienna,
less a
where
patron than the
Austrian Chancellor, Prince Mettemich, obtained for
him
him
a scholarship enabling
An-
to study.
other patron, Baron Solomon de Rothschild, paid for a trip to Italy.
But Guttmann's short
He was
of drama.
full
was
life
constantly on the go. In
London, he was shocked by the cold reception accorded him. In with
the
Jewess, and his
Paris,
celebrated
he
hopelessly in love
fell
actress
Rachel,
herself
became dependent. Ultimately, he
a
lost
mind. In his funerary monument for Rabbi
Beer (born
bered for
Moravia, in 1846; died in
in Brno,
now more widely remem-
Florence, Italy, 1912),
with Theodor Herzl and
his association
the Zionist movement, than for his work as a
But during
sculptor.
his life,
most of which was
spent in Paris and Florence, he was very successful.
Berlin's
National Gallery acquired Albrecht
Duerer as a Boy and Luther with Book
Begging for Bread, while other works are Metropolitan
seum
Museum
of
New
of Fine Art in Budapest.
of Herzl,
Hand
in
in the
York and the Mu-
Under the
influence
he produced works on a Jewish theme,
such as the groups
Shma
Yisrael, In the
Sweat
was Beer who
Aaron Chodin, who had heralded the Reform
of
movement
designed the medal for the First Zionist Congress
trait
in
bust of the rabbi, probably the
portrait to
Vienna
appear on a rabbi's tomb.
in his thirty-eighth year.
include busts
The
Hungary, Guttmann did a
if
original c
fine porfirst
He
such
died
in
His other works
Metternich, and of Pope Pius IX. the last-named
was acquired by
at
thy
Basel
From
Brow,
and Promise.
It
(1897). certain
portant Jewish
points
of
artist of this
yond the rudimentary
view, period,
limits
of
the
most im-
who went the
be-
prevailing
academic atmosphere, was Henryk (Enrico)
Gli-
JEWISH SCULPTORS
869
Coming from the same
(1870-1942).
censtein
he spent
environment as Boris Schatz,
Italy
youth
heder and the yeshivah.
he developed a many-sided last
his
He studied in MuPrize, went to Rome the won and, having where, living in Rome for the next 25 years,
in the
nich,
870
artistic activity.
New
days were spent in
York. His
first
works
naturalistic bent stressing lyricism
were of a
His
and
pathos in a genre-like fashion. Characteristic of this
period
a marble statue called
is
dancing
of Paris portraying a
girl
The Song
with a ram.
His concentration of powers and a feeling for the
concept of form arising from the nature of the material begin to reveal themselves in a
number
of works in wood, such as a torso of archaic size.
many
In a great
development
of his works, one can trace his
towards
evergrowing
an
However, he reached the height ability only in his
American
he executed two seated
realism.
of his singular
creations. In 1928,
terra cotta figures, a
num-
ber of busts in bronze, and wood, which are outstanding for their mobile expressiveness. Also noteworthy are the marble bust of Rabbi
—
David Einhorn and Lincoln Lincoln
Museum
strength
came
working.
No contemporary
able strides
in Springfield.
to
the latter in the
His inner dynamic
wood made compar-
the fore chiefly in his
— from the
artist
naturalistic excitement
untrammeled wilderness and the sometimes
and
weak
feeling for style of his early period to the security, clarity,
and greatness
of an expressionism born of
deep experience which the works of
his last creat-
ive period
showed him
to possess.
In 1940, he
created
monumental
figure,
a
meters high, of the Ecce suffering
is
finale of his life's
a
woman
in
which human
if
congealed into stone. The
work
is
a powerful
monument
Nationale. His terra-cotta figure of
pioneer in Palestine
(fig.
406)
illustrates
Joseph Mendes da Costa (1863-1939)
may be
termed the founder of modern Dutch sculpture 407). His
artistic efforts
revealed themselves
in three aspects: as a strongly-stylized decorative art in the sculptural
Joseph Mendes da Costa. of General De Wet.
highly original figures of animals, such as his Sad
Monkey
in
which primitive human
their expression.
fried
A
ornamentation of buildings;
feelings find
phenomenon
is
Sieg-
Wagner (1874-1952), who became
influ-
similar
enced by Oriental forms of
his intense Jewish feeling.
(fig.
407.
Monument
compressed to an almost unearthly
dignified quiet as
La Defense
Homo
more than two
still-life
Egypt and Spain following
his
after trips to
studies
Copenhagen Academy. His monumental the Lurenblaeser of the
the
Copenhagen Municipality
and many gravestones and busts bear teristic
at
figure of
his charac-
stamp. In addition, he also executed
many
Kurt Kroner (1885-1929) was
expressionistic busts always in pure, clear forms;
utilitarian objects.
and small works of great charm, among which are
for a long time a student of Rodin's.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
871
he moved
872
where he executed many large
to Paris
works and studied the old techniques of
By
glass polishing. in a
and
and
engraving with diamonds,
carving,
crystal
glass
the time of his tragic death
Nazi concentration camp, he had developed
an unusual imagination
formation and use
in the
decoration pieces as well as crystal
of stylized
bowls of elegantly sweeping rhythms and extremely
Among
thin glass.
was
the
Leopold
77-year-old
gifted
who was well-known
Sinaieff,
and
statues
the other victims of the Nazis
especially
Grieving
his
for
Bernstein
and
for his busts
Ezra,
executed in the style of Dalou and Rodin.
Benno Elkan, born since
1933
living in
similar to Zadikow's. Paris,
whom
in
Dortmund
1877, and
in
London, possesses a
versatility
While studying painting
in
he associated with Albert Bartholome from
he learned
combine simple architectural
to
form with sculptured decorativeness
which he applied
bronze,
in
tombstones in Germany.
to
Elkan's portraits on medals established his repu408.
tation
Arnold Zadikow. Santina.
Among
the
the
to a tragic
German
gifted
(1884-1943), whose sisted
of a lovely
silver,
number
some his
a
Jewish
great
were brought
Arnold
Zadikow
independent works con-
ten-centimeter-high figure in
of chiseled silver plaques,
terra cotta figures.
work
artists
lives
end by the Nazis was
sculptor first
whose
World War
for five years. This,
I
and
interrupted
however, was
by
fol-
a large
lowed by a
rich activity distinguished
number
war memorials and tombstones on form and ornamental appli-
of
which the
traditional
cation of the
His
best
castings of medals
turned,
the evacuation of
Mainz by the
stones
celebrate
Allied
Forces
after the occupation following
World War
executed a statue of a kneeling
woman
for the city of Mainz. In Frankfurt,
I,
he
in granite
he executed
monument of a grief-stricken woman which he called To the Fallen. But these public
the granite
works of
He
his
were destroyed by the Nazis.
achieved great prominence by renewing a
long-forgotten form of art recalling the medieval
chandeliers in the form of a tree with each branch
(fig.
in
408), busts, and a large bronze. His subsequent
in stone, to
which he then
executed large lamps of Biblical figures,
Abbey and land,
and
works of
and
of figures.
in
Westminster
other ecclesiastical buildings in Eng-
masterpiece
fig.
409),
the Israel Parliament) building
and a time-
Many
of his
IV
sculptured works in marble were done in Rome. Gioninello, the statue of a vouth
this kind,
finally his great
in Jerusalem.
out of the stone.
He each with many
which were placed
for the Knesset (
of the total silhouette present a unity
Peter Vischer. These are bronze
lamp enclosing a group
a separate
gliding together of the planes, the constructive
half figure are
To
a
German craftsman
quiet and softly flowing forms, the
growing
and
semi-precious
called Persephone are outstanding.
balancing of the structures, and the completeness
lessness
in
Rathenau,
He made many
his matriculation certificate as a great
The
figure
gene-
of his
artists
Walter
examples of the
Motherhood
is
sculptor.
marble
of
script are
David
cast figure of
figure of
life-size
bust
of this kind.
Hebrew
modern work
one of the great
as
ration.
II
of a female
classic beauty. In
1932,
With changing
conceptions of art which appear-
ed on the threshold of the 20th centurv, a new
JEWISH SCULPTORS
873
enclave the
grew up within which a Jewish
school
Paris
left its
years,
and
leaders
own
stamp. During the course of
various
who became
personalities
modern
trail-blazers of
Until this period, Jewish artists
emerged.
art
had stepped
into
the limelight as individuals. These, however, were
From
exceptions.
Jewish tury,
artists
Man
his
a
Outdoors
Tango
circus
Couple Dancing
(1918), many women
figures
strange
in
in
dancers,
motion
and
poses.
He
attained considerable wealth through the execu-
commissions from high society. The sculp-
tion of
fashioned in marble. After losing everything in
were
worthy of note that
the 1929 crash, he withdrew to a modest studio
where, poor and forgotten, he continued to create
However,
came
minority soon
this
By
artists
rapidly.
relatively few.
The reason
to play an important role.
for this
is
small
plaster-of-paris
reached
Paris
during the
world of the individual, quickly identified himself
magnet
new approach
which substituted a
to art
artists
first
from
all
From
reproduction.
Kogan whose
new approach. Amadeo
Modigliani, for
full
of
peak
its
as
a
capricious
center of artists
decade of the 20th century. As a
attracting an ever-increasing
portrayal of the world of effects for a photographic
In sculpture, too, Jews were pioneers in present-
figures
movement.
that the Jew, always concerned with the inner
ing this
—
e.g.
tured heads of his female clients were delicately
living in Paris, they
with the
(1915)
—
the point of view of numbers,
comparison with the great multitude of
it is
of striving to simplify curved forms
were unimportant. In the new cen-
number began growing
this
874
Livorno,
over the world, Italy,
origins
it
number
of
drew Modigliani
Cracow-born Nadelmann,
were
in Russia,
whence Lou-
tschansky also came, Jaffa-born Joseph Constant,
and Hanna
Orloff,
born
in the
Ukraine
who came
example, was not only a great painter but also a
to Paris via Palestine.
a master of
line
Poland, lived in Paris for 31 years; Zadkin spent
originality.
Because of the dust produced by work-
and form, a sculptor of exceptional
many
years there.
Jacques Lipchitz, born
in
From America, among many
ing in stone, he was able to devote only short periods
to
sculpture.
In
addition,
unstable
his
temperament kept him from completing work he began.
that
he happened
He worked
pitifully
pieces
at
to pick up, only to destroy
many
of
them when he was drunk. His sculpture shows Negro and other primitive influences, whose artistic value he was quick to recognize and appreciate as a folk art.
Among
the most interesting women's
heads are his works in the Philadelphia
Museum
and the Victoria and Albert Museum
London,
in
while a sandstone statue of kneeling carytid in the
Museum
classic
of
Modern Art
New
York displays
rhythm. His early death put an end to his
half-revealed talent in this Elie
in
field.
Nadelmann (1884-1946) who began
Paris career with a statue of a
woman
in
motion
in the Hellenistic style (1904), later created in the style of
From
he greatly admired.
he had come to the conclusion that
consists
of geometric
beginning of World
— although He
whom
heads
that point on, his art took a definite direc-
tion, since
form
Rodin
his
his art
War
I
elements.
he lived
in
From
New
was always anchored
all
the
York
in Paris.
never forsook the technique he had acquired
409.
Benno Elkan. Menorah. Knesset Garden, Jerusalem.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
875
MODERN TIMES
us as living things which
we know
876
(fig.
411). His
and harmony.
statues possess a quiet beauty
Living in Paris, where she came in contact
with the modern schools of hal always
had
guished for
a
unique
art,
Hanna
Orloff
own,
distin-
style of her
utmost simplicity of form which
its
she adapts to Cubism. Her favorite
medium
wood, whose smooth rounded surfaces glide one another. She
is
no
less a
bronze which she often
is
into
master in marble and
gilds.
One sometimes
something cruelly ironic and glaringly frank
finds
in
her
busts. In her portrayals of
women, she knows how
to unfold a tender lyricism
and
in her child studies,
the naivete of the child-world.
mals are masterpieces
of
Her
statues of ani-
forms.
plastic
Never
verging on the sentimental, dramatic or pathetic,
Hanna at
the
Orloff displays a sense of
same time,
original,
humor, and
realistic
is,
and always
expressive.
Marek Szwarc's
art formerly
Jewish tradition in every day. exclusively,
drew, almost
themes from the Bible and the
of the Polish Jews,
which he executed
in
came Zorach and Epstein
in
order
to
enrich their knowledge.
Moyse Kogan (1879-1942) was
a master of
small art forms par excellence. His forte
rhythm
of the
human
was the
figure in motion. His beings
are completely timeless.
The
figurines
he produced
remind one of Tenagre: they are of the simplest forms, avoiding
all
detail
(fig.
410).
Jacques Loutschansky who, after 47 years Paris,
moved
striven to
for
to Israel at the
in
age of 75, has always
simple forms without tying himself
one particular
style.
and women are often
His busts of young
lyrical.
are tender. His portrayals of
girls
His children's heads
men
—
strong and
powerful.
Joseph Constant (Constantinovsky)
is
the most
important animal sculptor of our time. All his creations
are conceived out of the material he
chooses to handle. His media are marble, wood, bronze, and ceramic ware. Although his treatment of the animals
is
completely unreal, thev affect
411.
Joseph Constant. Black Panther.
Art Center, Ein-Harod.
life
copper
Moyse Kogan. Nude.
410.
others,
followed an old
He
Wood.
JEWISH SCULPTORS
877
412.
relief
Jacques Lipchitz.
(repousse) in the
manner
The Kapparot
of objects
by Jewish craftsmen. After conversion
Sacrifice.
made
878
Bronze, Ingersol Collection, Philadelphia.
construction of form, and to remold color into the
was Jacques Lipchitz. His artistic not bound by any one particular
motion of
light,
cism, however, he occupied himself chiefly with
creations
are
church decorations.
formula.
to Catholi-
to translate
Once he became interested in a theme, it occupied him for years until it reached the
concepts of abstract painting into sculpture, to
ultimate in clarity. Thus, in the course of fifteen
carry over the line rhythm of painting into the
years, taking the
The
first artist
to
have the courage
theme
of a
man
with a musical
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
879
more
The
work
to
to the
what bring
effects of light are
His feeling for space stems from
life.
conception of
its
880
form and give more sweep
elastic
construction. his
MODERN TIMES
His memorial statue called
light.
The Destroyed City stands
Rotterdam.
in
It
depicts a female figure screaming with terror as
she
lifts
her hands to heaven to ward
horrors of aerial warfare
Bernard Reder,
413).
(fig.
who
started his
career as a
gravestone cutter and did not have his tion until the
the
off
first
exhibi-
age of 38, has come a long way from
early coarse, massive bodies with powerful
his
muscles and broad thighs which aroused such
The
horrified astonishment.
tamed
soon
Paris
in
strength.
He
influence of Maillol
unbridled
his
primitive
gained conscious control of rhythmic
own
expression without becoming untrue to his
imaginative powers.
Woman, The Woman
ting
Women Monument
City.
1940: The Destroyed Rotterdam. Bronze.
in
In
has acquired
New new
rhythms of the instrument, he formulated
it
works,
in a variety of
stone
Squat-
as the
Two
and
Bathing,
Standing, reflect the artistic atmosphere
of Paris.
May
Ossip Zadkine.
413.
Works such
York since 1943, Reder 's
driving
art
power from the dynamic His powerful statue in
city's life.
Wounded Woman was
the
sensation
of
beginning with a cubistic structure through ever-
the Philadelphia Exposition in 1949. Reder seeks
new
to express his keenly passionate imagination in a
variations until he reached the purely abstract
form.
Out
of the
melody-song
a
tumult of the as
man
embodied
angel,
with the musical instrument, finally
itself
The
emerged.
new themes
thirties
made him
in the
struggle of Jacob with the
Prometheus
412). These are
mother
killing the monster, a
wringing her upraised arms rising to heaven,
seek
in despair, a
and the Kapparot
now
prayer
Sacrifice (fig.
The Miracle
his themes. His
gives expression to the newlv-risen State of Israel.
The
rebirth of the
began flee
to
interest
Jews
in their ancient
New
play a dominant role in
Ossip Zadkine tor.
is
no
York, he has
artistic
life
less a painter
come
elicited
life,
by the play of
of primitive peoples,
light.
Influenced by the art
he created a number of lon-
gitudinallv-formed heads in stone similar to those of Modigliani
and some compositions
in
with a Bull
wood with
(fig.
and
414)
Centaurs
both
in
Women Women
in
Bird,
stone,
in Battle
Battle
with an Attacking Eagle are the high points of his
power and
extraordinary
ever seeking
new
fighting spirit,
his
expression.
Jo Davidson (1883-1952), born in Russia and
a
and achieves supple movement
Fantastic
as well as his bronze groups
to
than a sculp-
for exalted rhythms. His
Head and The
brought to
His work consists of abstract, cubistic forms
brought to
up realism
give
to
today.
his stone as well as in his
bronze compositions, he tends more and more to
homeland
him when he was forced
France. Living in
dynamic language. In
member
only
New
York
of the
after
his
as a child,
European
arrival
in
was considered
school, since
Paris
the
at
twenty-four that he matured as
an
was
it
age
artist.
of
He
always remained true to the tradition he discover-
ed
there.
At a very early age, he could already
model busts with
juggler-like
proficiency.
greatest part of his unusually prolific
consisted of the busts of nearly
all
life's
the prominent
personalities of his time. In addition,
he executed
strong cubistic overtones. Lately, he has turned to
several statues such as a David, a Russian
the use of plaiter-of-paris in order to create a
Dancer, and later
—
in
1940
—
The work
Woman
a large, bronze
JEWISH SCULPTORS
881
Walt Whitman
statue of
He knew how
14 years.
which he worked
at
to bring out the
essence of the beings he reproduced.
enormous technical
He
eye.
and
skill
for
true
He had
a steady, discerning
followed Rodin's impressionistic method
and used the play
of light
and shadow with power-
ness,
882
many
inspiration.
present-day
Among
artists
have received new
his followers
is
Benno Schotz,
Director of the Glasgow School of Art since 1938,
and Scotland's leading
artist
today. His busts dis-
tinguish themselves in that they reflect the indivi-
dual characteristics of their subjects.
He
has also
executed some charming children's heads. Worthy
ful effect.
Without
a doubt, the outstanding sculptor of our
of
mention are
his
bronze bust of Lord Boyd of
and
time was Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), perhaps
Orr,
the greatest master in casting bronze and working
shadows, and his 1952 sculpture of an unusually
on stone. Born
directly
acquired his true
moved
artistic
in the
United States, he
background
life
by the play
the Jews, Malcolm Hay.
The
lived:
impressionistic for busts,
and
thus he belongs to the European school rather
ments, as in his Moses
than the American. The appearance of each of his
Commandments
works aroused violent controversy. Epstein
early
was perhaps the most realist of
them
The
all.
and uncompromising
radical
idea for his creation always
emerged from the medium
—
in this lay his genius
he did not believe that sculpture
as a sculptor:
should resemble reproduction in wax. Lately, he
carried
many specifically Christian figures and out many commissions for churches (fig.
415).
