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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

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

vv

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A

contemporary Mezuzah by Isidor Schor

INTRODUCTION

..-*

URL**

H^BHBB

ssoro 33771

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page

of the

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1U'

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JtTOV

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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 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

human

signet

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

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

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.

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.*

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

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

with

The phenomenon

is

artists ?

at the present stage. For, obviously, this

outpouring of genius from the Eastern European

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

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

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

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

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

CONQUEST

ISRAELITE

in

the

all

soil;

centuries.

Hebrew

art

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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,

Sialk

in

the

same fashion

one instance, with

This relationship

is

of

Sialk

bone. Cave of El-Kabarah. Natufi

with those of

art.

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

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

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

profound

organized

villages

on

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.

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

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

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

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,

for

have been

could

an

of

figure

that
of

site

pelican

simple

front

some

was

figure

this

sort.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

curious zoomorphic

vase imitates a pig whose legs are bound to

cords, as

for sacrifice.

sanctuary

is

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,

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-

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

of the animal's fore-

withdrawn against the body,

foot,
istic

The drawing

art.

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

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

been

have

bronze figurine

with extended forearms wear-

ing a necklace and high headdress which recalls

the Egyptian crown.

goddess

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

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,

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-

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

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

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

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

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

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-

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

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,

of the period.
typical

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

to

standstill;

the

to

lowland

as

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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

hall.

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,

parallels

duced from Egvpt, but perhaps

at

Paphos

in

we

much

already

method

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

influence seems largely

Israel

evidence to be quoted

bv

was formerly topped bv

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

sa-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,

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

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

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;

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

Hazor by the upper

bone handle showing

genius and sacred tree from the same

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

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

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

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,

stvle

a feeling for line

an

o r n anient,

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

rule.
if

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

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

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

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

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

'

112

l/*M

"

^"

''

i'.i
''iir.

"'

mw ,,

.WVr.

tf^m
x

\ ^\)

k'Av

i"

"'"V\\,.,

,>,

^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.

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

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

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:

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

traits.

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

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;

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.

sense

for

observation,

not

we can

evoke a

city active,

III,

2-3:

Take, for instance, Na-

"The noise

of

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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-

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

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

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

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

representations of the
tal

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.

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

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

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

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:

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

art.

monolithic columns,

pediments, had been set on bases and aligned

four parallel rows.

branches and grapes

supporting structure

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

>

Q.

<M

:-'
'*,

: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

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

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

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.

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

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,

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

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

small

chest

(usually

The

perforated structure of the central rosette, which

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

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

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

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 (6768); 14. Shekel, Fifth Year (70); 15. Bronze Coin,
Second Year (6768); 16. Half Shekel, Bronze, Fourth Year (6970).

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)

(6667);

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

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

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-

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

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

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

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

building.

found

now

at

Delos,

considered

formerly
part

of

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

river-

place

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-

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

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

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

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

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

low

are not fluted as a rule.

are of the Attic type.

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

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

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

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

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

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

IL L

LX TTT

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

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-

must have been the

cause of some inconvenience in the synagogical

service,

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.

The new

which emerged

principles

~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

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

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

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

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

On

east). In the northeastern

the east side of the court

room surrounded by benches, apparently

Two

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

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

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

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

and was

flanked by two columns surmounted by an arch.

Adjoining

indicate

nected

aisles,

but there

The synagogue and

with

separately

rounded by

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

197

JEWISH PICTORIAL ART IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

198

o
D.

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.

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

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.

comparison

with the former purely allegorical scene

is

very

In

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

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

<

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

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.

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

212

;&

a&t
i

.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

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

wheel and above

large

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

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,

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

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

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.

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

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.

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,

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.

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.

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

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,

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

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

ner quite at variance with the prevalent concep-

flamingo

zoological as theological.

ed by menorot, and the

him with

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

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

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

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

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

frieze also

containing flowers in

and the cornice was enriched with

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.

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,

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..

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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,

would have been natural

it

for the ark, being attached to the wall to

which

become the

archi-

congregation

the

similar

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

distinct

an

more

Even

phenomenon.

architectural

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

286

synagogues,

also

existed

constitute

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

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*<z~
'Jfrenc'jmcijr,

^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

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

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 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,WH4iWJ^^

^mhdi^W^-b P^MiM\Lumh^,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

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

pagoda

later,

was

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

V,

as

a deer to

The

23)

fulfill

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.

presented

gift

bear

by

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

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

(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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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'.

348

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,l

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gd.i )p grtirTy *ntg{

w>c p'jpjn rwrro rmpfn "f^TOin/wo

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159.

NoS VT'

^tr ft*!"

p tj stj*^ *p* 2'3y^

N*!"'

"'t

'o.", ^a^*"'

Scroll of Esther in silver case,

Germany.

