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Judaica at the V&A: Passover, Purim, and a Great Arch
From: The Victoria and Albert Museum
| By:
Marilyn Greene |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
The first objects of Judaica in the V&A's collections were purchased before the establishment of the Museum itself; indeed, many items in the collection were bought before the establishment of any Jewish museums in the world. While the V&A pioneered the collecting of Jewish art, its holdings are nonetheless not representative of the Jewish religion as a whole, as they were collected merely for aesthetic reasons. Marilyn Greene takes us to the V&A's Cast Gallery to see the replica of an arch from a twelfth century Spanish synagogue. We then look at a Passover plate and a Purim plate. |
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| The arch of a Toledo synagogue. | |
 his is a plaster cast or a copy of an arch from what was originally built as a synagogue in the Spanish town of Toledo in the twelfth century. The original arch was probably decorated in the fourteenth century in a Moorish, or Arabic style of architecture, as at that time the Moors ruled Toledo. Jews tended to follow the current trend in architecture in the building of their synagogues. It has the traditional keyhole-shaped arch of this style of architecture. |
The original arch was made by Salomon ben Ali Darham who was probably Jewish. At this time you would have had Muslims and Jews working together in the same architectural styles; it was a time when Jews and Muslims really lived pretty much in harmony with each other in Spain and with the Christians as well. The decoration is very elaborate and is generally abstract or floral because in Jewish places of worship it's not common to depict any figurative forms, and that's the same in the Muslim religion as well. You glorify God by decoration but not by any images of the human form. |
The columns have protruding scrolls of palm leaves and pinecones, which you can just see supporting the scrolls of the leaves. There are two shells depicted on either end, but although it looks symmetrical as all the decoration repeats itself, if you look closely at the details they are actually different on each side. |
This arch is significant in Jewish history because the Spanish Jews (including the Jews of Toledo) who did not covert to Christianity were all expelled in 1492, maybe only 100 years or so after this was decorated. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were trying to unite Spain as a Christian country and in the process expelled all the Jews and Muslims. There are two remaining buildings in Toledo that were originally synagogues. This is one of them and it is now called St. Maria La Blanca, so named as it was consecrated into a church in the fifteenth century. There is only one other town in Spain with a synagogue of this date, in Cordova. On the top you again have something common in Moorish architecture, the row of columns with scalloped tops. Often those scalloped tops, which look a bit like Christmas trees, represent the cedars of Lebanon, which often supported buildings or roofs and were, mentioned in the proverbs of the Bible as being particularly fine. The arch is decorated with eight-pointed stars, not six-pointed stars, which is very much more the Moorish decoration and not what would be seen now as a Jewish symbol. The six-pointed Star of David (the sign on King David's shield) really only becomes common in Jewish symbolism in the nineteenth century. |
Passover
I'm standing in front of a large pewter plate, which was made for the festival of Passover or Pesach. It was made in Germany in the eighteenth century. It's highly decorative but in quite a simplistic manner, almost as though the engraver wasn't sophisticated or that experienced in engraving. In the centre there is a lamb representing the paschal lamb. It is in a circle surrounded by an eight-pointed star, which is made to look almost as though it's three-dimensional, as it's shaded on one side of each point of the star. At the top are two deer. Deer are often represented in Jewish art because they represent the spreading of the word of God, as they leap and bound and move so fast. |
On four sides of the base of the plate we have some images of young men. Now, these men are all represented in the book of the Passover service in what is known as the Haggadah. You have the Wise son and he's represented as a man with a hat in a very medieval style coat. Opposite him you have the Wicked son. He's got a spear and he's rushing into battle, and below the Wicked son is the son who's too young to ask questions. He's the very young child with his arms outstretched, and raised up like a baby, and to the right of him is the son who is known as the Simple son, one who doesn't really know what questions to ask. And below that is an image of a stork eating eels, which may represent filial piety. |
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| Lamb at the centre of the Passover plate. | |
Part of the Seder (the special meal at which Jewish families gather to celebrate the festival of Passover) is the asking of questions and getting children interested in the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery. Along the rim of the plate, on the turning of the curve of the plate, there are some inscriptions. The top one in big writing is in Hebrew and below you would expect to see an inscription written in Hebrew text. The words on this particular plate are in Yiddish (Judeo-German) and explain that the plate was made for the couple who would have commissioned it. |
These pieces of art from the eighteenth century would have been made for commission only, so they give details of the donors and other text relating to the Passover Seder. Along the outer rim we have illustrations of a song that is sung near the end of the Seder called Had Gadya ("One Kid for Two Zuzim"). Zuzim is an ancient currency. If you go from right to left around the rim you see an old man by a table counting out his money and deciding whether he should sell his goat. The goat is chased by a cat which is in turn chased by a dog which is then hit by a stick. The stick is burnt in the fire, the fire is put out by water from a well and then the goat (the kid) is going to be slaughtered. But the Angel of the Lord puts his hand out and stops it being slaughtered, so it has associations with the Passover story in that respect. All these little animals and elements of the story are depicted along that rim of the plate. |
Purim
The Purim plate behind the Seder plate is also made from silvered pewter. It's got a layer of silver over it to try and make it look more expensive or of better quality. |
The Jewish festival of Purim commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination. The festival is celebrated by the reading of the book of Esther. It is a time of merriment. Jews are commanded to give gifts of money to the poor at Purim. |
Purim plates were for collecting money for charity either in a synagogue or by individuals. The imagery on this plate depicts some elements from the story of Esther in the Bible. It represents a time when the Israelites were ruled by Persia. |
Esther was married to the King of Persia but he did not know that she was Jewish. Her uncle Mordecai had discovered a plot to kill the King. At the same time, the king's chief advisor, Haman, was trying to arrange for the Jewish people to be executed because they did not bow down and worship him. When Mordecai uncovered the plot to kill the King, the King asked for him to be rewarded. He called Haman to ask how he should praise someone who had done him some great good. Now Haman thought that he was talking about himself, so he said, "I would lead him through the streets in glory and have everyone respect him", and so the King told him to do that to the Jew Mordecai. |
Haman had to lead Mordecai dressed in the King's robes through the streets from the palace. You can see the picture of the palace on the right-hand side of the base of the plate, with Mordecai on a horseback being led through the streets. Esther is known as a heroine in Jewish history because she approached her husband the King (to approach the King uncalled was punishable by death) and told him of Haman's plot to have the Jews all killed. Unfortunately the King had already agreed to let this happen, not knowing that his beloved wife was Jewish. He allowed the Jews to fight against any opposition and they did actually win. Meanwhile, Haman had been making gallows for the Jewish people to be executed on. In the end, Haman himself was executed on those gallows with his wife and ten sons. |
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| The bottom of the Purim plate. | |
At the bottom part of the plate below the picture of Mordecai being led through the streets we see these gallows with Haman and his family hanging from them. Again there are some interesting inscriptions on the plate. It was made for a couple who was living in Rome at the time, so they probably had it sent over to them, but it was made in Germany, in the 1770s, within 10 years or so of the Passover plate. It also mentions the names of the owners on it, as well as Haman and Esther. These names are all written in Hebrew along the sides of the plate. |
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