Epstein
executed
paid
with a completely
tribute
to
his
people
of light
impressive head of that notable Scottish friend of
and
in Paris
London where he subsequently
to
brought to
(fig.
styles
he used are
cubistic in
Hammering
out the
over to the semi-abstract
style, as in his
blocks,
By
and reinforced concrete.
work
the most important of South Africa's
far
sculptors
is
Lithuanian-born Lippy Lipschitz. His
reflects the characteristically strong
of African
Negro
art
guage of form and
which he to
the
dynamism
in
we mean
the liv-
power out
ing
By
which he fashioned of
dead matter.
Epstein was neither bound to
any particular medium nor any particular
Joseph
stvle.
Conrad
His busts of
and
George
Bernard Shaw rank especially high. lent
He
possessed the rare ta-
of being able to occupy
himself with all,
as
he used a model,
children. his
Above
own daughter
almost from the
moment
she was born, in va-
riations
without
number.
No
other artist has succeeded in creating children's figures with
such convincing spontaneity.
Through Epstein's
creative-
414.
that
he
brought back from Paris, where he had studied
are effective because of their
way
rhythm
joins to the lan-
he has executed with a chisel
primitives here,
Adam and
Eve. Schotz's media include soft clay, sand stone
new concept
almost primitive simplicity.
Ten
416). Lately, he has gone
Bound. The works
of Lazarus
monu-
Bernard Reder.
Women
in
Battle with a Bull.
1949.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
883
SSI
veins expressing motion. Lipschitz has executed
two works
The Sea Nymph. The
called
first,
according to the nature of the stone from which it
was created,
is
made from
one,
compact; whereas the second
a stone
found on the sea shore
which had been deeply hollowed out by the waves, has more open contours and greater inner motion. In contrast to Lipschitz' symbolic abstract art
born out of stvlized
reality,
classicism
Rene Shapshak follows in
the sense of the
a
more
modern
concept of form. He, too, was trained in Paris and is
a master of
rative
wood,
stone,
and
ornaments of cut glass
glass.
in
His deco-
which
light
is
the main factor creating rhythm, actually belong
more There
in the field of is
craftsmanship than pure
a most pronounced influence of the pri-
mitive African folk art in his
He
art.
wood
frequently uses the swinging
sculptures.
movements
of
tree branches for bold compositions such as in his
415.
Jacob
The Annunciation. Tate Gallery, London.
Bronze.
Epstein.
with Bourdelle. The expressiveness of his Jacob
Contending with the Angel
due tion
to
its
cubistic form.
for his
A
in
ebony woods
teak tree
is
is
the inspira-
group The Tree of Life consisting
of an exaggerated slim figure of a
woman
with
arms raised over her head and a child cleaving to her (fig. 417).
Together with Lipschitz'
art
is
all
other South African
artists,
completely determined by the
natural objects of his environment.
He makes
use
of the countless varied assortment of stone as
does of the trees around him. His media give
he
final
shape to the idea which impells him to create.
A
grained piece of stone in his hands becomes a
body with sm
iothly
flowing muscles,
with the
416.
Benno Schotz. Moses Hammering out the Ten Commandments. Limestone.
JEWISH SCULPTORS
885 Jeremiah's Journey to
Hanoi. Others are wood such
led out of massive blocks of
886
chiseas his
powerful figure of a mother in the form of an
woman
African peasant tion,
and
The
Negro heads
his large
who
artist
the African soul
shrunken with exhaus418).
(fig.
has penetrated most deeply into
Moses
is
com-
Cottier. His figural
positions of native types, although
done
wood,
in
give the impression of having been cast in bronze,
and subtly have they been executed.
so smoothly
The emphasis sion. is
mostly on psychological expres-
is
the son of a Hungarian rabbi,
Herman Wald,
best characterized as the expressionist
among
the sculptors living in Africa. Hassidic emotion
permeate
of music
and dove
much
ever, leave
to
works which, how-
his
be desired from the point of Three
His
view of the laws of plastic form.
Jews are more an expression of poetry than sculpture. rified
The Refugees
woman
pictures a
of
pet-
with horror holding her child in a tight
embrace
to save
it
from
symbolic figure of a woman, the Dead),
The
pursuers.
its
large
Kria (Reading for
a memorial to the suffering of the
is
Jewish people, at the same time expressing the
hope
for a better future.
VI Jews are conspicuous adherents
the avant-
of
garde movements in the sphere of American
Among American number
artists,
are Jewish.
arts.
a disproportionately great
They
are,
it
may be
said, pre-
destined by the fate of the Jewish people to concern themselves with problematical themes stem-
ming from the
stresses
century. Since most of
and
strains of the twentieth
them come from the lower
social strata
and have known more of the needs
and sorrows
of the times than of their blessings,
they
energetically
throw
struggle for existence. rents
Many
of
them
into
the
or their pa-
have escaped the catastrophe of European
Jewry which their
themselves
still
imagination.
echoes in their ears and
been
This has
contribution to American
art.
But
their it
417. fills
would be
work. They are also capable of striking a happier Typical
whose stone
is
the
work
figures are the
of
Life.
Wood.
unique
misleading to recognize only the tragic in their
note.
Lippy Lipschitz. The Tree of
Gallery of South African Art, Capetown.
William Zorach
epitome of utter sim-
plicity saturated
with a deep, sometimes mystic,
expression.
At the age
of four,
Zorach came to Cleveland
from Lithuania with memories of the small town of Eastern
Europe and
its
persecutions strongly
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
887
imbedded in
New
He
in his personality.
York and
York, he was a failure.
him
flat relief
studied painting
A
chance experience
age of 36, he has com-
modern American
to bring to
in
from an old crate brought
to sculpture. Since the
first
New
a painter in
pletely devoted himself to the plastic arts.
the
888
and was greatly taken by
Paris,
Van Gogh and Gauguin. As cutting out a
MODERN TIMES
He was
art the tech-
nique of working directly with stone and wood.
He
considered the greatest master of these
is
techniques. Zorach
is
also a pioneer in the use of
structural instead of anatomic forms in art.
His
works include a more than
life-
early important
daughter
size statue of his
tion
in
marble, a composi-
walnut Pegasus, a marble bust cf
in
a powerful head of a prophet
his
in
black
is
much
concerned with the theme of mother and
child.
A
finest
wife,
granite,
and The Lovers
(fig.
granite group executed in
achievement on strikes
a
variation
419).
1945 of
He is
this
his
theme.
It
one as a universal expression of mother William Zorach. The Lovers. Stone.
419.
love devoid of anv romanticism or frivolity.
One of his outstanding pupils is Chaim Gross, who has achieved prominence in the field of wood
He
sculpture.
New
studied painting in Budapest and
York, but did not find his true calling as an
artist until
the forests of the
New World
brought
back a childhood fascination for the woods and
wood
the
carving acquired from watching the
peasants in his native town of Kolomea in Carpatho-Russia.
He knows how
to
exploit to the
utmost the native structure of the
wood he works
He
with.
He
simplifies
forms
in the abstract
manner.
has discovered the rhythmic melody in wood,
often repeating the
theme
of the
of dancing figures in
theme
groups. Gross sees this
wood, transforming
it
in the natural
into
human
form
bodies
merging and flowing into one another. Like Zohe works directly on his media, preferring
rach,
hard wood. His love for hard material and his
working with
joy in ture. in
sculptors, for the
Nat
Rene Biclel
lhapshak.
C
The Mother. Wood.
Election, Johannesburg.
has led him to stone sculp-
Thus, he has executed a number of works
marble and onyx.
wood
it
He
has a
flare,
humorous and the
uncommon light
(fig.
in
420).
Werner, also a pupil of Zorach's, prefers as a
medium. He
is
more dramatic
in ex-
pression and stricter in form than Gross. Sometimes, nonetheless,
he prefers a
lighter rhythm.
JEWISH SCULPTORS
889
Thus he
gives expression to his joy
890
at
the downfall of the Nazis in the dance-
group of a couple with lyre and tambourine
mahogany. Inspiration
in
for
this
came from the Book Samuel where David is described
composition
of
re-
turning from a victory over the Philistines
and being met by people
rejoicing,
dancing to the music of drums and cym-
The rhythm
bals.
veyed
in the
of the dance
is
con-
treatment of the mahogany-
Werner's well-known String Quartet
elm
is
in
a highlv successful cubist experi-
ment, while other carvings such as The
Talmud Scholar
(fig.
421) are expres-
sionistic.
Another of William Zorach's pupils
Maurice Glickman who came
is
to sculp-
ture via painting. His strictly constructed
bronze group of a Negro mother with her
child
shows the influence of the
classic masters of
Italy
led
him
beautiful his in
England, France, and
where he studied. to
further step
closed contours
marble
realistically
wood he
A
group
as
in
Destitute.
the In
constructed free reliefs
effectively brings
out the
421.
Nat Werner. The Talmud Scholar. Cedarwood.
2J
rhythm of human movement through the use of architectonic
He
parts.
achieves
a
mism and
finally
stronger
dyna-
freer flow of lines
and reduces forms
to their
cubistic
In
statue
content. of
A Woman Sunk
Group, the
in
the
her sorrow
is
full
force of
imparted by
the expression of her hands.
Glickman executed a group motion called Pearl Di-
in
vers,
cast in aluminium, in
which the play of the trays
metal the
light
effectively
bodies
on
por-
throwing
themselves into the depths
with outstretched 420.
Chaim
Gross.
Mother Playing. Bronze. 1957.
A
many-sided
legs. artist,
well
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
891
versed in
all
techniques,
who
has devoted himself
mostly to sculpture in connection with architecture,
is
Among his noteworthy Tunnel Men and The Mohawks,
Louis Slobodkin.
works are the
which he adheres
cast stone, in
construction.
He
impression of
bound forms
to a strong tectonic
remains true to the naturalistic in his three-and-a-half
meter bronze of the young Lincoln. His small terra cotta
The Old King David
is
an
interesting
of contrast, the leading artists of the
past generation representing the Classic Antique style in
American sculpture were Maurice Sterne
and Saul Baizerman. The former's extended study of art in Greece tures
made
its
effect felt
As
early as 1909, he created the
of a bombardier in Classic style. It
Metropolitan are
on the sculp-
and paintings he has done over a number
of years.
the
a seated
Museum
stone
Memorial
in
reliefs
is
head
today in the
of Art. Other works of his for
the
Roger
Kennedy
Worcester and the marble statue of
woman
masterly. Saul Baizerman has for a quarter
is
of a century achieved extraordinary effects with his
technique of working with copper plates; he
hammers concave out
the
of
in
which
422.
his
handling of the soft
Saul Baizerman.
The March
as well as convex forms directly
metal.
method
This
endows
his
production with expressiveness of light and form.
Among
his
most
Exuberance,
effective
which
in
works are the the
women's
reliefs
bodies
appear nearly dematerialized, and The March of the Innocents
motif of motion.
By way
stone
892
(fig.
422).
When
looking at these,
one almost has the feeling that the media have
come
to
The
life.
classical
with the
and
life
suffering of the
clearly reflected in the
tariat
is
lisch,
which
theme
preoccupation of Jewish
artists
working prole-
work
of
Max Ka-
almost exclusively devoted to the
is
of the industrial workers.
He made
realistic
reproductions of the working-man as a symbol of his era.
His workers are not show-pieces, but hard-
with muscles flexed. His Riveter,
living figures for example,
is
bodv seeming
of the Innocents.
a strong, realistic
work with the
to vibrate with the rattle of the
Hammered
brass.
Berta Margoulies. Refugee Children. Bronze.
423.
tool J.
894
JEWISH SCULPTORS
893
his
hands
powerful
Goodleman
also
is
His art
handling.
Aaron
concerned with proletarian
subjects, but these are only
personality.
are
is
one side of his
best creations are highly expressionistic, having
Eastern European Jews as subjects.
artistic
neither thematic nor for-
It
is
World
symptomatic of conditions
mally bound. As he varies his media from stone
men
wood or clay, his move from the quiet
sculptors of
to
block of granite)
of expression
possibilities static
to the
in
the
that a particularly high proportion of
figure prominently
New wo-
among American Jewish
eminence and genius, though a cen-
(Meditation from a
tury or even half a century ago such a thing could
expressionistic
not be imagined. Space permits the mention of
ecstatic
(Together), and to naturalism
(Men and MaSome of his
chines in bronze), deeply symbolic.
only a very few of these. Outstanding, perhaps, is
Berta Margoulies
who was born
in
Poland and
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
895
head,
MODERN TIMES
entitled
Last
the
896
Prayer
424)
(fig.
is
especially impressive.
Dorothy Greenbaum, on the other hand, belongs
bound form.
the masters of the
to
Self-trained,
she works mostly in stone, seeking to preserve the natural form of the block as
much
as possible.
Leaving the natural contours untouched, she has fashioned the quiet, dream-like head of a
from an egg-shaped
stone.
She has shaped a block
of sandstone into a naturalistic to
a
camel imparting
symbolic meaning intimated by
it
Snob
woman
hammered
425). Her
(fig.
motion expresses
in
the play of light in
endowing
it
with
its
whose
The
fine feeling for form,
and
fall
Yet another American Jew-
life.
art has,
its title
lead statue of
fluctuating rise
ish sculptress of exceptional ability ler,
girl
in
is
Anita Wechs-
the course of the years,
gone through a number of phases from the natuthe realistic and finally, to the abstract.
ralistic to
She has a strong imagination and a genuine for the
feel
media, and can bestow upon her plastic
compositions adequate rhythmic expression. She has learned to work in stone and Minna Harkavy. Last
424.
Prayer. Bronze.
personal spent her youth in Relgium and England before
anti-war
where she went through the
fashions
coming
to America,
school of William Zorach before proceeding to
France and
Italy.
She
wide range of human
capable of expressing a
is
emotions
The happiness
of media.
of the bronze
in a large variety
of childhood speaks out
head of her
son; while the
little
wood from own
liam Zorach, but has developed her
1949.
style.
In
groups
decorative
entitled
strongly
cubistic
wood, and bronze.
mahogany
War
work
A
to
Music. in
form
She out
strongly stylized
called
especially worth mentioning.
is
very
1937, she began a series of
sculptures
of cement,
Wil-
The
War
Her experiment
fuse natural stones rhythmically are interest-
ing.
Her abstract constructions
of
copper and
posture and faces of her two refugee children
with empty eyes and drawn mouths express shy timidity. in
the
cubistic
There
statue
is
mute
the scene of a mine accident. its
423)
mine workers' wives
of
crowding behind a fence waiting
Jew with
(fig.
resignation
for
news from
The head
of an old
serene dignity and air of deep medi-
tation symbolizes spiritual greatness.
Another
woman
artist to
be influenced by Zo-
Minna Harkavy who also studied with Bourdelle in Paris. Her creations are realistic, rach
is
large in form,
and
rich in feeling.
Among them
are
the bust of Henri Barbousse, her tremendously expressive study of a Negro head, and her Ttvo
Men
in
rigid forms.
Her
quiet, exalted
head
of
a bearded old Jew with a phylactery on his fore-
425.
Dorothy Greenbaum. The Snob. Limestone. 1944.
JEWISH SCULPTORS
897
898
brass bars arc, lor the time being, experimental
"La Chatte" performed with great success
attempts.
London, and Berlin
The American environment
favorable to the
is
new
appreciation as well as to the evolution of
forms of
and
art;
only natural that Jews,
is
it
resentment of representa-
atavistic
be foremost among
tional sculpture, should
who have embarked on new not
though
sometimes
experiments in this
outstanding
with
always
sphere,
those
achieving
success, results.
brilliant
Thus, for example, Milton Hebald has developed
own
his
how
rhythm which he knows
expressionistic
to vary according to the
426). Seymour
(fig.
mood
of his statue
fields
—
radios, etc.
Under the influence toine Pevsner
came
artistic talents.
bronze,
nected with fine stress,
as
in
The
which he makes use
in
Woman
Seated
his
for-
Dancer,
of the play of light on the
expression
his
for
little
screens.
tin
plate
con-
These creations
volume
an element of space.
A
wholly
new
feature in American Jewish
tors
but even in sculpture,
in the service
Many American
Jewish sculp-
have found an outlet
the great temples
that
throughout the land.
It
are is
for
their
ability
now being
The
he uses small pieces
them
be
can
style
latter
his Recollections of a
Mummified
observed
precisely because of
the surviving opposition to representational art in
in
Cat, in which
framing
of glass decoratively,
in steel. Jason Seley's dancers are only hinted
summarily since they are stripped of everything
at
physical and melted
down
to a
complex
and curves which can be grasped only
of
motion
abstractly
and decoratively. Bernard Calder,
Rosenthal,
This consists of bent wires
plastic.
tached to
steel
little
wind and produce
He
Alexander
the discoverer of the so-called free-
is
swinging
with
together
which move
plates
interesting
shadow
in
at-
the
pictures.
achieves the same effect with relief-like con-
form of animals and
structions of steel in linear
plants
whose
stone wall.
The movement
Constructivism brothers
are reflected against a
silhouettes
is
Naum
in sculpture
known
as
the result of the activity of the
Gabo
and
Antoine
Pevsner.
Naum
Gabo, who studied the natural sciences
while
attending
art,
began
lectures
his practical
on
work
the in
concepts
of
1914 with the
execution of a woman's head in cubistic form out of celluloid
and metal. The
tion of Constructivism
were
first
practical applica-
his sets for the ballet
in
erected
bronze casting to enliven the body's rhythmic forms.
life
the utilization of Jewish artistic genius not only
of the synagogue.
by
of
contrast to the dynamic-static,
cuts.
illustrated
to the conviction that painting
and sometimes oxidized
sionism than Hebald in the cubic forms of his lead
is
An-
his brother
His conic and cylindrical shapes
in painting,
mer
Gabo,
adapted from machine forms consist of brass,
is
sionism to an abstract decorative style.
of
was not the only means
Lipton, strongly influenced
Swarz has moved from a modified expres-
shape of automobiles,
for example, the
bv Lipchitz, shows a dynamically stronger expres-
Sal
Construc-
tivism has led to innovations in various industrial
with their iconoclastic bent possibly even combi-
ned with an
in 1927. Since then,
in Paris,
426.
Milton Hebald. Battle of the Amazons. Bronze. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
899
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
427.
MODERN TIMES
Nathaniel Katz. Three Patriarchal Figures. Alabaster sandstone in Nashville, Tennessee.
relief
on Temple facade
900
JEWISH SCULPTORS
901
the service of Judaism,
and non-
abstract
that
902
representational sculpture has found an opportunity.
The ish
significant
first
symbolism
new Jewbeen made by
attempt to create
in abstract
Herbert Ferber. His aim
form has is
the presentation of
open space forms through compositions which are built completely on linear motion. For this
purpose, he employs rods of bronze and heavy lead,
as
the
in
Metamorphosis
Aggressive
or
Act which are based completely on movement.
He
metal plates. In the Stab-
also uses sheared
bing Vectors, which looks like a cactus plant,
one no longer has the impression of a piece of sculpture created of solid matter. Yet, constructions like this as symbolic representations are ca-
Milton Horn. "Not by Might, not by Power but Temple in River Forest, near Chicago,
428.
by
pable of evoking emotional sensations. Proof of
My
Spirit" in
Illinois.
are
this
Burning Bush and facade of the
his
synagogue
in Milburn. This
work
the im-
elicits
depicting the history of medicine for the
reliefs
pression of small, crackling flames through copper
University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine,
and lead streamers soldered and corrugated toge-
a
ther in pointed
and
spiral
forms
(fig.