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^3^3TOyaeTfln3^1 nNj
&VtVty& KP31 Tf NTU3W KTlbXJKrnK?tl|
on ve'vx >n^7 bt^n i'tw i!snsrrnfew\J

foj

',!-

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

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.

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

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.

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

of

The

synagogue

alike.

but

literate,

different

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

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

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.

174180). The

finest

belong

to

group

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.

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

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.

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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|p

v nj3 $#$
pHwP
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JL

delicate colors

but more vigorous and with

horror vacni
that

each community could

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

182), thev represent the best

(fig.

In a class of their

of

^^m ^

183) and those from Herat,

(fig.

Portion of marriage contract, Herat, 1812.

(Hebrew University Library, lerusalem).

182.

similar,

'j'Ha^^^?

^^^~~~~-

372

there

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:

mm~

WORLD

374

in

^VaVaXYa^Va^^^^

pwiOT n rnCTi fffago

iuwG -pg

;_

9T

'"
'

V- '*"*

"'*>

>*-^^^^.Wi^jn T<nWr^S3b^So|i<l|jo-pnn
183.

184.

"/

TIT+13T* ->%jt

ourj
^Coi

->:

jp? o-jy

Portion of marriage contract, Meshed, 1834.

Part of ceiling decoration in a Jewish house in Aleppo.

First half of 18th century.

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

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,

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

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

ND

13

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.

*.. *<4AiK.\ *v*X^

IKS.

>

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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.

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

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

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

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,

manuscripts, with results sometimes

sometimes merely bizarre.

ous example

po-roarmwi
pre

rwntm^-^TCRi

bition

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.

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

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

ground

spiders'

webs

in

encircling

1347,

now

Biblical

in

the

scenes

198).

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)

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.

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

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

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

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

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-

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.

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

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,

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'>
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** *# '>> Vi

jphh.1 l>t

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'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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

jipB 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

^filTO.# &

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.

mam-

}0r\ rvv d'jt

137

^7

w*! *ty orp rt$ o*^

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

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

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

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,

excess

certain

of

of Esther

ketubah of 1756 (British Museum, MS. Or. 6706)

bears the

decoration

the

has

appears.

within

written

text

superb

portico

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

of text

and the customs of Purim.

i"' t *ii^

tynw"?

>

otnca

d"i"->n *^*i

ti-^o

is

tT

{njf "-itfN

fVHHb*i -J->or~i

a-3o->i-t

>f?nti
-*i*rt tJfcD3 Hp ~tp>>,

i*

>

IWirt

IS

oSf-iri 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""*** "nlo 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<V {y 'ki
1 't/p303 H" ft'-nt/
u_,p ^f>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
*ritS <3 tat-V 17iarT J i*33j 3~*r
rHVi-Sij -T^iin "y-y >a U"t<r*t *s rtiJ'^iof-i "-^ai -iSii-i
\'
^pNi i 1m? 3i*V r-i3a ot-4
H>3ii ti +-nn-i'rJ is'i
,,
5
^te.'iti/iji TaJiV'
iK3r
3TiNil^i Uca"!
ti'ort
iW>r>3
liixi t3*-*-mi't-r 13
J
tt~n

*ato<

*-r-'ft*Ti f->nti

'

illuminated

in

sepia.

South France, early

'

'

Ho

'

'

of Esther,

onp

Scroll

'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

!^^

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,

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

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,

great

438

influence

Oil

the

hand-

illuminated megilloth of the eighteenth century.

The

engraver Francesco

Christian

Venice

produced

also

Crisellini

of

megillah

in

beautiful

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

B3iw

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

rraa
Bbp '30
t

>

h3WB 3rrt"'*30 "'CD^b)i-ftorir!3?3O3

trie

mi

^-an# "wwyw*iwrt7Tnritf'*!
oiai <p rpr-iyyw o**""'"'*^
tns

an

jj

rw'

tmyvh
ni"psn

rTTri'f7onTri3S (Din-'iK>''OT^irtnDTvJ
vymptpg1?
fa it -ry anfignrarura
,

wprv

'<

If

^1

'

r-

br1 yv) r-ntp -ntx to rwjr?

"Tins

r*<*'i

""* pwarn t-va rt*

KbiTsri

* p warn pan -<? Htn

^Twn "iiBS'Bnwnwrw "rwSmy

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 oiS dvd pn

"Wl

Sssnrb

218.

f won

pir)Nrntt'vicroK4aro , ^T's-->SycM<
7*3Nl7*rtl

t|
|v,

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CPT-Itt'r"W3 fOT&TriKnpl'nnSHn3

<

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nyiw

*3"i"'03T* itis-'S yyys rsMronpriNSfn

^WTsnrbpHB^iwps^w^mrvs

; c

ipn'ro

porhn

_^,

Italy,

17th century.

ft

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.

