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William M. Heetoa, Sr.
W. Daa McDonald, C.P.C.U.
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Find Hedges, C.P.C.U.
Ed Forrester, C.L.U.
Jim Cherry, Jr.
Jock Deal
Byron Bournes
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The lost art of Hebrew
illuminated manuscripts
'11 TTB j@f
by Sol Baton
“You shall not make for
yourself a sculptured image, or
anyKhmess.
The second commandment
prohibited the Israelites from
idol worship but not from ar*
tistic expression. The illumina*
tion of Bible texts, ritual codices,
liturgies, legal, philosophical
and medical works were ways
the Jews could combine art with
the written word. Any con
sideration or interpretation of
the art of the Hebrew il
luminated manuscripts reveals
the distinctive traditions and
styles developed to a high degree
of splendor by the Sephardic
and Ashkenaxi Jews during the
Middle Ages.
The art of illumination emerg
ed primarily from Mesopotamia
and further developed in the 9th
century in Palestine, Egypt and
Persia. Bible manuscripts from
the Leningrad library cime
from Egypt as early as 929 with
its richly decorative oriental
carpet pages.
Illuminated book production
began to flourish during the 13th
century with the economic and
social development in Europe of
town life and the founding of
universities with secular
workshops. This period replaced
the monastic scriptorium and in
troduced the “illuminator” who
served wealthy clients. New
techniques in the preparation of
parchment, inks, gold leaf,
colors and other materials led to
the accessibility of books for
domestic use. Wealthy patrons
commissioned artists who inter
preted fashionable styles with
traditional Jewish subjects,
motifs, embellishment,
calligraphy and linear filigree
work.
Medieval Spanish Jews
decorated handwritten books
and manuscripts embellished in
gold (or silver) in the most lavish
and aesthetic fashion. From the
Oriental influence we see the
outline of drawings in tiny
writing (micrography), a sym
bolic arrangement of Tabernacle
implements with motifs produc
ing an oriental pattern of carpet
like illumination, foliage decora
tion with interlacing scrolls and
mudejar filigree ornaments
framed with paisley and round
flower designs.
A characteristic of the
Spanish Jewish Haggadah is the
illuminated decorative pages at
the beginning and ends, with
very little or no attention to the
text. Since they were used at
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The Mah Tovu opening prayer in Italian-Hebrew style with
decorative foliage and interlacing scroll border of the twelve
tribes of Israel as created by Sol Betoa.
home, they embodied real il
luminations showing human
figures and scenes from life,
grouping two or four il
lustrations to the page, before
and separate from the text.
After the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain in 1492 and Portugal
in 1496-97, the Spanish Jews
brought their illuminated
manuscripts to Italy, North
Africa, Turkey, Tunisia and
Yemen.
As the Sephardic culture
developed in Spain, Provence,
Portugal and North Africa, so
too did the Ashkenazi culture
spread through Germany,
Northern France, England, the
low countries and later Italy
(15th century) when German
Jews entered Northern Italy.
The northern French school of
the 18th and 14th centuries in
fluenced the Ashkenazi com
munities with its sense of high
quality and sophistication deriv
ed from the styles of Latin il
lumination.
Many illuminated
manuscripts were destroyed
with the extinction of the French
Jewish community during the
13th and 14th century and
reflect periods of persecution
such as the burning of the
Talmud in Paris (1240), the ex
pulsion of the Jews from
England (1290) and from France
(1306,1321) and eventually from
Germany during the 15th cen
tury.
Later, Northern Italy became
the most important center in the
Renaissance style and retained a
vitality all its own. Influenced
by Ashkenazi and Sephardic il
lumination, a variety of styles
were executed with initial-word
panels, marginal illustrations,
full page decorations and
miniatures. Supported by
affluent Jewish loan-bankers,
Hebrew illumination reached its
artistic peak with the finest
Italian artists of the
Renaissance.
After the development of print
ing in Europe in the second half
of the 15th century, illumination
was superseded by printed il
lustrations and the production of
books in a large number of
copies, yet some examples are
extant from as late as the begin
ning of the 16th century.
fcribur
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