377).
among
sculptors because his bodies are shaped
single,
almost independent individual forms;
harmonize
yet, as a totality, they
He
drives the distortion of his figures to the ut-
most and breaks figure of
Cyrano
in the
symbolization
drastic
forms apart. His bronze
their
of
Whitney Museum
is
the vain duellist.
The
Thumb
grimace-like figure Victory of the lightful
caricature,
a
woman accompanying
herself
absorbed,
humor
and
irony.
The
sculptor
mic expressionism
is
are
also a
full
of
master of dyna-
as seen in the alabaster sand-
stone relief of Three Patriarchal Figures which he recently executed together with A. for the
The
Vine
St.
art of
Temple
in Nashville
427).
(fig.
works
is
one outer wall of the
on the Biblical verse "not by might, nor by power
my
but by
The
spirit."
abstract decorations for
Springfield, Mass.
Temple Bethel
in
were executed by Ibram Las-
saw, whose constructions consist mostly of copper rods rhythmically reaching the utmost in dematerialization (fig. 378).
and through.
He
is
(fig.
428)
.
It is to
of
be imagined that very memorable work type,
this
genius, will in
expressing
the
Jewish
due course come
spiritual
to the fore in
Here, during the past half century, there
Israel.
has indeed emerged a school of sculptors
— hark-
ing back to the fecund activity of Boris Schatz, is
a mas-
rhythmic construction, ecstatic expression, as
well as of large, decorative forms his
Raymond Katz
Milton Horn, on the other hand,
expressionistic through ter of
for
River Forest near Chicago based
a de-
sody depicting a fully
in
and the statue called Rhap-
on a
lute,
new temple
melody.
like a
black walnut depicting Isaiah's
relief in
and sculpture
visions,
Nathaniel Katz can be called the rhapsodist
from
wood
Among
the statue of kneeling Jove, six stone
some
of
tation.
whom
This subject must, however, be treated
in the general
among
have gained international repu-
account of the resurgence of art
the people of Israel
and ambitions.
—
its
present scope
ART
EUGENE KOLB
by
Every historical survey
contemporary
of
IN ISRAEL
Israel
must begin with Boris Schatz and with the
art
establishment of the Bezalel School on which he left
the impress of his personality in the course
of 25 years.
man and
Both the
the institution
exerted a diversified and decisive formative influ-
on the
ence
development
of
Israel
art
in
its
anything in any
way
savoring of
The Jewish
art.
population was small, there was no one in the
who might be
capital
expected to regard such an
institution sympathetically,
and the
would
fanatics
excommunicate a school which violated
certainly
the Biblical prohibition against
At the
or a graven image.
making a
outset,
likeness
however, Bezalel
account has already been given of the significance
The aim of the new undertaking had become more practical. Its program was "to establish suitable enterprises and
of Boris Schatz as
thus provide the Jewish population of Palestine
had neither
early period.
In
work,
this
absorbed his
—
vears.
later
made
whom
to
or obsession It
was
Vienna
in
he broached
the
first
of
plan to
his
establish in Jerusalem an art center to
Bezalel,
— which
1903 that
in
acquaintance
the
Theodor Herzl,
after
some
His achievement
a sculptor.
not been for the dream
Schatz
of
might indeed have been greater had
in this sphere it
chapter
previous
a
be named
God implanted
wisdom and
ol
spirit "in
knowledge and
whose heart
in all
in
workmanship" (Exodus 31:1-4).
From work
there on,
his
with Jewish
increasing preoccupation
the large building
Here, at
for the financial in the
of the Bezalel plan. Schatz
of the Czarist regime.
tality
a final
and organiza-
implementation trips to
Vienna
of
Ephraim M.
establishing
1906
adventure.
Palestine
has
an
all
the
art
the
Lilien.
an
artist of
above
sion and,
to the U.S. In 1920,
where he
excels as portrait artist
is
institute
earmarks
christian
was
a
artists
and
still
is
active.
as lithographer.
the imagination and of expres-
all,
a talented illustrator.
work
of the
belonging to the school's limited
circle.
permanent exhibition
in
They shared
of
First,
was a desolate and aban-
doned country. For hundreds of
Moslem nor
went
from the "Bezalel Salon" where there
he reached Palestine accompanied by his
of
He
later
in Jerusalem
Bussia for
Bezalel painting looked like can best be
friend, the graphic artist,
idea
Pann
1914 and
left
What
were founded
The
last,
He
realized
tees
Jerusalem
a
which Bezalel commit-
Berlin, as a result of
year,
of
in which the Bezalel
these capitals. Later that
ami
in
made
home
formerly the
—
drawings which courageously laid bare the bru-
Paris in
was found
—
French religious order
he settled
problems involved
possibilities of
Schatz secured the
he received from the Jewish National Fund
it,
Zionist Congress at Basle.
tional
and
support of the Zionist movement. Thanks to
full
themes. In 1905, he was a delegate to the Seventh
solution
this formula,
storm at the beginning of the century with his
possible to trace in Schatz's
it is
of sustenance
Vienna, and Paris, and aroused a considerable
man
in
With
un-
the direction of Moses, and a
His
existence."
manner
artist-
creator of the Tabernacle in the wilderness under
derstanding and
new ways
with
Museum is housed to this day. This was the cradle of the new Palestinian Jewish art. Abel Pann (b. Lithuania, 1883) made a positive contribution to Bezalel. He had studied in Odessa,
known Hebrew in
likenesses nor statues.
years, neither the
population had created
certain
of the
convictions
and
they firmly believed, Jewish art
connected
with
Jewish
themes.
is
principles.
necessarily
Secondly,
type of art, in their opinion, did not
this
stem from
a pictorial, plastic vision but from the techniques
ART
905
IN ISRAEL
which was the basic
of decorative craftsmanship
foundation of Bezalel. This applies to the works
and Abel Pann
of Boris Schatz
Shmuel Ben-David (1885-1928), who
pictures of
was
as well as to the
director
and
department
tapestry
the
of
directed the course in decoration; to the producof Ze'ev Rabban, whose best-known work
tions
was the
"Song
series of miniatures in color for the
of Songs" published in 1923; to the black-and-
M. Gur-Arye who taught Book of Pioneers"); to the
white silhouettes
drawing
Aharon
of
("The
Halevi
Beautiful
Land," 1929) which give the impression of being
by metal work; and
inspired of
also, to the pictures
Eisenberg, executed with impersonal preci-
I.
and coldness,
sion
as
they were the ceramic
if
wall-decorations that were his main occupation. Finally, these artists fought against the aspira-
modern
of
tions
art
because they saw
what they regarded
being
as
Bezalel
that
decide what
Jewish
is
contrary
drew
Bezalel art
until in the
The it
World War
modern
The
I
and what a mere
from abroad. In
it
imita-
way,
this
burden of a serious economic depression. Never-
and developing It
proved
faith in itself
and farther away from
gave birth
to the flourishing
in inverse ratio to the obstacles.
and
A
change took place
qualitative
sphere of painting. First of as the composition of the
saw a revolutionary change
sisting of a small
group, completely different, was representatives of
men who came 1914
Hebrew language and
the basic fundamental
of
However,
revolution
a
the
culture
national
dance
it
style
content and form,
its
ideas
and
new sensation A new Hebrew
gave expression to the
also
siveness,
which
Modern
prose and poetry arose to confront classic
of life of the
theater
was
rebirth.
began
sharply divided the past from present.
rhythm,
contemporary Jew.
came
Bezalel in
A
made up
Some
in order to study at Bezalel.
the founders and animators of the of
second of the
of these,
A
first
movement
modern art in Palestine. The interests of the constantly-increasing group
of
were
artists
Jewish
Artists
whose sphere
served
founded of activity
by the in
Association
Jerusalem
in
of
1920,
broadened from year to
group became the general
professional organization of the country's artists.
museums
were held mostly
homes.
its
con-
between 1908 and
to Jerusalem
re-
In
at
I,
the young generation — young
These were years of changing values. The
social
Palestine.
Hebrew
changed.
World War
working
coterie
tions
literature.
artists
Jerusalem or in the spirit of Bezalel.
in
and
cultural,
1925,
the
in
As we have seen, there was only a handful of
order
in
also
the criteria as well
all,
world of
painters in the country before
Since there were no
naissance of the
drawing new
future, but also
its
strength from the difficulties.
year. Ultimately, this
nineteen-twenties, during which Bezalel's
economic,
continued growing
art
right to exist, not only preserving
its
in
the
young
theless, the country's
became an anachronism.
art in the country.
decline took place,
the
Menahem Shemi (Schmidt), Pinhas Litvinovsky, Nahum Gutman, Rebecca Stark-Avivit were to be
art
historical significance of Bezalel lies in the
after
The
arts.
down by
monopolized the right to
came
fact that the general voice of protest raised against
of
unfavorable to the development of the years 1926 to 1928 were weighed
such as Israel Paldi (Feldman), Reuben Rubin,
farther
end
the
to
would have seemed most
to
tion of styles imported
life
them
in
character of the Jew. Eventually, they believe
that external conditions
of
("The
wood-cuts
906
In
1923,
a
or galleries, exhibi-
in schools, clubs, or private
number
of
young
artists
obtained a historic building in the Old City, the
"Tower This
of
first
David," for a large-scale exhibition.
"general exhibition" was a milestone in
the development of Palestinian its
annual reappearance
—
David, later on in Tel Aviv event in ters
artistic life.
biting in
all
From now on, Tower of
in the
— became
About 20
and sculptors took part
art.
first,
in
a central
to
30 Jewish pain-
it
each year, exhi-
about 100-150 works.
new, original
Tel Aviv was quickly achieving greater promi-
was created whose rhythms, expres-
nence than Jerusalem. In 1926, 1927, and 1928,
into
and wealth
of
being.
movement exerted
consi-
three important group exhibitions were held there.
derable influence on the imagination of painters.
Although the
The
bitions
strangest feature of this period
was the
fact
artists
participating in these exhi-
were not organized
in
any special way,
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
907
429.
Israel Paldi.
(Feldman) may be regarded
pioneer. Born in Russia in 1892, he
as the
had come
country, studying
Academy
to
blend natural forms with the
Vienna and
in 1911-14. In the
war
at the
years,
Munich
he was a
429).
(fig.
A
to
Bezalel at the age of sixteen. In 1910, he left the in
which he sought
decorativeness of Oriental rugs and embroidery
independent personality. Israel Paldi
908
Barbarian Dance. Tel Aviv Museum.
they constituted a group with a pronounced
still
MODERN TIMES
special place in the
group
Reuben Rubin, who was born While
1893.
still
a
is
reserved for
in
Rumania
in
young man, he published
sketches in the local press, and in 1912, after
some
prisoner of the Turks, returning to the country in
encouragement from Schatz, he came to Bezalel.
1920
He was
full
After his
of revolutionary ideas.
first
exhibition, in 1921, Paldi acquired the appelation
of "futurist;" however, his stormy
mode
com-
of
munication stamped him as an expressionist of
and movement. The unbridled movement
color
of
to
as disappointed as the others
Jerusalem looking for an art academy, and
instead found a project for producing craftwork.
For a short time, he engaged
Academy
less
attended the
than his luminous portraits, with their bold
dis-
made some study
tortions of
from
Jaffa port
form brutally revealing the character
of the model.
A
profound change
about following a later
traint
his return
from
and obscurity
Corot and
in his art
in a surprising spiral.
was much
Paris, there
in his
Courbet,
came
Paris in 1928. Paldi's
development proceeded
Upon as
visit to
re-
he
executed
lived in
tum
of Fine Arts in Paris
trips to Italy.
In 1916-19, he
Rumania, developing with such momen-
that Alfred Stieglitz, the pioneer of
art in
and
modern
America, arranged an exhibit for him
New
York
tine
in
in 1920.
1922,
he
When
Rubin returned
already
possessed
in
to Pales-
thorough-
going experience and a considerable reputation.
exchanging his stormy
Rubin's early works were post-Impressionist, in-
World War
II,
he went through another experimental period. At point,
drawing and ivory
work; he returned as far
palette for muffled tonality. After
this
in
carving but soon returned abroad. In 1913-15, he
pointed at this no
his figures
who came
abstract
compositions
fluenced by the symbolism of Ferdinand Hodler. After settling in Tel Aviv, however, Rubin deve-
loped a
naive, primitive style
which undoubt-
stemmed from Rousseau but
using various materials and unusual techniques
edly
(sand, applique work, lumps of paint, etc.)
Rubin's
in
new
personal
formulation,
in
undergoing
brought out the
ART IN ISRAEL
909
Menahem
430.
gay, romantic
mood
munity. With his
Shemi. Safed Composition. 1950.
young Jewish com-
of the
style, his bright, flat colors, his
steady hand, his refined taste, and his sense of decorative beauty, he figures of Safed
would paint the Jewish
and Jerusalem
in their colorful
costumes, the country's flowers and
above
ceeded
in
fruits,
and,
which he suc-
Palestinian landscapes in
all,
combining harmoniously the
lyrical
mood of Biblical days with contemporary motifs. Menahem Shemi (Schmidt) (1897-1951), was born
came
in Lithuania, the son of a
to Bezalel a year after Rubin.
from him, however, in his
hedonism.
whom
artists for
each problem
is
He
in his
differed
Weltanschauung and
belonged to that category of
each painting
a problem
is
and
an internal struggle. The period
of his studies at Bezalel left
few
Unlike Paldi and Rubin, Shemi
traces on him.
knew modern
art
not from original works but only by hearsay. His
world consisted of nature and lette
was
friends,
man
at the outset gloomier
and
his
in
it.
His pa-
than that of his
brushwork thicker than that of
the painters captivated by the country's light and
In 1928, Shemi visited Paris and was greatly
impressed by Manet, Cezanne, and especially by
who
monumental female
Shemi,
figures.
however, had the knack of working over his impressions in such a of surface
way
as not to
after four vears of
war
service,
Safed, where he succeeded
which had been as
if
the clouds
bright, free, (fig.
become
a victim
Modernism. Towards the end of
Shemi worked
in realizing the
many
his for so
had
his life,
years. Suddenly,
became
scattered, his colors
and possessed
in
dream
charm
of an Oriental
430).
Although born
in
Rumania
Nahum
(1898),
—
Gutman can be regarded as a local product a sabra. The son of the prominent pedagogue and author, S. Ben-Zion, he at
the age of
was brought
to Palestine
five, enrolled in Bezalel together
with Shemi in 1913.
He
served with Shemi in the
Jewish Legion at the close of World
War
I.
After
the war, he studied in Vienna, Berlin and Paris.
Gutman
represents the lyrical and graphic school.
In his early years, he had already acquired a touch of his
own, which has remained personal
to this
day.
His
chief
characteristics
are
facile
drawing,
gay expression tending towards elegance, and a
brilliance.
Picasso,
neo-Classical
mechanic,
He
910
at
that
time was busy with his
harmonious atmosphere unburdened by problems of form.
He
watercolors,
is
outstanding both for his
and
as
an
unerring
oils
and
sketcher
his
and
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
911
Being also a talented writer, he can
illustrator.
912
Litvinovsky enriched Israel art at the beginning flowering with a transcendent personal tone.
grasp the spirit of a literary creation or of a land-
of
scape theme and present
In his painting he did not aspire to reflect the
At
as a living reflection.
he was attracted by
first,
day
it
figures
and executed several
life
from every-
striking portraits.
Later on, he devoted himself especially to landscapes, painting in a gay, tranquil of Galilee
and the
mood
liveliness of the ports,
the Sea
with their
mirrors of glittering water and ships decked out in
many-colored
One
of the
ships
which anchored
under peaceful circumstances
1919
Ukraine,
Odessa
brought
also
1894).
in
1912
he succeeded that his place
in
others,
Russia,
Boris
World War
Litvinovsky
came
Schatz
I
(b.
to
persuading the 18-year-old youth
was
in Palestine.
came
That same year,
to Jerusalem,
but
like
was disappointed and returned
where he studied
at the Petersburg
to
Aca-
demy. Upon the outbreak of the revolution, he fled first to to
Turkey and then made
Jerusalem.
uniqueness of the country's landscape
Rubin or Gutman),
for his
(fig.
431). In the
played
did
self-expression
Litvinovsky dis-
fields of color,
less consistency
(as
primary intention was
the pleasure attendant on direct
his
method
The Market
conduct a Bezalel exhibition,
therefore, Litvinovsky
many
after
Pinhas
When to
off Jaffa
Pinhas Litvinovsky.
431.
in
emphasize the
special character of Palestine or to
than in his drawing. His
pictures of the twenties recall Rousseau; Cezanne's
flags.
first
its
way back
in
composition and certain cubistic remi-
Place, 1955, Tel
niscences
Aviv Museum.
recognizable
are
his
in
plastically-
fashioned later figures. Litvinovsky 's paintings are captivating because of the vision
and the freshness
Joseph Zaritzky arrived in 1923,
ways.
He had
is
power
of his original
of his color.
(born
Ukraine,
1891),
close to Litvinovsky in
studied at the Kiev
who many
Academy, which
stood in sharp contrast to most Russian art schools
because
it
laid
emphasis on color rather than on
sketching and was more open to Western influences. In
School.
Moscow, he saw the works
By
of the Paris
the time he reached Palestine,
his
Rubin. The Flute Player
Joseph Zaritzky. Flowers.
432.
artistic
perception
despite
all
was already
so
stable
that
transformations, no qualitative change
has taken place in first
among
who
tender wife.
its
first,
in
that his pictures often look purposely unfinished
the begin-
splendid portrait of his
the end of the thirties, he produced in watercolor, including land-
Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv
went over
of the
From
(fig.
432).
roofs.
But,
to abstract art. Characteristic
From
tine, Zaritzky
Ofakim
a
and
which he painted
a special emphasis on spontaneity, with the result
he painted surprising views of Safed,
and
pictures
recent years are an unusually fine color sense and
beginning with 1950, Zaritzky gradually and consistently
abstract
Association,
hundreds of pictures scapes of
gigantic
existence.
still-lifes,
From
features both of his smallest aquarelles
was the
ning, he regarded the expression of individual vitality in color as the aim of art and the justification of
1945.
attached no im-
to this day. Zaritzky
it
Israeli painters
portance to local subject matter.
At
914
ART IN ISRAEL
913
the time of his arrival in Pales-
was an
and
in
Hadashim
active force in the Painters'
1948 he was a founder
("New
Horizons")
of the
group
which advocates extreme modernism (see below). Like Rubin, Paldi, and Litvinovsky, Arye Lubin
was acquainted with the country even before settling there in 1923. Born in Chicago in 1897 into a family
with a Jewish
whose atmosphere was permeated and with Hebrew culture, he
spirit
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO MODERN TIMES
915
studied in Tel Aviv and later at the Chicago Art Institute.