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.

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

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"

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

rather

copyists,

who

Abraham Machoro
beu

(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$

rJPB| 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

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

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

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,

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

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

pen are known.

is

His

pen-drawings,

usually set off bv wash, are well-composed

genre pai
ing as a

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

Officialis in Bibliotheca

Uxor,

This obviously refers to our

sible that

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

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

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

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

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

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 (17271793), 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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ns0)

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

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'

'

'

225.

page from

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

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

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

special

liking

for

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

t
33 'TOynTKia.x )<nina

w nl
law iruipo nya* sS piyi

oipb rty

,l

TyD sin s.t sr.'nn myonns snn*>

miymaamiyriymiostfiaa-

rs>v

3 DSp
,

m ism

/ /nyeS

V> ipai iis

pato onpow o aasi aio naj

[.lis jinowai Jiuncaw

.iVm
nVSn

<jio

7inS' 3nnt)

iarj sin

ci niaisn

n Sy nyv

pa

,I

Jip

irtsi

ivon iwso u
pyn'wi sin *j3 two
tm 'a yi3 nsiD fyyowywio)^

j'jio JJ.

Ira onpn 'jam nsaw

'isiip

ima ji'anpivn

'"731

nnw 6ns SSsniP rnflrfl)

Vffi Sspjvn nanpi myi

Mflb irunn

iSai

sS* B.13 J113ma .131)33 OyO

n icyi pnnw-ifli mpynnwifi loi *

romi tohx onSo SySSana rm.iy

n Sy Tjnyo a'na 'aamnios non

nSiyn

jioifl'pja nua-ipn

wna

aios

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,

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

'Jin pnnn"?

nMn ^Sfa

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 i3 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

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~

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

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

in the

title-page

Rokeah printed

not usual in printing in those days, and even the

title-page just

ment.

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

*fflB3 T7'mtt1(C HttVl |3

una co^a-j; yzv pan nnsy ? nta
mi3Va '"ij ^3 tTO 'a1? 11233 tvs S'nnm'n' tnun
va^n nwa/iawS ran arnf crwaw 'dS 1131V trnsn
ryntf ; ntn 13 Syi vby -yybw 0">t< '33 '3a nniiiyS

muya 'is-i

'*>

rmw'sa y:nn Hto -r ySan 1333 -psa

Kina pari tp vi'aSnV "tot p larro pi
'B9a\0 ntai37i 'avVaw nin 131 on Tin 1,103 as^Sy
1131 10a w^an'm rmn mv nun aaa "ana one
note 13T mirttn

ffWB

t<Si

tn-ilQ

aTvSan iJJ3 -|n*a ryniu run p hv

yn-ny 3

maw ny m inc< pi

n^-i a'D^io

133

P'xnia rrn

mown V3 nmi ni-13

"3

n,t<

-pan'

wi3n
wist*

wna 'ip iEit"

vSy a'rySa rn '3 n* rafti innna

nj33
03J -wan TjJto '3 "wafj int< rmni
ryn
yi3 mens "P'V Gdynia
rwnwitmi] Tit<3
V^i'SsiTorisSmntoii'yrriJisyn nVnn
rrnaya 111331 *a 3%n 1333 '1*3 1133 iwi
viaij
imi3y3 pS pinna 3^3 p'i -|i3iv tma;j
Yt
ny 1,S>31 111 731 13f1T 310*7 fVrW O'^m 1333 '3*3
, 33'in nam ncn
tuwb t^f anuria Sy SSann rm
ii3>o
-oS un 13 inn iatn o^nn hy -proxa ; nja
31*
t a

wb

mm

mm

wi

228.

page from

Ritual

Code, Augsburg, 1540.

=e/

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

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,

^-*

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

yj.

(fig.

230). The variety and interest of these printers

marks

two birds on the wall and the

231.

"The

Easterner's

Parable"

Soncino, Brescia,

1491.

\\l

\ **

"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

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-

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

few which are

open

is

certainly the

names are preserved. Thus,

artists;

who

example, Meir

has just been mentioned,

book-illuminator

skilled

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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),

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

to

work on Cremona, Cremona nobilissima

Giu-

and shade from Caravaggio and those

light

some

work produced

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

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.

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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,

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

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.

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*

vnwo nso to* o

of expert calligraphers,

embodied

generally

drawn

London and

in

at

518

finely-

*vflfc-"

r-tf^w>

title-pages in their pro-

-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.

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 (17171767) 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.

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 (16851748) 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 (16051660), 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

new

ascribed

Abraham

Alexander

Count Magnus Gabriel de

la

Cooper.
Garde,

1647.

to

Haham

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

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

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,

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.