He
returned to Palestine as a volunteer
in the Jewish Legion,
manently
in 1923.
and came back
to settle per-
Lubin was thus more
familiar
left
a year later, and eventually
at the
a strong
in 1926, there
with modern art than most of his colleagues, having
him with a
of the Cultural
In this
Committee
his
Federation), Frankel
group. However,
his
studio
was long before he found
own way. His artistic personality is revealed in a great many interesting drawings, sketches, and plans,
on some of which he worked for years
without completing them.
outcome is
However, a positive
of this complicated
method
of
working
the synthesis of reality and imagination which
he achieved in his later years. This
is
revealed
especially in his compositions depicting Arabs
and
color itself.
in Tel Aviv.
and freedom As
far as
to exhibit a
Two more
artist
who came
young modern
to the
crystallized,
was Odessa-born Isaac Frankel, who
arrived in the country for the
first
time in 1919,
433.
first
art
of expression as a purpose in
Frankel was the in Palestine
first
("Com-
painters of the group should be
tioned here in conclusion.
Haim
1904), son of an Odessa rabbi, there
and
Moscow
in
absorbed from his
1926, after his character had already
the
positions without Objects," 1926).
Palestine
in
now founded
Frankel stressed unlimited
we know,
Yemenites smoking water pipes and conversing
Another
in existence
of the Histadrut (Labor
pure abstraction
excitedly.
group
was already
When
art
way, he became one of the progressives of it
in Paris.
movement which provided broad field of activity. With the help
modern
acquired eclectical experience in
all styles.
became a student
Academie des Beaux Arts
he returned
916
in
1924,
and,
clothed
new
Gliksberg
first
when he the
men(b.
studied art arrived in
impressions
he
surroundings in the colors
and tones that he had learned from the French impressionists.
and
There
is
apparent
profiles a spiritual affinity
Tsiyona Tajer,
Yehiel Krieze. Haifa's Old City.
who may be
in his
landscapes
with everyday
life.
considered Palestine's
ART IN ISRAEL
917
Moshe Mokady. Landscape. 1952.
434.
modern
native-born
first
interest.
She
the
is
first
of
double
of the toiler; in his landscapes, especially in his
artist to
engage
pictures of the environs of Jerusalem, he sought to
painter,
woman
918
is
our attention thus far in this chapter; and she
is,
express the secret soul of the rocks and chasms.
moreover, of Bulgarian Sephardic origin, being
His sensitive feeling for color
the daughter of one of the founders of Tel Aviv.
in
She entered Bezalel
in
1931, but Rubin, Paldi,
fine
his
aquarelles,
Untouched by
"Bezalelism" of Abel Pann and Boris Schatz. In
and descending ever deeper
1924, she went to Paris where she studied with
ideas,
two
years.
Upon
returning
home
destined her to join the group of modernists. lively
The
chromatic contrasts and cubistically inter-
secting planes
of her portraits
clearly
point to
Ludwig Blum
(b.
Moravia, 1891; in Jerusalem
painted Jerusalem scenes and por-
since
1923)
traits
with a dry naturalism. Samuel Ovadyahu
(b.
in
1892), brought with him from the Ukraine
1924 an impressionistic treatment of
appeared
strange
in
the
light
unique
which
Palestinian
atmosphere.
Mordecai Levanon became Frankel's in 1925. In his figure paintings
first
pupil
he sang the epic
into his
changes
own world
Levanon has slowly created
for
of
himself
Yehiel Krieze arrived in Palestine from Poland in
1922
at the
working
age of thirteen.
by
class
his
He
outlook and
His paintings depict the congested shops,
Louth's teachings.
stylistic
a sort of island in the world of Israel art.
1925, her fresh talent and French culture
in
penchant for
mysticism often endows his works with the character 'of a legend.
for
revealed especially
while his
and Litvinovsky influenced her more than the
Andre Louth
is
and cafes of Tel Aviv. In
paintings, in
which he
later
is
tied to the
way
of
alleys,
his
life.
work-
gouache
developed a special
technique, he employs motifs such as Acre, Nazareth,
and ancient
which with
their
Jaffa,
creating
compositions
charming colors and balanced
play of lines and horizontal and vertical planes are reminiscent of tapestry
went
on,
more
colorful.
these compositions
(fig.
433). As time
became
freer
and
While these painters were expanding the scope
Moshe
435.
Castel. Mural, Accadia
of Israel art, a counter-current set in
—
including some who had been
artists,
country only a few years,
young the
in
further
left either for
study or to keep in closer touch with living art
The main
not available in the country. attraction
were the
was, of course,
Paris.
visits
became
stays
and studied
until
1925
in the
at the
Galicia
Upper
following year
Viennese Academy
and took part
in 1926,
the second exhibition of the
Arye
years.
as a halutz in
Europe
He came back
of Art.
of instances,
who had come from
1920 and spent a year
Galilee, returned to
several
of
"Modern
in
Artists,"
gradually abandoning his cubistic and expression-
and took up
were now translated
own
color language of his
In 1927, in
Moshe
into a personal
434).
(fig.
went
Castel also
Oriental style.
displayed a penchant for an
first
The
pictures he did in Paris often
mind the
bring to
delicacy
1940, he
ancient Persian
of
Upon his made an effort
miniature painting.
return to Palestine
supplement the
to
influences of artists such as Chagall
and Rouault
with the romantic subjects abundantly revealed to
him
love with nature, especially in Samaria and
Paris
live,
and
his genre pictures of
Hasidim
While
visiting
enthusiastically
received.
and the United States
Similarly,
Moshe Mokadv
arrived from Galicia
age of eighteen after studying painting and
music
in
tures,
he developed an independent treatment of
Vienna and Zurich. In
his
color exuding an aura of mysticism.
gouache
From
pic-
the be-
the results achieved
American
Hebrew and Arabic he has (fig.
also
now upon
and by a number
of
he appeared with several
made
Jewish symbols and the forms of
ginning, the special musicalitv of his color scale
dwelling in Haifa to the effervescent atmosphere
Mho
compositions in which he
was apparent. In 1927, he moved from
his quiet
by
abstractionists,
remark-
in 1951-3, a
able change took place in him. Relying
at the
where
in Safed, the city of the Kabbalists
he chose to
were
Galilee.
Born
to Paris.
Jerusalem in 1909, he began his studies at
Bezalel and at
in
Tel Aviv.
his residence in
post-Impressionist and Expressionist elements
of his painting
beginnings, and in time, becoming a colorist
istic
in
The
920
1955.
Hotel. Herzliva.
personality,
center of
Usually, these
number
brief visits, but in a
Alweil, for example, in
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
919
alphabets.
use of ancient letters
from the
In recent years,
executed murals and stained glass
435).
Aaron Avni, a
realistic
painter,
came
to
the
warmer under
country from Russia as a halutz in 1925 at the age
the influence of the passion of Soutine, whose
of nineteen. Although he received his art educa-
of Paris. Here, his color
grew
still
stormy forms had a powerful effect on him. returned to Palestine in 1932 with a settled
He
artistic
tion in Palestine,
and was nourished by
ronment, he nevertheless
did
not
free
its
envi-
himself
ART IN ISRAEL
921 from Russian and French schools which
stamp on
his
922
left their
work; he was attracted by Corot and
the Impressionists but also displayed a great deal of interest
these
in
Cezanne and the Fauvists. From
influences,
scapes and portraits, interiors lifes,
gouache,
in
developed
painting
his
(fig.
436) and
and aquarelles
oils
landstill-
saturated
with moods and sentiments. As director of the Histadrut (Labor Federation) studio for painting in
Tel Aviv from 1936 to his sudden death in
1951, he
left
the impress of his personality on
generations of students.
Deep
traces of a stav in Paris are similarly notice-
able in the development of Shimshon Holtzman.
Rorn
in Galicia in 1908,
came to
Palestine.
At
first
he was fourteen when he a laborer, he
began teach-
ing himself to paint at the age of sixteen. In 1929,
he went
to
Paris
where he was influenced by
Soutine and Rouault.
The
pictures he exhi-
first
bited were dark and solid, but later, he
became
acquainted with the work of Matisse, Marquet,
and Dufv. In 1936, he returned a palette of gay, light colors
used
in his aquarelles
(fig.
Shimshon Holtzman.
437.
On
the
Lake
of Galilee.
to Palestine with
which he cleverly
437).
Study abroad had a good influence on the
development of two painters who, the
to
tine
first
—
ranks of
modern painting
Streichman
Yehezkel
1906) and Avigdor Steimatzky
The former began studying of eighteen, then
in time, rose
went
(born (b.
Odessa, 1903).
developed slowly, and organically. At
to the
in
his
age
and from there
Florence where he spent four years.
which he applies
Pales-
at Rezalel at the
to Paris,
temperament appeared
in
Lithuania,
to
His style
first,
a lyric
work. His colors,
canvas in a stormy sweep,
convey a song from the depths of the heart 438). His characteristic portraits of
women
(fig.
are
constructed with power and love. In recent years, he, too, has turned to abstract art, creating per-
sonal values
which reveal a new and convincing
aspect of his personality.
young generation activity
in
of
His influence on the
painters
started
with
his
Free Studio which he directed
the
together with Steimatzkv until the beginning of the
War
of
Independence.
Steimatzky was twelve years old rolled at Rezalel. relations
with painters
modern French 436.
Aaron Avni.
Interior.
landscapes
in
when he
en-
Although he maintained friendlv
art,
the
who were
at the
enthusiastic over
beginning he painted
conventional
fashion
of
the
438.
However, features
period.
were already apparent to
which he came
Paris School self
in
in his aquarelles. In Paris,
1930, he was fascinated by the
and sought
make
to
Upon
his return
a
way
as Matisse
him-
for
and Sou-
home, he devoted
his
all
time to structures of form and experiments After his second
color.
his style
visit
to
Paris,
in
1950-52,
achieved some degree of crvstallization
without losing
With the ascent
to
power
Nazi regime
of the
Germany, the number of immigrants
to Pales-
tine sharply increased, as inevitablv did also the
number after
of artists.
Those who reached the countrv
1933 had been nourished by cultural roots
different
of the
from and more sophisticated than those
greater part of the existing community.
Moreover, they belonged on the whole to a
much
higher age group, in consequence of which their artistic
character had been formed and stabilized
before their arrival. Typical
is
the case of Galician-
born Mordecai Ardon (Bronstein: resembled some of the well-loved
older generation in drawing his inspiration from
the sources of Jewish legend and mysticism, the
Aggadah and the Kabbalah. The which shaped
his talent
the Bauhaus at
to
hint
at
first
were spent
in study at
Weimar, where he learned the
principles of the
marked the
decisive years
modern concept
of form.
appearance of his peculiar
That
ability
deep-lying symbols beneath realistic
phenomena and
to present
them by the use
of
bold abstractions and color replete with mystic
nervous tension.
its
924
Yehezkel Streichman. Safed. 1951.
of an interesting talent
between contrasts such
tine.
in
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
923
b.
1896),
artists
who
of the
While
passion.
his
work
early
of the Palestine
period reveals an essentially expressionistic period
enriched by the imaginativeness of his associate
former
Paul Klee, Ardon subsequently deve-
loped a sort of Jewish surrealistic symbolism. The spiritual fervor of the
modern (e.g.,
Zohar and the symbols
of
Israel inspire the contents of his painting
"In the
Negev Wastes,"
has not produced
much
—
destroyed during the war has done
is
"The Story
fig.
—
but whatever he
of high quality. His of a
Candle"
won
439). Ardon
pre-1933 work was
his
a
famous painting
UNESCO
at the 1954 Venice Biennale. In 1951,
prize
Ardon was
ART IN ISRAEL
925
926
who
since youth
ing
himself
now
nique,
had been
train-
artistic
tech-
in
plays an active part
in the capital's art life as tea-
New
cher at the
Among
Bezalel School.
who
those
took the
lead in fighting for modernistic tendencies, Jacob Weksler
(b.
should
be
Lithuania,
1912),
mentioned.
He came
to Pales-
1933 and worked
tine in
at first
development
in Haifa. His
for-
ced him along the road taken
by Braque and
Picasso,
and led
pigments into the sphere of
his
the decorative and his forms to abstract
the
(fig.
His
440).
paintings are distinguished
by
outstanding aestheticism, even if
thev are sometimes too cal-
culated, while his most recent
work
reveals a sweeping pre-
with absolute ab-
occupation
Another member of
stract art. this
group for some years was
Aaron Kahana 1905),
(b.
who had
Germany,
already exhibi-
ted in 1922 at the age of seventeen with the avant-garde artists.
In 1934, he reached Pa-
lestine, 439.
Mordecai Ardon. In the Negev Wastes
where
his
early
work
consisted of paintings in a free realistic style.
After 1945, Ka-
— he
returned to the
change
appointed art adviser to the Israel Ministry of
hana underwent
Education and Culture.
experiments of his youth and his pictures since
a
in
then have been built along the lines of pure plastic
Dresden with the Expressionist Otto Dix. In Pales-
compositions in the form of symbolic "ideograms"
Miron
tine,
Sima
Russia,
(b.
he joined the Jerusalem
worked
1902),
artist
colony, paint-
ing mostly gouaches. Isidor Aschheim (b. Silesia,
1891) represents the professional thoroughness the
German
his arrival in Palestine in
wife
— the
painter
in
Even before
tradition of art-teaching.
1940 together with
his
Margo Aschheim-Lange — he
had already achieved
a reputation as a craftsman
with
stability.
traditions
of
He
adapted
his
(fig.
441).
One
of the
Palestine
most
was Shalom Seba
his
journeys
in
exhibiting
sketches
doned
mood
of Riblical
artist's soul,
Germany.
After
noteworthy scenery for Habimah
endowed
with the
East
Prussia, trips to
the Far East and exhibiting the impressions of
Sachlichkeit style
his paintings
(b.
who reached
1897), who from 1925 had been making
dark palette to the country's strong light and
romanticism. This painter with a true
versatile artists
in
and gouaches
(fig.
making some Tel Aviv and in
the
Neue
442), he gradually aban-
painting. In 1955, he reappeared in public
with plans for Biblical compositions for murals
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
927
440.
Jacob Wekslcr.
MODERN TIMES
928
The Magician. Tel Aviv Museum.
designed to create a
new monumental
Yohanan Simon (born ly
1905) was deep-
Berlin,
impressed by the murals of Diego Rivera
1934, and
tendency in
this led to the
New
York social
of
Simon joined the
Gan Shmuel and
wielded a hoe instead of a of physical
work and
formed him
in the
artist of
visit
to
his painting. After his arrival in Pa-
lestine in 1936,
ment
at
emergence of a
Rockefeller Center during a in
perspective.
kibbutz
collective settle-
number of years brush. The experience
for a
of a collective life trans-
course of time into a descriptive
life.
Abraham Naton (1909-1960) who had been
a
student at the Bucharest Academy, executed in his early years
in
Palestine a
number
of paintings
and sketches of a highly decorative nature 443).
He defended
this
method
(fig.
for a long time,
before joining the extreme wing of the abstract artists in
the
New
Horizons group. Another
ber of this group
441. b\
Aaron Kahana. Three Figures Enchanted the Moon. 1953. Tel Aviv Museum.
who, born
in
expresses
the
paintings.
Avigdor
is
(Renzo)
mem-
Luisada
Florence in 1905, naturally enough Italian
Alreadv
artistic
well-known
tradition as
a
in
his
painter
ART
929
IN ISRAEL
930
ved as a regular meeting place
and
daists,
"Dada" lution,
Da-
for the
1916-19, participated
in
in
the
exhibitions. After the group's disso-
Janco lived for a while
in Paris before
returning to Rumania. Being an artist with a
stormy temperament, steeped
and equally
ture,
among
cul-
sensitive
new, unconventional, and given he assumed
to experimentation, sition
French
and teacher,
trator, stage decorator,
to everything
in
original as a painter, illus-
the
modern
a leading po-
painters in Pales-
tine (fig. 445).
The ing
credit
into
one of the 442.
and
Shalom Seba. Shearing. Tel Aviv Museum.
on
illustrator
in
arrival
his
Palestine
however, in
introducing artistic draw-
for
teachers
first
no traces
left
ment and departed
M.E.
belongs to
Palestine
after
at
Bezalel,
short
who,
develop-
in his pupils'
a
Lilien,
On
stay.
the
Hermann Struck held an honored
1939, he was aflame with pioneering enthusiasm
other hand,
and immediately turned
and productive position
in Israel cultural life for
20 years. Struck settled
in
His main interest
in
is
work.
agricultural
to
quiet and
in a
still-life,
gentle style.
Even
Australia has provided
Bergner
Yossel
from Australia the
Poland,
(b. in
its
artist-couples
in
the
young Jewish community.
who came
his
life,
1950 together with
first in
his
wife,
(The number
contemporary
worthy). Settling at
Israel
is
Safed, he later
of
moved
where the atmosphere was more con-
he became
genre-painting,
in Haifa,
In the last years of
he devoted himself more
to
painting,
his
The of
(fig.
more recent
In his
artists
Nazi
who
rule, in
sketchers: Joseph
left
Germany
in the first year
1933, included two outstanding
Budko (1888-1941) and Jacob
Steinhardt (b. East Prussia, 1887), both of Her-
a
One
art.
of the last of this
nologically,
group chro-
but nevertheless one of
the most significant, (b.
pictures
444) he reveals a preoccupation
with abstract
is
Marcel Janco
Rumania, 1895) whose
arrival in
1940 enriched the Palestine community with an artist of tation.
Yanko
European repu-
After studying in Bucharest, left
World War
for I,
Tristan Tzara,
Switzerland
during
where, together with
Hans Arp, and
others,
he founded the Dadaist movement.
He
painted abstract illustrations for
issues of
for the
"Dada," constructed scenery Cabaret Voltaire, which
ser-
443.
in
black-and-white drawings.
symbolist with a pronounced individuality.
where
which does not duplicate the masterv evinced
note-
genial to his work; for, after a period of conventional
1923
to develop the aesthetic tastes of
contribution in
1920)
Audrev Bergner.
painter
to Tel Aviv,
much
he did
Abraham Naton. Fisherman.
Tel
Aviv Museum.
931
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
MODERN TIMES
^ffY*
444.
445.
Yossel
Marcel
Bergner.
Janco.
Safed
Jaffa
Theme
Ruins.
932
t^t"
ART IN ISRAEL
933
mann
Struck's circle.
The former
618)
(see p.
demonstrated his passion for Jewish folk the etchings and woodcuts of his
life
in
German pe-
Like his paintings, his drawing exude the
riod.
Steinhardt
bleakness of the ghetto atmosphere.
had experienced
a long
and exciting
activity be-
fore his arrival in the country, having
studied in
worked with Struck and Louis Corinth,
Berlin,
traveled in France
and
Italy.
He
participated in
the founding of an expressionist group
446.
and exhibited
in
1913
ter
934
Greta Krakauer-Wolf. His
Jerusalem and
majestic
its
drawing of Anna Ticho was experience
of
was inspired by
also nourished
diligently
and
serene
ancient
quarters
of
the
city,
masters.
Ludwig Schwerin, who came
in 1939,
an adherent of the
is
leading
the
of
as a painter talent
446).
is
in
is
representatives
considered one of
the
German
marked Jewish tendencv. His work also very extensive but his special
etching and especially woodcuts
The power
of
his
style
stems from
(fig. its
expressiveness and the blending of fact and fancy.