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

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 (17681828), 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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

William

II

(his portrait of Frede-

etc.

won him

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

266). In

had

Samuel
prizes

engravings after paintings

in

of the Renaissance, especially

promience even

was

new

which

submitted

he

he submitted

that

good that the judges questioned

so

in

Belgian

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.

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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-

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

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

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.

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

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

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

He

number

also executed

Mother's Blessing,

Rijksmuseum,

is

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),

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

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

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.

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

version,

first-class

and

insecurity

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,

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.

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

at

the

Royal

years later, in 1860, his picture

of

Moses was attacked by a

women

ugly

ludicrously

looking

critic

at

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

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

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

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,

know nothing
he

had

poetess

studio

Orleans from 1850 to his death in 1883.

described bv

contemporary

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

its

lost

but no doubt

the taste of

for

In 1852,

medal was awarded him bv the South

the Amalekites,

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

'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

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,

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

canvas bought by the Tate Gallery under the

towards

moreover,

contemporary
Solomon's

was

better

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\

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

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

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

ad

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

somehow manage

to the people.

to

orient

share

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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)

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.

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.

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

"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

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

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

of

(1860-1906), whose tortured and somber skies

as

medium

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

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

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

and

in

Russian art which sought

great extent
in

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!"

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

programmatic Cubist.

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

of flowers

bright like jewels, one can distinguish

a view of an old Russian village.

Chanukah

lamp,

turquoise-blue

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

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

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

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

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

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

the painters of

life

in

Kiev as 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

no

large

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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,

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

of English w

(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

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

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,

Among

his rare

often

but powerful por-

composer Bela Bartok remains

that of the

by

influenced

Profoundly

masterpiece.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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.

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

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

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

quality of taste

endows

thai

quality.

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

absorbed

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

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

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

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

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

designer of theatrical cos-

THE SCHOOL OF

701

tumes and

and

sets

a creator of extremely distin-

guished advertising designs has been quite spec-

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,

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

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

Menn (Benzion Rabinovitch).

>.

affinity

other

certain

pantomimes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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,

mysteriously hieratic quality. Jacob Macznik of

Lodz (1905-1944) has

left

us, in addition to

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

in order

painter by

sheer instinct, he reveals in his work his jovful

acceptance of reality and of

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

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

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

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

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

l4

Jii

*Jh

s-Pt

<

<

3-

:4

%.'

,.

IN

*
W _'-_,
">
,
r ,,.wii

ii l

ili'

II

p.

..

I I

726

.-! n

'

.^u.iiuiimiiL.jJ

ii;f|l l#|

ARCHITECTURE

li

[''-,

,,.

-1

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

authority

final

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

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

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)

confined only to Russians, was

"traditionalists,"

imitative

version

Great's imitation of Versailles

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

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

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

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,

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

More

classically-moulded wood-

aggressive synagogue architecture of the late 19th

the

Greek

were

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

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

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

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

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

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

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-

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

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

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

Museum

civic

of the

Risorgimento.

second building to which attention must be

drawn

and long drawn-out

this

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

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,

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,

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,

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

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

is

had a

rabbi

used here in a general sense.

hazan who prayed with the

who was

essentially

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

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-

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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

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)

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

national

who

of

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,

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,

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

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,

$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

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

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

far

more

naturalistic

and

less

His scenes of Russian peasant

terms of Slavic folklore,

much

tortured style.

life

transpose, in

of the

humor

of

Breughel's scenes of Flemish peasant-life. In his

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

as

Daumier

with

idealized

underworld

nostalgia

which he

Expressionist

for

romantically

with

imitating

wit

great

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mellow and meditative

quality, achieved as a

throughout

on a limited number of familiar themes

came

an early

\\

an intellectual and

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

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

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

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

his

own, founded on

of the aims

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
<L>

>^

cu

c
cu

H
<u
CD

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

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

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

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.

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

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;

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.

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

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

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

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.

of a national

statue

which

he

attracted

executed

such

and

notice

Hasmonean

the

dramatic

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

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,

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 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.

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

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,

meters high, of the Ecce

suffering

is

finale of his life's

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

finest

wife,

granite,

and The Lovers

(fig.

granite group executed in

achievement on
strikes

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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-

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

made up

Some

in order to study at Bezalel.

the founders and animators of the

of

second
of the

of these,

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,

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.

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

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.

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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

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'

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-

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/
\N

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

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

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

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

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

more con-

country for reasons associated with the traditional

religious prejudices in

in

are impressive

the

War

urban

districts.

monuments

In

to those

many of
who fell
Israeli

1948, very shortly after the establishment

of the state,

when

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

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

.....
.
.
...
..

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
.

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

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

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

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-

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,

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

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

Hi

A*