Leopold Krakauer (1890-1954) came tine
from Vienna
in
1925 with
hilly
to Palestine
naturalistic tradi-
tion
school with a
its
landscape in a manner reminiscent of the ancient
and everyday phenomena with pen,
is
steep
its
rocky declivities, and the wild growth of
Struck, Budko,
he
meticulously
drawing with a pen or sharpened pencil the
German avant-garde movement. Together with others,
by the
Jacob Steinhardt. Sabbath. Woodcut.
at the "Sturm," the center of the
and
447). The
(fig.
where she has been
Jerusalem,
1914,
since
living
art
hills
to Pales-
his wife, the pain-
who
brush.
He
depicts the Israel landscape,
animals,
pencil,
and
has also achieved a reputation as an
illustrator.
The most
prolific professional sketcher
the established artists
been
is
in Palestine since the
European
travels,
among
Aryeh Navon who has age of eleven. In his
Navon became acquainted with
the work of Pascin and Modigliani, and acqui-
red the
skill
of expressing an idea or exhausting
935
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
447.
MODERN TIMES
Leopold Krakaucr. Hills of Jerusalem. Tel Aviv Museum.
448.
Naphtali Bezem. Maabara.
1954.
936
ART IN ISRAEL
937
any surprising centrated
by the use of a few con-
situation
lines.
Many members
of the younger generation are
The
displaying renewed interest in drawing.
rank
occupied by the young
is
Weill (b. Slovakia, 1918)
and
of kibbutz life
draws
and
1926)
(b.
excels in descriptions
Stern
Joseph
sketches
free
Shmuel Katz
448);
(fig.
Bezem
Naphtali
and
landscapes,
figures,
first
Shraga
realists:
illustrations;
convincing power
of
938
1922)
(b.
re-
presenting the lighter vein, devote their talents in addition
drawings,
to
also
The
caricatures.
to
Lehmann and Shoshana Heiwoodcuts of Rudv J
mann
are of a remarkably expressive nature. In
Aviva Uri and Abraham
contrast, the sketches of
Ofek are wholly
who a
abstract, especially the former,
executes calligraphic sketches stemming from
pure sense of
1917) his
line.
Jacob Pins
an outstanding woodcut
is
work
in the tradition
and
Steinhardt,
guiding
teacher, Jacob
of his
of the Japanese color prints, but
in a personal style of his
The young
Germany,
(b.
artist,
artists
own.
who had come
to Palestine
War
youth developed rapidly after the
in their
of Independence, in
which many
pated with distinction.
A
few
them
of
partici-
most charac-
of the
may be mentioned: Moshe Tamir
teristic
(b.
Russia, 1924), a painter of violent figures with a special
talent
Italy
(fig.
style
all
449); Avigdor Arikha, a
his
own
man
in
with a
who
has lived for
in Paris);
Gershon Knis-
450)
(fig.
some years abroad (now pel
which he studied
murals,
for
Germany, 1932), whose drawings and
(b.
449.
Moshe Tamir. Wounded Amnon. 1951. Tel Aviv Museum.
paintings are devoted to vigorous renderings of reality,
has acquired a special reputation for his
frescoes.
Another group, trained
of Streichman
the studios
and Steimatzky, have been
Some
ful to their teachers' spirit.
formed
in
a little
coterie
together under the
of their
title
own, exhibiting
— Aviva
of
Ten,"
Margalit,
Shulamit Tal, and Claire Yaniv.
An
increasing
artists are
now
constituting
an
number
of
native-born
Israel
phenomenon
in
the
and Zvi
who
Galli
has also been verv suc-
cessful in the decorative arts.
The
birth
beginnings
of of
sculpture in Palestine, artistic
associated with the
activity
name
as
of Boris
a
the
like
whole,
Schatz.
is
The
impetus given bv him to young sculptors did not originate
attracting attention, their progress
important
of color;
have
of these
"The Group
including three women-artists
faith-
Okshi, whose paintings reflect the Oriental sense
so
much from
the
inspiration
of
his
work, as from his method of instruction. But,
in
addition to this impulse, the arrival of sculptors in
Palestine
at
the
end
The
of
World War
I
had
country.
Outstanding among
a profound effect.
them are Boris Schatz's son
Bezalel, an abstract
Aggadati, and Frankel came in 1919, also brought
Abshalom
back Jaffa-born Joseph Constant (Constantinovskv)
artistic
artist
life
of the
also excelling in
decorative
art;
ship on
which Litvinovsky,
1882). The young
then living in Je-
artists
for
rounding forms and economizing on details
rusalem with hardly any knowledge of the world,
apparent. During
heard from his
his
about in
ties
lips,
perhaps for the
first
and outstanding
events
great
modern French
art.
returned to Paris where he
and
sculptor of animals,
In is
time,
personali-
Constant
1921,
active as a
still
in Palestine in
the
Apart from
until
who
1903),
1918 and became a
modern movement,
in 1934. is
(b. Russia,
he
arrived
trail-blazer of
settled in
his smaller statues,
loped early. She excelled from the
monumental
herself to
revealed
statues,
her
a
as
first
and
sculpture.
sculptress
All
strength, with a love for her material
(b.
Poland 1904
was an unusually important addition
devoted
this
work
masculine
and a deve-
d.
to the ranks
working for two years
with
intermittently
Schatz,
he
held
a
teacher's position at Bezalel until his death. His
early
work consisted
Mishmar Ha-Emek
Moshe
of naturalistic statues.
During
(fig.
452). At the
metal,
and executed
intensity
he turned
works of beaten copper
to
until
1925 to study sculpture
in
small
in
he
left
the country
Vienna and
Berlin.
dimensions but executed with great tho-
roughness and precision in aesthetic perception
1902),
who
is
(fig.
457). Close to Tsiffer
Aaron Priver
Poland,
(b.
studied painting, sculpture, and music
Vienna. For three years after his arrival in Pa-
in
lestine in 1922,
he was an agricultural laborer
kibbutzim, before enrolling at Bezalel. At realistic
nudes
451),
and
hood. Similarly,
Dov
an
(fig.
artist of
viduality, for
classical.
his favorite
He
theme
in
first,
work, but subsequently
vealed a penchant for the
re-
excels in
is
mother-
Feigin (b. Russia, 1907)
is
high standards possessing great indi-
who
acquired the elements of a feeling
modern form
secure
time,
monu-
1902) earned his living
Tsiffer (b. Poland,
by doing physical labor
from cubistic elements, thus achieving an original of suggestive
the apogee of Israeli
is
After his arrival in Palestine in 1919 as a halutz,
1933-37.
style
abstract. His grandiose sculpture at
mental sculpture.
the thirties, he began to construct his portraits
same
metal and his statues became more
he executed 1952)
of Israel sculptors. After
Boris
in
and
ous female nudes in stone and wood, usually of
in portraits
—
is
he continued
Melnikov
loped sensitivity for architectural integrity.
Zeev Ben-Zvi
II,
Since his return in 1929, he has executed numer-
later
with
World War
England
known for his lion monument at Tel Hai. The unusual talent of Batya Lishansky deve-
and moody wooden
work
spiritual
his influence remained.
Important, too, was the part played in that period
by Aaron Melnikov
940
Avigdor Arikha. Embattled Knights.
450.
(b.
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
939
Feigin's
balance
in Paris,
work as
well
is
where he studied distinguished as
by
in
by a
harmony
of
expression.
Isaac Danziger (b. Berlin, 1916)
was brought
form of masks. In
here at the age of seven, but acquired his art
the portrait., he executed in England, his tendency
education at the Slade School in London (1934-
in the
ART IN ISRAEL
941
451.
Aaron
Priver. Undressing. Stone.
452.
453.
942
Zeev Ben-Zvi. Portrait of Meskin. Bronze. Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem
Isaac Danziger. Sheep.
1956.
.
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
943
MODERN TIMES
Warsaw, 1921)
944
practically native-born, having
is
been brought here as an
Shemi studied
infant.
in
Haifa, was introduced to the world of sculpture
by Danziger, and was a member of Bet Ha-Aravah kibbutz on the shores of the Dead Sea. The material which at for
him was
into
simple
which he fashioned
stone
Israel
forms
he turned
Later,
held the greatest attraction
first
monumental dimensions.
of
to executing soldered statues of
beaten iron in which he displays unusual under-
new
standing of the abstract and a
space
(fig.
454).
The wave
many
feeling for
who emigrated from
of artists
number
to Palestine included a
Ger-
of sculptors
with established reputations, among them Michael
Kara in
Hungary, 1885), who came
(b.
He
1946.
with a
realistic
Rudolph
came mic
is
a skilled professional
method
Lehmann
artist
who
his wife, the cera-
Hedwig Grossmann,
Lehmann
1903),
Berlin,
(b.
influence on the group of
youth,
artist
of portrayal.
1933 with
to Palestine in
to Palestine
and an
exerts
young
strong
a
sculptors.
From
has tried his hand at the most
diverse techniques and studied to be a stonecutter,
blacksmith, and worker in ceramics. Lehmann's
work includes animal (fig.
454.
Welded Museum.
Yehiel Shemi. Sculpture.
Tel Aviv
iron.
length, small terra-cotta reliefs,
1955.
reliefs
distinguished
bv
38).
From
ence, the
and under Ben-Zvi's
influ-
young sculptor learned the meaning
of animals
and
a creative approach to the material, while Melni-
unheard of
Moshe Sternschuss
East.
he
Subsequently,
expression of his relatively
little;
own
developed
(fig.
mode
a
however,
the
statues
and the woman's head Shabaziva
—
Nimrod
both from
hard stone
— are crowning works not only
sculpture
but
of
of
453). Danziger creates
modern
Israel
of his
sculpture
in
general.
number
as Kosso Elul (b. Russia, 1920),
numerous materials:
and
iron
in Israel.
stone,
who works with
wood,
clay,
bronze,
His statues with their daring, distorted
forms anc are express
their
approximation to primitive art
nistic.
Like him, Yehiel Shemi
(b.
and
(chiefly
was nearly
principal exponent
Its
was
who came
to Palestine in 1926. Since his return
from Paris
in 1934,
(b.
he has been working with surfaces and
masses. Lately, he has been creating in beaten
and soldered presented
Abstract sculpture
iron.
is
also re-
by native-born Zohara Schatz,
daughter of Boris Schatz) synthetic material
of contemporary Israeli sculptors, such
figures
and
Poland, 1903),
Danziger greatlv influenced the early work of a
figures
Until recent years, abstract sculpture
of
forms of the ancient
wood
simple form
birds).
kov inspired
his interest in
their
and stone
richness of expression, his studies
wood
carved in
figurines
455), not more than a few centimeters in
who works
(the
chiefly with
plexiglass ) (
mention should be made of three who achieved reputations abroad, each own fashion, intimately associated with Hanna Orloff is one of the outstanding
Finally,
sculptors in
his
Israel.
Jewish
sculptresses
of
our
time.
Born
in
the
Ukraine, she was brought to Palestine as a child
by her parents.
In
1910,
she
went
to
Paris
tl
~r
1
m
-
/ \N
\
/
#
i
I
Nahum Guttman.
Haifa Harbor
ART IN ISRAEL
945
to sculpture. In
w here she began devoting herself a
with the
and
she established
time,
short
and
artistic
literary
produced
prolificallv
of friendship
ties
avant-garde in Paris,
work
original
in all the
fields of sculpture, using a multiplicity of tech-
executed
She
niques.
neously reflected the
portraits
spirit of
the times, figures of pregnant
women, and mothers
with their children; and animals which in their
appear
forms
concentrated
both
and
classical
symbolic. Except for the period of the Nazi occu-
pation of
Hanna
when
Paris,
she fled to Switzerland,
been
Orloff has
living
Paris,
in
never,
Two
however, severing her contacts with Israel.
monuments
of hers stand in Israel: a
bronze statue
in
Ramat Gan and
at
Ein Gev to immortalize the heroic stand of the
Jewish
woman
a
in the
mother and child
War
(in stone)
Russia in 1876)
settled
classicist,
in
went
to Paris
in
(fig.
classical elements; his
ideas with a tendency to idealization
lizes patriotic
and
is
work symbo-
replete with pathos.
Haim Atar (Aptheker) in Palestine
(1902-1953), arrived
from the Ukraine
in
1922
as a
mem-
ber of the Russian He-Halutz Organization, and
was one
of the founders of the kibbutz of Ein
Harod. Atar studied by himself
until in 1933,
again in 1937-38, he visited Paris, where he
modern Jewish
the acquaintance of
cluding Soutine,
whom
and
made
painters, in-
he greatly admired and
whose expressionism exerted a decisive influence on him.
He was
the founder of the Mishkan Le-
Omanut ("Temple
of Art")
Harod which bears
his
art
gallery
at
Ein
name.
Lior Roth, a student of Essen Art Academy,
1902 and
and a member of Kibbutz Afikim since 1933, reveals
harmony
in
pictorial
perceptiveness
of
Haim
His
456) include portraits and full-sized
devoting himself chiefly to ceramics. Other kib-
47
years. In
1949 he came
kibbutz Givat Brenner.
in
to Israel
He
is
whose nature the stormy passion
the Russian blends with Jewish sensitivity.
works
conservative and reveals a blend of
is
and
realistic
Rapa-
to Israel.
Kiva, a member of Kibbutz Na'an, now occupied with problems of abstract painting after many years of searching. Isaac Ben Menahem (of Mishmar Ha-Emek) is now
lived there for
and
port's style
of Independence.
Jacob Luchansky (Jacques Loutschansky born in
Warsaw, he came
distinction in
which simulta-
the models and of
946
figures in stone,
wood, bronze, and
Poland, 1911),
who
is
of
terra-cotta.
Entirely different from the preceding
conception of sculpture
a
two
in his
Nathan Rapaport
(b.
devotes himself chiefly to the
execution of monumental statues. After attaining
455.
reality.
is
butz painters worthy of note are Miriam Bartov
(Gevaram), who has achieved creditable work with glass paintings; Yoel Rohr (Kfar Menahem),
who
particularly excels in the technique of seri-
graphy
Rudolph Lehmann. Cat.
(silk
screen printing). Shraga Weill (Ha-
Wood
MODERN TIMES
JEWISH ART FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO
947
German
before for
Symbols of the
art.
even
and,
revival
greater
a
to
quarter of Safed and the
Kabbalists, with
resque
the
attracted
the
artists'
village of Ein
artists'
city of Safed, the city of the
precipitate streets,
its
and
types,
artistic
of
extent,
today are the
interest taken in art in Israel
Hod. The beautiful
948
superb
its
attention
of
them headed by Moshe
and
artists
Following the founding of the
state, a
pictu-
its
had long
views,
painters.
number
of
Emmanuel Ro-
Castel,
mano, and Aryeh Alweil, were encouraged by the municipal authorities to establish themselves in
abandoned houses, where the cool courtyard and the vaulted rooms leading out of one another in
apparently unending sequence, provided an ideal setting both
now, therefore, artists in a
work and
for
many
live
Here
exhibition.
for
of Israel's outstanding
"Latin Quarter" perhaps more propor-
any other
tionately than in
city.
The record of Ein Hod, however, is The former Arab village on the slopes
different.
Mount
of
Carmel, with extensive views of the sea, lay Jacob Luchansky. Girl with Folded Arms. 1955.
456.
ruins after the
A Ogen)
Shmuel Katz
and
primarily
(Ga'aton)
both
are
although Weill also paints
sketchers,
genre scenes from the kibbutz and from Negev life.
The drawings and
member
(formerly a also
paintings of Ruth Schloss
of
rooted in the
Lehavot Ha-Bashan) are
soil
is
a
an example of
may be
the love of a social milieu
Moshe
the kibbutz.
of
Propess (Ein Ha-Horesh)
how
expressed in
bold modern framework. Aaron Ashkenazi of
Kfar Masarvk
is
an
artist
with monumental con-
ception, working chieflv in stone.
Monumental sculpture has found
a
more con-
country for reasons associated with the traditional religious prejudices in
in
are impressive
the
A
War
urban
districts.
monuments
In
to those
many of who fell Israeli
1948, very shortly after the establishment
of the state,
when
a
number
of artists, led
by
Marcel Janco and Joseph Zaritzkv, founded the Ofakii
!
Hadashim or
New
Horizons group, which
and sculptors
alike
hands, constructed a cooperative exhibition
verted
it
artists
and
into
an
artists' village in
their families live.
which none but
Here now
and
live
work Marcel Janco, Moshe Mokady, Genia Berger, and for the greater part of the year, the carver Rudolph There
is
Lehmann certainly
art interest
and
(to
mention
no country
only
in the
a
few).
world where
patronage are so widespread
art
with
its
tiny population infused with
an almost demoniac urge for creativityIn the course of half a centurv, Israel art has
developed from a voung shoot did not grow out of uniform signs of this diversified
the other hand,
its
to a sturdy tree. It soil,
and bears the
development
to this
day
characteristic features stem
preciselv from this diversity,
which mirrors the
heterogeneitv of Palestine and of Israel, with
many ethnic groups and cultures, and dom in which the young Israeli lives Disparagers of Israel art contend that ginal, since
under Ma.
and have injected
,iebermann had done half a centurv
painters
in
of Independence.
over, repaired the houses with their
endeavo. d to do for Israel art what the Sezession T
War
center and an amphitheater for concerts, and con-
On
of Independence.
remarkable new impetus was given to
art in
own
it
of the
—
artists
— then took
as in Israel,
genial soil in the kibbutz than elsewhere in the
them
group of
end
most of the
artists
its
the free-
it is
his
not
life.
ori-
come from abroad
alien ideas into
it.
This conten-
ART IN ISRAEL
949
tion
is
groundless.
The
abolition of rigid national
boundaries on the one hand, and the accentuation of artistic values
other
is
common
to
all
not a specifically Israel
a general
tendency in modern
true that
manv
Israel artists
peoples on the
phenomenon but
art. It is,
of course,
have been influenced
conditions
ken of as "Art
art
work
Whether
this
ideals.
in
mind, and that
mission
if it
Motherhood. Stone.
clearly
it is
is
The development
its
it
is
spo-
merelv of this
aim of becoming a
ritual expression of the nation's vision
what thev achieved was done under the
Tsiffer.
their
in Israel" or "Israel Art"
demonstrates that
extent that they have struck roots in the country,
Moshe
and
Palestine,
a matter of terminology.
kept
457.
of
bears the signs of this process.
by the most diverse cultural traditions, but, to the special
950
spi-
was always
capable of realizing
continues to remain faithful to
its
:
EDITORIAL NOTE The Editor this
wishes to express his deep sorrow at the passing, while
work was
in preparation,
of three distinguished contributors
Dr. E. Namenyi, Dr. E. Kolb and Prof. A. L. Mayer. Their articles
have been seen through the press by the Editor. Special acknowledgements for generous assistance in providing illustrative material are
Museum, New
due
to Dr. S. Kayser, curator of the Jewish
York, and Mr. Frank Darmstaedter, photographer,
whose remarkable photographs
made
M. Zagayski
available; to Mr.
Feinberg of Detroit,
of objects
who
of
from
New
this institution
were
York and Mr. Charles
generously provided
illustrations
from
objects in their outstanding private collections; as well as to Mr. S.
Oppenheim, London; Rabbi David Sassoon, Letchworth; Mr. A.
Margulies, London; Mr. V. Klagsbald, Paris;
The Department
of
Antiquities, Jerusalem; Studio Yves Hervocron, Paris; Galerie Charpentier, Paris; illustrations.
and Mr. M. Greidi, Tel Aviv,
for providing significant
7
..... . . ... ..
OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST
1.
God
2.
Amsterdam, 171 Engraved frontispiece of Mishnat Mantua 1742
3.
appears to the infant Samuel. Gravestone.
Camille Pissarro. Self-portrait Israels. Self-portrait
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Jozef
Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait of Chaim The Hand of God. Detail from
10. 11.
12. 13. 14.
.
.
Soutine
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
18. 19.
Anthropomorphic jug. Jericho. 77th
20.
Canaanite goddess. Nahariyah
21.
Fight between lion and dog. Beth Shean.
16. 17.
.
14th. cent.
22.
.
.
.. .
.
.
..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
BCE
cent. .
.
.
BCE
Engraved scene on ivory
.
Hebrew monarchy Hebrew monarchy
.
.
.
.
BCE .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
41.
Gazelles nibbling at a lotus flower. Lachish
42.
Gazelles nibbling at plants. Pot Israelite
43.
44.
Lachish
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
47
56.
47-8 49-50 54 55 57 58 59-60 65 66
52.
53. 54.
55.
.
.
58. 59. 60. 61.
62.
.
.
Ornaments on post-exilic stone altars. Gezer Golden candelabra from Jerusalem Temple. Arch of Titus
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
195-6
.
.
.
.
.
.
73.
The Valley of Dead Bones.
82 86 87-8
70.
.
corner
,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
197-8
west wall Detail of frescoes
91-2
74.
94
75.
93-4
76.
at Dura-Europos Torah niche. West wall of Dura-Europos Synagogue Joshua. Detail of west wall of Dura-Europos Synagogue Mosaic floor of Beth-Alpha Synagogue
77.
The
78.
The
79.
Mosaic floor of synagogue Transjordan
80.
81.
Torah shrine between two candelabras. Detail of floor of Naaran Synagogue Mosaic floor of Synagogue at Naro, Hamman
82.
Palm
83.
Decorated
84.
Part of ceiling decoration of catacomb at Villa
85.
Candelabra on decorated ceiling of catacomb at Villa Torlonia
95 97-8 99 102
199-200
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
202
.
Sacrifice of Isaac. Detail of floor of BethAlpha Synagogue .
.
.
.
.
.
and the seasons. Central design of floor of Beth-Alpha synagogue
.
211-2
.
.
.
at
..
211-2
el-Hammeh, .
.
.
.
103-4 105-6
107 108 108 1 09- JO
tree.
121-2
Detail of mosaic floor of
215-6
Synagogue
Naro
218 hall
of Jewish catacomb of Via
Rome
Torlonia,
1 14
214
215
Lif Tunis at
203-4 207-8
constellations
.
101-2
133 134 135-6 139-40 143 145-6
.
.
Synagogue of Dura-Europos. Part of
69.
128
129-30 131-2
.
.
72.
68.
79
127
.
.
.
123-4
146 147-8 151-2 159 161-2 161-2 165-6 167-8 169-70 169-70 174 178 179 181-2 183-4
.
Appia,
.
.
.
.
71.
66.
71-2
111-2
.
.
.
from synagogue at Capernaum from synagogue at Chorazin Synagogue at Beth She'arim. Ground plan Synagogue at Dura-Europos. Isometric view Synagogue at Beth-Alpha. Ground plan Synagogue at Hammath Gader. Ground plan Screen from synagogue at Ascalon Synagogue of Dura-Europos. North-west
from pre.
.
.
57.
89-90
.
.
Reconstructed pottery model of shrine. Megiddo 30. "The Tomb of Pharaoh's Daughter." Siloam Village. Hebrew monarchy Engaged pilasters with proto-Ionic capitals. 31. Samaria Stone slab with imitation of column capitals. 32. Ramat Rachel 33. Basalt lion. Sheikh Sa'd. Syria "Pillar Astarte" of pottery from Lachish 14. Pottery model of horseman from Lachish 35. Ivory panel ornamented with lotus flower 36. and bud design. Samaria 37. Reconstruction of ivory inlays set in wooden panelling. Samaria 38. Ivory lions. Samaria 39. Ya'azanyahu seal. T. en-Nasbeh 40a. Assyrian seal showing cockerel motive 40b. The cockerel motive as shown in early Greek art .
.
Frieze
50.
90
.
.
29.
.
Frieze
65.
49.
67.
.
.
64.
48.
51.
Megiddo.
tablet.
63.
47.
35 42 43 44 45-6
69
Pottery model of shrine. Transjordan.
26.
.
.
28.
25.
.
.
27.
24.
.
.
/2th cent. BCE Canaanite deity. Hazor. 14th - 13th cent. Plan and section of Solomon's Temple Vase support. Megiddo Stone brazier. Megiddo Pottery model of shrine. T. el-Farah.
23.
.
.
.
.
25 27 30 33-4
.
Dura-Europos Synagogue Human head. El-Wad, Carmel Couple enlaced. Ain Sakhri Bone necklace. El-Wad, Carmel Crouching gazelle. Um-ez-Zuweitina Head of gazelle. El- Wad, Carmel Reaping-hook hafts. El-Kabarah Fawn. Rock-carving at Kilwa, Transjordan Head of idol. Jericho .. .. .. Ivory figurine. As-Safadi Head of figurine. Ivory. As-Safadi Pinhead ornament. Abu Matar Star design. Dwelling at Telulat Ghassoul
15.
.
46.
Shai.
5.
9.
Reconstruction of Tobiad Palace. Iraq-el-Amir, Transjordan "Pillar of Absalom," Kidron Valley, Jerusalem Tomb of Zechariah, Kidron Valley, Jerusalem Part of frieze. Tombs of the Kings. Jerusalem Detail of frieze. Tombs of the Kings. Jerusalem Reconstruction of south-eastern corner of Herod's Temple Wall of the Graves of the Patriarchs. Hebron Stucco plaster, vault of Hulda Gate, Jerusalem Reconstruction of Herod's Temple Reconstruction of Ecce Homo Gate. Jerusalem Tympanon of the Cave of Jehoshaphat. Jerusalem Tympanon of the Tombs of the Sanhedrin. Jerusalem Stone ossuary. Jerusalem area Jewish coins. Maccabean period to 70 CE Reconstruction of synagogue at Capernaum Ruins of synagogue at Capernaum Ruins of synagogue at Meron .. .. Ruins of synagogue at Kfar Bir'am "Seat of Moses" from synagogue at Chorazin
45.
23
4.
6.
.... .....
219-20
Rome
.
.
.
.
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
219
222
..
... .
.
LIST
955
...
.
.
OF ILLUSTRATIONS
956 COLUMN
JLUMN 86.
Open
Torah-shrine and
scroll
on decorated
88.
wall of catacomb at Villa Torlonia Burial chamber. Beth Shearim Rider leading steed. Graffiti. Burial chamber
89.
Drawing of sailing
90.
Coin. Bar-Kokhba Revolt Coin. Bar-Kokhba Revolt Coin. Bar-Kokhba Revolt
.
87.
craft.
Burial chamber.
Beth Shearim 91.
93. 94.
95. 96.
Engraved menorah. Synagogue at Gaza Bronze lamp. Syria Clay lamp. Palestine Clay lamp showing David and Goliath.
97.
Alexandria Jewish "gold-glass"
98.
Glass bottle. Palestine
99.
Tomb
dish.
Rome
door. Kfar Yassif, Israel
100.
Lion's head. Basalt. Kfar Bir'am
101.
Amulet Synagogue Synagogue
Synagogue
Worms; ground plan at Worms, interior 103a. W3b. Worms Synagogue. Women's Section 102.
104. 105. 106.
107. 108.
109. 110.
at
Synagogue
at Regensburg, interior synagogue, Prague, exterior synagogue, Prague, interior synagogue, Prague, ground-plan synagogue, Prague, cross-section "Old" synagogue, Kazimierz, interior Synagogue at Miltenberg-on-Main, cross.
Altneu Altneu Altneu Altneu
.
.
section ///.
112. 113.
114.
Synagogue Synagogue Synagogue
117.
118.
Synagogue
116.
Miltenberg, vault-plan
at
Bamberg,
interior
at Kazimierz, named after Isaac Jacobowicz, ground-plan and cross-section Synagogue of Isaac Nachmanowicz, Lwow; ground-plan and cross-section
Synagogue Synagogue Synagogue
115.
at
at
Zamosc,
at
Husiatyn, interior
at
Kuttenplan; ground-plan and
interior
120.
at
Nowogrodck,
in
suburb of
interior
122. 123. 124.
Synagogue Synagogue Synagogue Synagogue
at
Zolkiew, exterior
at
Druja, interior
at
Pogrzebyszcze, exterior
at
Chodorow, ground-plan and
cross-sectio n
.
126.
Synagogue at Gwozdziec, interior Synagogue of Joseph Ibn Shushan, Toledo,
127.
Synagogue of Don Samuel Abulafia, Toledo
128.
Marks Synagogue, London, interior. The Great Synagogue of the Portuguese community, Amsterdam Touro Synagogue, Newport, R.I., interior Aleppo Synagogue, Syria Synagogue at Kai-Feng-Fu, China Synagogue at Pesaro, interior Synagogue at Ferrara, ground-plan Canton family Synagogue, Venice, ground-
125.
.
.
wall decoration
130.
131 132.
133.
134.
135
Bevis
.
.
.
.
plan 136. 137. 138.
Synagogue, Padua, interior Sephardi Synagogue, Venice, interior Detail of a binder for Torah-scroll, Germany, / 756 Italian
142.
Silver finials for
143.
Silver finials for
144.
Silver breastplate for
145.
Pointers of
146.
75th cent Valance of ark-curtain, Prague, 1764
75th cent.
.
.
..
Crown
for
314
"
Torah
scroll,
Poland,
315
Torah
scroll,
Venice,
Torah
scroll,
Holland,
319-20
/5th cent
322
/5th cent
Augsburg, /5th
Ark
Torah
N.
Torah
cent.
scroll, .
.
.
7699 London, 1730
Silver
150.
Silver spice containers, Central
151.
Spice container for Havdalah. Frankfurt
152.
Main, c. 7550 Bronze Hanukkah lamp,
Europe, /7th-75th centuries
Italian,
.
158.
Betrothal rings, /7th cent.
155. 156.
.
161.
centuries
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
-
.
.
Inscribed
166.
Reconstructed Torah-shrine of Fustat
167.
Cenotaph, Hamadan, Iran Jewish lamp Glass bottle with Hebrew inscription Glass bottle with Hebrew inscription Hanging lamp with Hebrew inscription, Damascus, 1694 Turkish rug with Hebrew inscription,
169.
170. 171.
172.
173.
174. 175. 176.
293-4 295-6
177
295-6
178
297S 179
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
wooden beam from
Synagogue 168.
.
Holland, /7th and /5th
165.
281
.
.
349-50 351
352 353
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Fustat
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
353-4 355
.
.
357 358 357 358 359
.
.
75th cent Samaritan Torah-curtain, 1509, Nablus Page from decorated MS. of Bible, Cairo,
.
.
.
360
359 361-2
.
1010 Page from decorated MS. of Bible, Jerusalem (?), 951 Page from Yemenite MS. of Pentateuch, 1469 Page from Yemenite MS. of Pentateuch, 1409 Page from decorated MS. of Later Prophets, 1475 Illuminated page from MS. of Pentateuch,
301 181.
182. 183. 184.
363-4 365 366 365
366 367
Cairo, 930
180
339-40 341 342 343 344 345 345-6 347-8
Italy,
164.
280
.
..
.
inscription
335
Germany,
Yemenite jewelry Yemenite jewelry Hanukkah lamp from N. W. Africa Carved wooden panel with Hebrew
163.
.
.
274
162.
.
74th cent
157.
154.
.
am
French or
/7th cent Bookbindings,
311
.
338 S.
160.
302 303-4 305-6
and Eastern
Bronze Hanukkah lamp, Italy, c. 1600 Passover dish, Pesaro, 1614 Purim platter, Strassburg, 75th cent. Beaker of Worms Burial Society, 7772 Beaker of Prague Burial Society, 1712
153.
325-6 327-8 329-30 331
333-4
Scroll of Esther in silver case,
299 300 301-2
.
/5th cent
159.
289 290
.
Kiddush beakers, Central Europe,
271-2 271 273
282 283-4 286 287-8
etc.,
.
149.
Italy,
323-4
.
.
Germany,
scroll, Italy,
Silver Sabbath lamp,
curtain,
312
Nablus,
147.
275 275-6 277-8
..
18th cent
291-2
interior
129.
Silver
scroll,
148.
Lwow, ground-
plan and cross-section
121
141
at
building
Synagogue Synagogue
Silver case for
242 243 244 245 246 258 259-60 261-2 262 263-4 265-6 267 268 269-70
Rzeszow; ground-plan of old building; ground-plan and cross section of
new 19.
140.
241
279-80
cross-section
1
236 237 237 237 238 239 240
1720
scroll, Breslau.
Breastplate for
235-6
Beth Shearim
92.
222 233-4
Torah Torah
139.
Decorated page of Bible MS., Karaite Synagogue, Cairo, 7Jth-74th centuries Marriage contract from Meknes, Morocco, 1814 Portion of marriage contract, Herat, 1812 Portion of marriage contract, Meshed, 1834 Part of ceiling decoration in Jewish house, Aleppo. /5th cent .
.
.
.
368
369-70 371-2 373-4 373-4
.
.
.
LIST
957
..
.
....
OF ILLUSTRATIONS
958
COLUMN Design of lion in minuscular
185.
187.
13th cent. MS. From Germany Decorative introductory page of Farhi BibleSpain or Provence, 1366-1382 The Fifth Plague. Miniature in Sarajevo
188.
Distribution of
186.
224.
385
MS. dough and Passover
bread.
227.
386 the timbrel and maidens
385
MS.
The Giving of the Law. Miniature in Sarajevo Haggadah, 14th cent. MS. The Passover meal. Miniature in 14th
191
Spanish 192.
194.
195. 196.
198. 199.
200.
201
.
202.
231.
"The
393-4 395
The Giving of the Law and the defection of the Israelites, 75th cent. German Mahzor
397-8
215.
Hamburg, 7690 Cut-out panel (Mizrah).
276.
Scroll
.
270.
211. 212.
.
Venice, 7609 Vignette from a Haggadah. Amsterdam, 7695
Scroll
218.
Scroll
of Esther with
illustrative
borders
279.
of Esther with engraved borders. Italy, 77th cent Scroll of Esther. Kai-Feng-Fu. Early 79th cent.
220.
Aron Wolf Gewitsch.
.
.
.
238.
Title-page from a Haggadah. Amsterdam,
399 400
239.
7695 Coin struck by Jews. Chalon-sur-Saone, c.555
402
240.
Polish coin with
403-4
241.
Caravan
405
242.
Atlas, 1376/7 Juan de Levi. The story of Santa Catalina,
407-8
243.
407
244.
409-10
245.
411 413
246.
Hebrew
page of Passover Haggadah, Pressburg, 7750. Joseph Leipnik. The Four Sons. Passover Haggadah, 1740
479 481-2 483-4 485-6 489-90
498
inscriptions.
499-500
to China. Detail
from Catalan 507-2 507
Meir Jaffe. Pentateuch binding. Nuremberg City Council, 1468 Jeshurun Tovar. Housewive's casket. Italy, c. 1460-80 Salamone da Sesso. Sword of the Gonzaga Family, 1520 Salom Italia. Engraved border for Scroll of
502 505-6
507 57/
513
250.
Miniature, 1714 Benjamin Senior Godines. "Memento
516
251.
252.
The Jerusalem
253.
Zecharia Padova. Caricature of his opponents. Modena, 7777
254.
Abraham Alexander Cooper. Count de
248.
416
249.
417 419
mori," panel. 1681
420
.
.
.
.
.
255.
Jeremias Fiorino.
256.
The
433-4 435-6
257.
Joel ben
.
..
527
.
.
la
The
father
.
"Der ..
Amsterdam, 7755 Benjamin Levy of Portsmouth. Ex-libris for Isaac Mendes, 1746 Martha Isaacs. Rabbi D.T. Schiff. London
Towne.
527
Levi. Portrait medal.
.
259.
526
.
Heilig Krieg," Berlin, 1815
258.
519-20
522 artist's
brothers Henschel. Page from
Lipman
514 515
518
.
Infirmary. London, 1749
429-30 431-2
437-8 441-2
478
489-90
Esther
415
422 425-6
476
Salom Italia. Menasseh ben Israel Jacob Judah Leon. Reconstructed model of Solomon's Temple, 1670 David Estevens. David Nieto. London, 1727 Catherine da Costa. Her son Abraham.
247.
South
Africa, early 76th cent.
217.
475
Easterner's Parable". Soncino,
Garde, 1647
Galicia, 79th cent. sepia.
Italy,
.
235.
marriage-contract.
of Esther, illuminated in
474 badge of Gershom Soncino.
/5th cent
Top of illuminated
209.
Amsterdam,
72th cent
214.
208.
467-8 471-2
237.
234.
213.
207.
.
236.
391
Simeon, N. Italy, 75th cent. Introductory page of Bible MS., Italy, 1494 Opening page of the Book of Joshua, Spain or Italy, c. 7500 King David. Miniature in the Book of Psalms, N. Italy, 75th cent The Temple. Illuminated page from Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, Italy, 75th cent. The Physician. Page of the "Canon" of Avicenna, Italy, 75th cent. The Passover meal. Page from /5th cent. Italian Haggadah The Wayfarer. Marginal illumination to Haggadah of Joel ben Simeon. Illuminated marriage-contract. Padua, 1670
206.
.
447 459-60 461-2 465-6
.
233.
The Shepherd. Miniature in the Meshal ha-Kadmoni. German MS., 75th cent. Page from Haggadah, illuminated by Joel ben
205-
.
Brescia, 1491 Kindling The Sabbath Lamp. From a book -• .. of Minhagim, Venice, 7607. Headless man. Hoshana Rabbah. From a book of customs. Amsterdam, 7725 .. Slaughtering the Passover sacrifice; the table set for Passover. Venice c. 1480 Page from the Prague Haggadah, 1526 The Battles of Israel in Canaan. Haggadah.
390
Nuernberg Haggadah 204.
Berakhot.
.
1497/8
Preparations for the Passover. 75th cent.
203.
221
Printer's
232.
Moses constrains the people. Marginal Miniature from Maimonides' Mishneh Tor ah, Cologne, 1296 Page of German Mahzor, 1347 Jonah under the tree. From a 14th cent. German Mahzor. Page of Darmstadt Haggadah, W. Germany, c. 1430 Passover meal from a Haggadah by Meir Yaffe, Germany, 75th cent. The hare-hunt from a Haggadah by Meir Yaffe, Germany, 75th cent.
197.
230.
387-8
MS.
King David. Marginal Miniature in Kennicott Bible, N. Spain, 1476 Aaron kindling the candelabrum, French MS. of 1278 The Gates of Mercy. Page from Worms Mahzor, 1272 The deer-hunt. Worms Mahzor, 1272
Meah
446
7657
386 cent.
.
193.
225. 226.
dancing. Miniature in Sarajevo Haggadah, 190.
Title-page of
383
MS.
Miriam beating 14th cent.
229.
223.
Miniature in Sarajevo Haggadah, 14th cent.
228.
379-80
Haggadah, 14th cent.
189.
COLUMN Uri Phoebus Segal. Illuminated Passover Haggadah, 1739 Moses Leib Trebitsch. The Passover Meal. Van Geldern Haggadah, 18th cent. Page from Bible printed in Hijar, c. 1486/9 Page from a Ritual Code, Leiria, 1495 Page from a Ritual Code, Soncino, 1490 Title-page of Bahya's Commentary on the Bible^ Naples, 1492 Page from a Ritual Code. Augsburg, 1540
222.
letters,
.
.
.
.
.
260.
Charles
261.
Johann Zoffany. Jacob Basevi-Cervetto
262.
Anton Raphael Mengs. Marquise de Laan
263.
Philipp Veit.
Cattle Fair
.
.
.
.
530 531
.
532 533-4
.
Title
443
445
The Seven
Fruitful Years
.
.
.
.
.
538 538 541 2
.
.
LIST
959
..... . .. ..
..
OF ILLUSTRATIONS
960 COLUMN
Eduard J.F. Bendemann. Jeremiah at the Fall of Jerusalem Eduard Magnus. Felix Mcndelssohn-Bartholdy Gcskel Salomon. Lighting the Sabbath
264.
265. 266.
Candles Leopold Wiener. Hans Mending Charles Wiener. Aristide Astruc Moritz Daniel Oppcnheim. The Wedding Maurycy Gottlieb. Jews at Prayer on the
267.
268. 269.
.
.
271. 272.
273.
Jules Adler.
274.
Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. Portrait of Georges
the Barge
Henri Caro-Delavaille.
My
282.
Leopold Levy. Portrait of a Bulgarian Girl Solomon J. Solomon. Portrait of a Child on a Horse Sir William Rothenstein. Carrying the Law Sir Max Beerbohm. Cartoon Leopold Pilchowski. The Tired Ones Vito d'Ancona. Lady with a Parasol Jozef Israels. A Jewish Wedding
283.
Isaac Israels.
284.
287.
Meyer de Hahn. Dietary Laws. Max Liebermann. The Seamstress Max Liebermann. Portrait of Hermann Cohen Lesser Ury. A London Street
288.
Lazar Krestin. Prohibited Literature.
289.
Hermann
290-
Ephraim Moses Lilicn. My Child Joseph Budko. The Scholar Leopold Horowitz. Tisha B'av
277.
278. 279.
280. 281.
285. 286.
291
.
292.
293.
294. 295. 296. 297. 298.
The Coffee
Sorters
.
Kaufmann. The Chess-players Jchuda Epstein. Job Alexander Bihari. Sunday Afternoon Isidor
Market-place Ernst Joscphson. Portrait of Karl Scanbcrg. Isaac Hitch Levithan. Landscape Isaac Pcrlmutter.
299.
Leon Bakst. Sultana
302.
Leonid Pasternak. Portrait of Raincr Maria Rilkc Samuel Hirszenberg. The Yeshiva Mauricy Minkowski. After the Pogrom
303.
Amadeo
.
304.
Modigliani. Jcanette Jules Pascin. Reclining Girl
305.
Chaim
306.
Moisc
307.
Pinchas Kremegne.
.
The Baker's Boy The Two Sisters
Soutinc. Kisling.
Still
Life
314. 315.
Louis Marcoussis.
316.
Henri Hayden. The Three Musicians Henri Valensi. Peace
309. 310. 311. 312. 313.
317. 318. 319.
320-
321
.
322.
329.
330.
557-8 561-2
332.
333.
334. 335.
.
London
.
The
Eiffel
Tower.
.
Otto Freundlich. Composition Marcelle Calm. Composition Jacques Pailes. Harbor in Brittany Jacques Chapii Gabriel Zendel. Tools
Figure Praise
588 589-90 590
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
339.
Leopold
JHU-
New York Emanuel Pontrcmoli. Humaine, Paris
341.
Erich Mendelsohn. Einstein Tower,
342.
Erich Mendelsohn.
343.
345.
Michel de Klerk. Housing project on Spaarndammerplantsoen, Amsterdam Frank and Wlach. The Karl Marx Hof, Vienna Clarence S. Stein. Plan for the Garden City
346.
Isadore Roscnfield. Tuberculosis Hospital,
347.
Arnold
348.
Richard Kaufmann. Nahalal settlement
349.
Yohanan Ratner. The Jewish Agency
350.
Dov
722 723-4
.
725-6
Deutsche Reichsbank, Berlin
Itzig.
The Werthcim department 726
.
The Old Temple Emanu-El,
Eidlitz.
.
727 de Paleontologie
Institut .
.
.
.
.
729-30
.
.
731
.
The Schocken
733-4
Store
.
344.
702 703-4 706 707 714 715-6 716
.
.
Alfred Messel.
.
.
ofRadburn
..
.
.
735-6
.
.
737
..
..
..
.
735-6
.
Rio Pedras
W.
738
Brunner. The Lewisohn Stadium.
New York
Building, Jerusalem
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
353. 354.
A.
355.
H. A. Trotskii. Glass factory.
352.
.
Company I.
.
.
.
building
Gegello.
745-6
.
747-8
.
.
.
.
356.
Synagogue
357.
New
359.
360. 361.
362. 363.
364. i
365. 366. 367. 368. 369. 370.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
in the Seitengasse, Vienna Synagogue, London Obuda Synagogue, Budapest Beth-Elohim Synagogue, Charleston, S. C. Mikveh Israel Synagogue, Philadelphia
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Mole Antonelliana," Turin Kehilath Anshe Maariv Synagogue, Chicago Design of synagogue for Zilina, Czechoslovakia Amsterdam-Oost
371.
Synagogue
372.
Liberal Synagogue,
373. 374.
Temple Sinai, Chicago Memorial Temple, Budapest
375. 376.
Park Synagogue, Cleveland Hillel Foundation, Evanston,
Hamburg .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
111.
762 763 764 766 767-8 769-70 771
.
.
751-2 753-4 759-60 767
.
Synagogue in Pest, Hungary Florence Synagogue Rome Synagogue on bank of the Tiber Synagogue in Oranienburgerstrasse, Berlin Brussels' Synagogue Synagogue in Schmaltzhofgasse, Vienna Stockholm Synagogue
in
750
The Botkin Memorial
Hospital for Infectious Diseases
358.
743
745-6
.
635 635-5 638 645-6 647-8 651-2 658
739-40 741-2
Karmi. Office building of the Histadrut
in Tel Aviv Oskar Kaufmann. The Stadttheater, Bremerhaven Dankmar Adler. The Auditorium Building, Chicago Albert Kahn. The Ohio Steel Foundry
627 631-2 633-4
690
.
693-4 694 698 699
.
Georg
351.
of the Craftsmen's
.
.
338.
626
681
.
.
337.
Potsdam
595 597-8 601-2 603-4 607-8
686 686 687-8 689
.
.
.
David Mocatta. Horley Station
591
659-60 662 663-4 666 667-8 670 674 675 678 679
.
.
691
..
336.
store, Berlin
585-6 587
with Bottle and
Apples Michel Kikoine. Portrait Georges Kars. Self-portrait Abraham Mintchine. Self-portrait Mane Katz. Wild Horses Max Band. Portrait of the Artist Gregoriev Bela Czobel. Girl with Green Scarf. David Perctz. The Jew with the Yellow Star
308.
328.
609 610 611-2 613-4 615-6 617 617-8 619-20 622 623
Struck. Lake of Galilee
300.
301
327.
Wife and her
Sisters
276.
326.
.. .. Georges Arditi. Portrait Victor Brauner. Man and the Ox Eugene Zak. Composition Kirszenbaum. Brazilian Carnival J. D. Simon Segal. Harbor Scene in Brittany Eugene Berman. Ruins on the Beach Benn (Benzion Rabinovitch). A Reading Gregoire Michonze. The Danger Jean Atlan. Vegetation Maryan. Living According to the Law Marek Halter. The Harbor at Acre Alfred Aberdam. The Painter's Family George Basevi. The Conservative Club,
583-4
Rodenbach 275.
325.
565-6 567 581-2
in the
Towing
324.
331.
Maurycy Gottlieb. Self-Portrait Solomon A. Hart. The Rejoicing of the Law Ancient Synagogue of Leghorn Simeon Solomon. Pharaoh's Daughter
543 546
547-8 549 550 553-4
Day of Atonement. 270.
323.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
772 774 775-6 778 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 790
....
LIST
961
OF ILLUSTRATIONS
962
COLUMN
386.
Burning Bush. B'nai Israel Temple, Millburn Burning Bush. Beth-El Temple, Springfield, Mass. Yeshurun Synagogue, Jerusalem Design for glass-towered pyramidal temple Nathan Altaian. Portrait of Dr. Pasmanik Eliezer Lissitzki. Had Gadya Issachar Ryback. Pogroms in the Ukraine Zygmunt Menkes. The Rejoicing of the Law Leopold Gottlieb. The Plasterers Ludwig Meidner. Self-portrait
387.
Artur Segal. Fishing Boats in Bornholm
388.
Isaac Griinewald. Portrait
377
.
378. 379. 380381.
382. 383.
.
.
384.
385.
.
.
Harbor
389
Carlo Levi. Landscape
390.
Emmanuel Romano. Portrait Jankel Adler. The Priestly Blessing Jacob Bornfriend. The Beer-drinkers Josef Herman. The Clown
392.
393.
395.
Fred Uhlman. English Nocturne Hans Fcibush. The Prodigal Son
396.
Lasar Scgall. Figure
394.
397
.
398.
399. 400. 401. 402. 403.
404. 405.
from the
The
407.
Joseph Mendes da Costa. General De Wet
408.
Arnold Zadikow. Santina
409.
Benno
410.
430
Milton Horn. "Not by Might, not by Power but by my Spirit" Israel Paldi. Barbarian Dance Menahcm Shemi. Safed Composition
431.
Pinhas Litvinovsky.
432.
Joseph Zaritzky. Flowers
433.
Yehiel Krieze. Haifa's Old City
434 435 436 437
Moshe Mokady. Landscape Moshe Castel. Mural
438 439 440
Yehezkel Streichman. Safed Mordecai Ardon. In the Negev Wastes Jacob Weksler. The Magician Aaron Kahana. Three Figures Enchanted by
of
875
Wood
876
1940: The Destroyed
879
414.
Bernard Reder.
415.
Jacob Epstein. The Annunciation. Bronze
with
a Bull .
.
Acknowledgement
New York
.
882 883
.
.
.
899-900
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Market
Aaron Avni. Interior Shimshon Holtzman.
.
.
.
On
.
Place
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
452.
454 455.
456 457
.
.
.
.
.
.
Moon
Shalom Seba. Shearing
Abraham Naton. Fisherman Yossel Bergncr. Safed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Theme
Marcel Janco. Jaffa Ruins .. Jacob Steinhardt. Sabbath Leopold Krakauer. Hills of Jerusalem Naphtali Bezem. Maabara Moshe Tamir. Wounded Amnon Avigdor Arikha. Embattled Knights Aaron Priver. Undressing ... Zeev Ben-Zvi. Portrait of Meskin .. Isaac Danziger. Sheep. .. .. Yehiel Shemi. Sculpture Rudolph Lehman. Cat Jacob Luchansky. Girl with Folded Arms .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Tsiffer.
Motherhood
.
.
.. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Moshe
921
922 923-4 925 927-8
.
.
the
442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450
902 907-8 909-10 911-2 913-4 915-6 917-8 919-20
the Lake of
.
is hereby made to the Jewish Museum of photographs provided by them and to their photographer Frank J. Darmstaedter.
for the
.
.
.
Galilee
441
891-2 893-4 895 896 898
.
429.
453.
Bronze in Battle
.
.
451.
Sacrifice.
877-8
Women
.
428.
852 853-4 855-6 858 863
Bronze
May
.
Nathaniel Katz. Three Patriarchal Figures. Alabaster sandstone relief
874
The Kapparot
.
Berta Margoulies. Refugee Children. Bronze
427.
871
Jacques Lipchitz.
.
884 886 887 888 889
890
819-20 822 823 830 831-2 834 835 838
870
412.
brass
.
Milton Hebald. Battle of the Amazons.
867
Joseph Constant. Black Panther.
Hammered
.
.
426
851
Mcnorah Moyse Kogan. Nude
City.
Innocents.
423 424
.
815-6
839-40 844 845-6 850
Elkan.
Ossip Zadkine.
422
.
.
Minna Harkavy. Last Prayer. Bronze Dorothy Greenbaum. The Snob. Limestone
Pioneer.
Monument
411.
413.
421
Rene Shapshak. The Mother. Wood William Zorach. The Lovers. Stone Chaim Gross. Mother Playing. Bronze Nat Werner. The Talmud Scholar. Cedarwood Saul Baizerman. The March of the
.
425.
series
Woman
Enrico Glicenstein. Terra Cotta
802 803 805-6 810 814
.
Bronze
"Wanderers" Abraham Walkowitz. Isadora Duncan Louis Lozowick. Changing Shifts Morris Hirschfcld. Nude with Cupids Raphael Soyer. The Dressmaker Moses Soyer. My Family Jack Levine. Reception at Miami Ben Shahn. Death of a Miner Hyman Bloom. Jew with Scroll Mark Antokolski. Spinoza. Marble
406.
791
793-4 794 799
Benno Schotz. Moses Hammering out the Ten Commandments. Lippy Lipschitz. The Tree of Life. Wood .
417 418 419 420
of the Painter
Pascin
391.
416 789-90
.
.
927 929 930 931-2 931-2 933-4 935-6 935-6 938 939-40 942
..
941
..
941-2 943 945-6 947 949
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
;
OF COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST
/.
2.
Mosaic pavement uncovered in the ancient synagogue near KibbutzNirimintheNegev.(4-5thcenturyC.E.) page of Mishneh Tora/i of Maimonides by Nathan Ben Simeon Ha-levi, Cologne, 1296
Title
.
3.
.
.
The ancient synagogue of Capernaum on
4.
Dura Europos.
5.
Candelabra in Israel
A
in the .
.
.
.
17
the shores of
the sea of Galilee. (3rd century C.E.)
6.
front page
.
.
scene from the westren wall
.
.
209
.
.
177
mosaic floor of an ancient synagogue .
.
.
.
Ceremonial Objects, collection
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
225
National
at the Bezalel
Museum, Jerusalem: Torah Scroll, Persia, 799 Silver Breastplate, Poland Torah Crown, Poland in background Torah wrapper and mantle, silver embroidery, Italy 1
;
;
:
.
7.
9.
.
.
.
337
Scenes from Biblical history. First page of a Pentateuch. Franco-German school. About 1300. (The Schocken Library)
8.
.
.
.
401
.
From an illuminated manuscript of Jacob Ben Asher. Mantua, Italy, 1436
Prayer.
Mane
Katz. Saturday
Walk
in
10.
Max Weber. The unemployed
11.
Rubin. The Flute Player
12.
Nahum
Jerusalem
(Juttman. Haifa Harbor
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
657
.
.
417
.
849 913
.
.
.
.
945
INDEX
THE NUMBER REFERS TO THE COLUMN Aaron, Abraham 529 Abraham bar (ben) Jacob 444, 445, 521
Benedict XIII 499, 503 Benedikt, Ernst 820
Abraham, Jacob 529
Benjamin
Abraham of Eyringen 453 Abramson, Abraham 529
Benn, Ben 847
Adler, Jean 581
Adler, Jules 581
556 ben Abraham 460 Cohn, Theodore see
Adler, Moritz
Alantansi, Eliezer
Alconiere,
Hermann Altman, Nathan 799 Altmann, Alexander 633 Altneuschul 265
Alva 837 Alweil,
Arye 917
Antokolski,
Mark 862
American synagogues 762 Amos, Imre 809 Adler, Jankel 829 Amschewitz, J. H. 589 Amsterdam-Oost Synagogue 783 Antscher, Isaac 671
Arabic lettering 367 Aram, Michael 897 Arba'ah Turim 410 Architecture 510, 719
Ardon, Mordecai 923 Arikha, Avigdor 937 Ark of the Law 255 Aschheim, Isidor 925 Ashkenazi, Aaron 947 Association of Jewish Artists 906 Atar,
Haim 946
Atlan, Jean 706
Avignon Synagogue 758 Avni, Aaron 919 Bachi, Raphael 520 Baizerman, Saul 892 Bakst, Leon 632, 797, 828 Balgley 695 Ballin, Mogens 629 Barbut, Solomon 500 Barlin, Frederick Benjamin 533 Bartholdy, Jacob Salomon 542 Bartov, Miriam 946 Basevi, George 722
Hillel
Ben Menahem,
of Lutsk 511 Isaac
946
Bennet, Solomon Yomtob 532 Ben-Zvi, Zeev 939
Bereny, Robert 683 Bergner, Yossel 929 Berlevi, Henri 685
Bornfriend, Jacob 831
Torah
Scroll 321
Broadsheets 478 Brunner, Arnold
W. 739 Budko, Joseph 930 Burrell 534 Cagli, Corrado 822 Cahana, Aryeh Judah Leib 448 Calder, Alexander 897 Calisch, Moritz 561 Calligraphy 440 "Canon" 412 Caricatures 518 Caro-Delavaille, Henri 583 Carpi, Jacob 519 Solomon Nunes 571 Moshe 918
Carvalho, Castel,
Bayonnc Synagogue 761
Catalan Atlas 503
Beck, Willy 556
Ceramics 510
Samuel Friedrich 868 Beerbohm, Sir Max 588 Bekker, David 854 Belmonte, Moses 515 Ben-David, Shmuel 905 Bendemann, Eduard J. F. 544 Bendix, Benedict Hcinrich 528
Chagall,
875, 938 Constructivism 897 Continental School of London 829 Cooper, Alexander 521 Copenhagen Synagogue 761
Moses 885 Abraham 503 Crescas, Judah 503 Crowns for Torah Scrolls 316 Cubism 678 Crescas,
Curtain (Ark) see Parokhet Cuzi, Meshullam 456, 458
Czobel, Bela 672 Da Costa, Catherine 516 Da Costa, Joseph Mendes 869 D'Ancona, Vito 594 Danziger, Isaac 940
Darmstadt Haggadah 400 Da Sesso, Salamone 506 Da Silva, Solomon 516 Da Tivoli, Serafino 593 Davidson, Jo 880
De De De De
Castelozzo 504
Castro 534 Chaves, Aaron 517 Cordova, Alfonso Fernandez 457,
461
Brandon, Eduard 582 Breastplate for
Cologne Synagogue 765 Conat, Abraham 456 Constant (Constantinovsky), Joseph
Cottier,
Berman, Eugene 700 Bernstein, Theresa 848 Beth Elohim Synagogue 762 Beth Jacob Synagogue 773 Betrothal rings 344 Bezalel 903 "Bezalel Salon" 904 Bezem, Naphtali 937 Bihari, Alexander 622 Bimah 255-6 Binder (Torah Scroll) 330 Bles, David Joseph 562 Bloch, Martin 833 Bloom, Hyman 857 Blum, Ludwig 976 Bomberg, Daniel 470 Bomberg, David 826 Bond, Maurice 665 Book-binding 503 Borders 458^
Basilican synagogues 758
Beer,
Coins 498
De Hahn, Meyer 602 De Herz, Judah Goldsmied Dei Fedeli, Ercole see Salamone De Klerk, Michel 734 D'Elia, Angelo 508 De' Levi, Giuseppe 508 De Levi, Jean 503 De' Lodi David 510 Die Briicke 812 Di Vitale, Giacobbe 508 Dobrinsky, Isaac 664
511 da Sesso,
Domnulus 498 Donati, Enrico 823 D'Ortas, Samuel 463
Double-nave synagogues 258 Dresden Synagogue 765 Easterner's Parable see Meshal Kadmoni Egyptian revival synagogues 763 Eidlitz, Leopold 726 Eilshemius, Louis 591 Ein Hod 948 Eisenberg, I. 905
Marc 654, 797 Chair of Elijah 347 Chapiro, Jacques 686, 797 Circumcisional knife 346 Citroen, Paul Roelof 819 Cohen, Abraham 519
Elkan,
Cohn, Hermann 555
Elul,
Benno 872
Kosso 943
ha-
3
7
INDEX
961
Engraving 509, 528 Epstein, Jacob 881 Ernst, Martin see Bcnedikt, Ernst Estevens, David 575 Esther Scrolls see Scrolls of Esther Ezekiel, Abraham Ezekiel 531 Ezekicl, Moses Jacob 865
809 Hans 836 Feigin, Dov 940 Fenyes, Adolf 624 Farkas, Istvan
Feibush,
Ferber, Herbert 901
Finials
Benjamin-Eugene 548 31
Solomon Alexander 563 Haydcn, Henri 680 Hayim ben Asher Anshcl of Kize 453 Hebald, Milton 897 Heimann, Shoshana 937 Heine, Thomas Thcodor 614 Helman, Robert 670 Henschcl brothers 528 Herman, Josef 83 Herz, Gustav 548 Herzl, Theodor 903 Hirsch, Joseph 853 Hirsch, Stefan 843
Kisling,
Moisc 658
Kirszenbaum, J.D. 696 Kiva,
Haim 946
Marie-Andre 676 Gcrshon 937 Kogan, Moysc 875 Kolnik, Arthur 697 Kolozsvari, Sandor 811 Klein,
Knispcl,
Kopman, Ben 847 Kosma, Lajos 811 Krakauer, Leopold 933 Kramer Tacob 827
919
Kremegne, Pinchas 660 Kriezc, Yehiel 916 Kroner, Kurt 870
Florence Synagogue 767
Holbein, Hans 473
Kulviansky,
Four-pillared stone synagogues 281
Holtzmann, Shimshon 920 Holy sites, roll of 442 Horn, Milton 901 Horowitz, Leopold 559, 619 Humanists 700
Lamps 355
Lippman 527 500
Fraenckel,
Francis of Assisi
Frankel, Isaac 915
Freedman, Barnett 828 Free-swinging plastic 897 Frenkel 695
Humor 420 Illuminated manuscripts 368 Illumination of manuscripts, non-
Freundlich, Otto 682, 812 Friedlaender, Friedrich
548
381 letters 389
pictorial
Friedman, Arnold 592 Gabo, Naum 801, 897 Gadclle, Jacob 440 Galli, Zvi 938 Games, Abraham 828
Initial
TodrosS54 Gem-engraving 523
Israels, Isaac
Genre painting 551 Gertlcr, Mark 826
Italia,
Isaac ibn Sahula 404, Isaac
Gewitsch, Aron
Israels,
Wolf
(of) 443, 445,
Queen 500 600
Jozef 596 Salom 513
Italy,
synagogues
Itzig,
Georg 724
in
865 Glass working 355 Glatzer, Simon 805 Ilya
Glicenstein,
300
Henryk
(Enrico)
868
517 Gold lettering 377 Goldberg, Rube 859 Goldsmithery 500 Goodlcman, Aaron J. 893
Goodman,
Pcrcival 791
Gothic synagogues 773 Gottlieb, Leopold 808 Gottlieb, M.uirycy 556
Greenbaum, Dorothy 896 Griffo, Francesco 457 Gropper, William 852 Gross, Chaim 849, 888 (ir.i7i.ulo of Bologna 505 Group of Ten 937 Griinewald, Isaac 819 Guggenheim, Alis 818 Guggenheim, Willy 817 Gunzenhausen, Azriel 469. 509 Gur-Aryc, M. 905 Gutman, Nahum 910 Gurtmann, Jacob 866 Haggadot 444, 480
Aharon
Halpert, Samuel
Hammer 349 Hanukkab lamp 33/ Harkaw, Minna 895
548 Jacob, Moses 500 Jacobson, Aaron 529 Jaffe, Meir 504 Janco, Marcel 929 Janis, Sidney 849 Jeremias 532 Jesi, Samuel 549 Jacob, Julius
Glickman, Maurice 889 Gliksberg, Haim 915 Godincs, Benjamin Senior 441, 473,
Jewish Art Movement 799 Joel ben Simeon 504 Joseph ben Abraham 522 Joseph ibn Aryeh 5/0 Joseph ibn Hayyim 504 Josephson, Ernst 626 Jossipon
477
Judin, Samuel
529
Kahana, Aaron 926
Max 892
Kantor, Morris 848
Kapp,
Edmond 827
Kara, Michael
817
Lamps, Sabbath 332 Lasansky, Mauricio
Lassaw,
840
Abram 902
Lazarus, Jacob H.
572
Le Be, Guillaumc 457 Legends, use of 417
Lehman, Rudy 937 Lehmann, Henri 547 Lehmann, Leo 547 Lehmann, Rudolph 944 Lcibowitz, Zevi Hirsch Leipnik, David 445
528
821 ben Lipman 529
Levi, Carlo
Levi, Joel
Levi, Lazzaro
510
Levine, Jack 853 Levithan, Isaac Hitch
630
Levy, Alphonse 582 Levy, Benjamin 531 Levy, Elias 531 Levy, Emmanuel 827 Levy, Henri-Leopold 582 Levy, Isaac 531 Levy, Leopold 585 Levy, Rudolf 8 13 Levy, Simon 584
Levy-Dhurmer, Lucien 582 Liberi, Pietro 509
Max 605, 817 Ephraim Moses 616, 903 Lindenstrasse Synagogue 780 Lipchitz, Jacques 878 Lipman, Yomtov 470 Lipschitz, Lippy 882 Lipton, Seymour 897 Lishansky, Batya 939 Lissitzki, Eliczer 800 Liebermann, Lilien,
Kadar, Bela 809 Kalisch,
Issai
Leipnik, Joseph 450, 451 Leon, Rabbi Jacob Judah 514 Leon, Morits 560 Levanon, Mordecai 916
Ivanyi-Grunwald, Bela 625
448 Ginzburg,
Halevi,
Martha 534
Isabella,
Geller,
476
of Bologna 505
Isaacs,
Roman 807
Kramsztyck,
849 Hirszcnberg, Samuel 637 Hirschfeld, Morris
Histadrut Studio for Painting
526
Fiorino, Jeremias
968
Hart,
868
Engel, Jozsef
Fichel,
1
944
Bernard 844 Kars, Georges 661 Katz, Marcin 807 Katz, Nathaniel 901 Karfiol,
Shmuel 937, 947 Kaufmann, Isidor 619 Kaufmann, Richard 741 Kayser, Edouard 585 Kehilath Anshe Maariv Synagogue 782 Kemeny, Kalman 836 Kennicott Bible 389 Katz,
Litvinovsky, Pinhas 91 Israel 849 Loewy, Raymond 859 London Reform Synagogue 781 Lopez, Joshua 534 Lopez, Michael 441
Litwak,
see Luchansky, Jacob Lowe, Michael (Moses) 528 Lozowick, Louis 843
Loutschansky, Jacques
Lubin, Arye
914
Ketuba see Marriage contracts
Luchansky, Jacob 845, 945
Kikoine, Michel 660
Luisada,
Avigdor 928
INDEX
969 Machabeu, Jchuda 441 Machoro, Abraham 441 Magnus, Eduard 546 Mane-Katz 662 Mantle (Torah Scroll) 328 Marcoussis, Louis 679 Margoulies, Berta 894
Marlibrun 500 Marriage contracts 370, 426 Maryan 713 Materials in synagogue construction 781
Meah
Berakhot
Medallists
473
529
Megillat Esther see Scroll of Esther
Meidner, Ludwig 813 Mellitz Yoisher
473
Melnikov, Aaron 939 Memorial Temple, Budapest 784 Mendelsohn, Erich 730, 788 Mengs, Anton Raphael 536 Mengs, Ishmael Israel 536 Meninsky, Bernard 827 Menkes, Zygmunt 807 Merian, Matthew 444 Meshal lia-Kadmoni 476 Meshullam of Polna 449 Messel, Alfred 725
Meyer, Bourig 522 Meyer, Howard 789 Meyerowitz, William 848
Mezuzah 349 Mikvch Israel Synagogue 764
"Old" Synagogue, Kazimierz 268 Oppenhcim, Moritz Daniel 544, 552 Oranienburgcrstrassc Synagogue 770 Oriental synagogues 293 Orloff, Hanna 876, 944 Ostiglia, Jonah 508 Ovadyahu, Samuel 916 Pailcs,
Jacques 685
Ofakim Hadashim see New Horizons Ofck, Abraham 937 Okshi, Absalom 938
Schatz,
Zohara 944
Ruth 947 Benno 882
Schotz,
Paris
Synagogue 760 326 Pascin, Jules 646 Passover dish 340 Pasternak, Leonid 634 Pen-drawings 444 Perlmutter, Isaac 625 Pest Synagogue 766
Schwartz, William
Parokhet
Schwarz-Abryss 673
S.
938
855
Schwerin, Ludwig 934 of Esther 348, 431 Sculpture 522 Seal-engraving 523
Scroll
Shalom 926 384 Segal, Arthur 816 Segal, Simon 698 Seba, Seder
898 Theodor 628 Picart, Bernard 475 Pilichowski, Leopold 589 Pinhas, G.C. 525 Pinhas, Hermann Hirsch 525 Pinhas, Jacob 525 Pevsner, Antoine 801, Philipson,
Segal,
Uri Phoebus 446, 451
837
Segall, Lasar
Seitengasse Seley, Jason
Synagogue 758
897
Pinhas,
Seligmann, Kurt 818 Sephardic synagogues 293
Pinhas,
Sezession
Judah (Low) 445, 451, 524 Leo 524 Pinhas, Salomon 525 Pinkas
453
Jacob 937 Pissarro, Camille 539, 577 Pissarro, Georges 580 Pissarro, Lucien 580 Pins,
priscus
Moses ben Isaac 469, 509 Moses Leib of Trebitsch 447 Mosler, Gustave Henry 573 Muhr, Julius 546 Munich Synagogue 761 Nadclmann, Elie 873 Nathan, Arturo 824 Nathan ben Samson of Meseritz 450 Nathan ben Simeon 504 Naton, Abraham 928 Navon, Aryeh 934 "Nazarenes" 541 Nclke, Hermann 547 Nco-Romanticism 700 Neue Sezession 817 New Horizons 914, 928, 947 New Synagogue, London 759 Nuernberg Haggadah, Second 403 Obuda Synagogue 761
937
Schatz, Boris 865, 903, Schloss,
Amadeo 643, 873 Moheb, Isaac 510 Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo 811 Moise, Theodore Sydney 570 Mokady, Moshe 977 "Mole Antonelliana" Synagogue 775 Moorish-style synagogues 765 Mordccai, Moses 531
Schatz, Bezalel
907
Pissarro,
Modigliani,
Samuel ben Pinhas of Lchrbcrg 524 Samuel of Murcia 500 Sanchez, Jaime 500 Santcroos, Aron 441 Sarajevo Haggadah 382
Pann, Abel 904
Paldi, fsrael
Adolphe 665 Minhagim 478 Minhat Shai 473 Minkowski, Mauricy 637 Mintchine, Abraham 661 Mishkan Le-Owamit 946 Mishneh Torah 408 Moccatta, David 724, 781 Modern Synagogues 788 Milich,
970
Orovida 580 Pointer 323 Polack, Solomon 532 Pollack, Reginald 704 Pontremoli, Emanuel 728 Portrait painters 540 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 567 Pressmane, Joseph 665 Printer's badges 475
497 Aaron 940 Propcss, Moshe 947 Priver,
Silversmiths 311
Sima, Miron 925 Simon, Jean Henri 530
Simon, Yohanan 928 Sinaicff, Leopold Bernstein 872 Single-nave synagogues 269 Slobodkin, Louis 891
Realism" 797 Solomon, Abraham 564 Solomon, Simeon 567 Solomon, Solomon J. 586 Solomons, Israel 442 Soncino Family 463 "Socialist
Gershom 457, 475 Soncino, Joshua Solomon 464, 469 Sopher, Aaron ben Moses 452 Sophcr, Yekutiel 441 Soncino,
Rabban, Ze'ev 905 Rapaport, Nathan 945 Ratner, Yohanan 743 Rattncr,
817
Shahn, Ben 856 Shapshak, Rene 884 Shemi, Men ahem 909 Shemi, Yehiel 943
Abraham 858
Soutine,
Chaim 650
Reder, Bernard 880 Ree, Anita 815 Reform synagogues 777 Reth, Alfred 680
Soyer, Moses 851
Rodef Shalom Synagogue 766
Spicebox 334
Soyer, Raphael 851 Spain, synagogues in
Spcyer, Nathan ben
288
Abraham 452
Rogers, Claude 828
Stcimatzky, Avigdor 922
Rohr, Yoel 946 Romanesque synagogues 770
Steinberg, Saul
Romano, Emmanuel 824
Max 572 Toby Edward 572
Roth, Lior 946 Rothenstein, Sir William
Rubin, Reuben 908 Rundbogenstil
780
509 801 Sabbath bread cover 349 Sabbctai, Zevi 474 Safed Artists' Quarter 948 Salmon, Geskel 549 Ruschi, Francesco
Ryback,
Issachar
933 937 Sterne, Maurice 846, 891 Stcrnschuss, Moshe 944 Stetthcimcr, Florence 844 Sticglitz, Alfred 841 Stockholm Synagogue 775 Stolzcr, Judith 792 Strauss, Andre 585 Strcichman, Yehezkel 920 Struck, Hermann 614, 930 Sumair 498 Surrealism 689 Stern, Joseph
Roscnficld, Isadore 738 Rosenthal, Bernard 897
Rosenthal, Rosenthal,
859
Stcinhardt, Jacob 814,
587
Swarz, Sol 897 Szwarc, Marek 576 Szobotka, Imre 809
1
INDEX
971
Trier,
Tsiffer,
915 Tamir, Moshe 937 Tajcr, Tsiyona
Tcherniawsky, Charles 669 Tempelgasse Synagogue 765 Temple Emanu-El, Old 766 Terk, Sonia Delaunay 682
Weksler, Jacob 926
Walter 837 Moshe 940 Tzenah u'Reenah 478
Szyk, Arthur 798 Tachistes 705
Uhlman, Fred 835 Aviva 937 Ury, Lesser 609
Werner, Nat 888 Weston, Reginald 671 Wiener, Charles 550 Wiener, Jacques 530, 549 Wiener, Leopold 550
Valance (ark-curtain) 327 Valensi, Henri 681
Wine Wine
Uri,
457
Textiles
Van Dyk,
Ticho,
Varlin see Guggenheim, Willy
356 Anna 934 Tikkmi Sopheriiu 473
Timber synagogues 285 Title-pages 470 Topolski, Feliks 836 Torah Scroll 313 Tovar, Jeshurun 506 Tower of David exhibitions 906 Town, Benjamin 535 Town(e), Charles 535 Town, Edward 535 Town, Francis 535 Town planning 737 Treu, Joel N. (Joseph Marquard) 52.5 Treu, Johann Joseph Christian 526 Treu, Johann Nicholaus 526
972
Christofal
Veit, Philipp
541
Marcel 675 Verveer, Elchanon Leonardus 560 Verveer, Moses Leonardus 560 Verveer, Solomon Leonardus 560 Vertes,
Wagner, Siegfried 870 Wahl, Joseph 511 Wahl, Judah 511 Wald, Herman 885 Walden, Herwarth 812 Walkowitz, Abraham 842 Weber, Max 841 Wechsler, Anita 896 Weill, Shraga 937, 946 Weiss, Simha 511
343 333 Wolf, Gustav 813 Wollheim, Gert 815 Wolmark, Alfred A. 825 beakers goblets
Women's
section in
synagogue 256
Wood working 354 Worms Mahzor 395 Wrappings
for
Torah
Scroll
Wright, Frank Lloyd 793
Yemenite art 354 Yeshurun Synagogue 792 Zadikow, Arnold 87 Zadkine, Ossip 879 Zaritzky, Joseph 912 Zion, Ben 848
Zodiac 477 Zoffany, Johann 536 Zorach. William 885
324
(Continued from front
flap)
of the nations of the world throughout
which the Jewish people have been tered
down through
The and
the ages.
part, dealing
first
with the ancient
classical world, discusses
Egypt,
to
Syria; the
Jewish
and
in historic, religious, cultural,
relation
scat-
artistic
Mesopotamia,
and
second part covers Jewish
in relation to
art
art
Spain and the Moslem world
during the Middle Ages; the concluding
and
third presents Jewish painters tors
from the period of
social
and
sculp-
political
emancipation in the early nineteenth century to the present day in France, Ger-
many, England, Austria, Holland, and the
United
Synagogue
States.
ancient pottery, ritual
cemetery bols,
bas-reliefs,
art,
frescoes,
engravings,
iconographic sym-
medieval mosaics, and illuminated
manuscripts are discussed and pictured here.
The nineteen
ume —
contributors to this vol-
experts in their fields
all
drawn from
Israel,
and the United
are
France, Great Britain,
States,
different backgrounds.
and have as many Each has been left
with his subject in a
to deal
—
way
that
appeals to him, and the reader will note considerable difference of approach and interpretation. This has
been deliberately
allowed to stand, and will be a perpetual
reminder that
new
we
are
still
working
in a
where the hypotheses are not
field,
yet sufficiently established. of old said that there
The Rabbis
were a hundred
ways
to
It is
not beside the point to emphasize
approach the study of the Torah.
that the
Jewish
The
same applies
to the
art.
editor, Dr. Cecil Roth, the cele-
brated author and historian, in
study of
is
a Reader
Jewish Studies at Oxford University,
England,
and
Editor-in-Chief
of
the
Standard Jewish Encyclopedia.
McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. New York • Toronto • London 54006
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A*