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Lot Essay
Heavy bearded Abraham is depicted wearing a headdress which is very similar to the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Royal Crown. The imperial Royal Crown was frequently used as a pattern for many other Austro-Hungarian Jewish ceremonial objects of the 19th Century and can be interpreted as an expression of the extent to which the Jews of Austria identified themselves with the Austrian Empire which had just been proclaimed in 1804.
In the same scene the two attendants with the donkey are depicted as levantine types who both wear a turban and one of them is armed with a dagger. This image is evoked by the identification of the Midrash of the lads who accompany Abraham to the Akedah (Gen.R.56:2) with Ishmael and Eliezer (Lev.R.26:7). Gradually Ishmael, Abraham's other son became identified as the ancestor of the Arabs, who were often named Ishmaelites in the Middle Ages (see Ginzberg, legends,5,223,234).
Further of great interest is the piercing of the top of the nose of both Abraham and Isaac in accordance with the Halakhah (Jewish law) which objects to the representation of three-dimensional human figures on medals and seals in high relief and four-dimensional sculptures in the round, since by doing so a man actually "made a graven image".
Moses Sofer (1732-1839) the famous Rabbi of Pressburg has written in his responsa (at Pressburg 1810) regarding the figures of Moses and Aaron often appeared on Torah Shields: "It is obvious that there is a suspicion [of idolatry] and, therefore, there is a need to diminish its form and remove the suspicion. Indeed, the measure of the diminution of the image, appears simple. It is enough to cut the tip of its ear or the tip of its nose...this is how it appears to me...and what I saw my teachers do, and I have done with many images that are on ceremonial objects in my home...," "it is sufficient to take a piece of the top of the nose..."(Moses Sofer, Responsa Chatam Sofer, Likutim, Pt.6 (Vienna: Y. Schlesinger, 1870, no.6)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Mann, Vivian B., Jewish Texts on the Visual Arts, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 1-34 and especially pp. 126-129
Weber, Annette, Geschichten von Gegenständen, Jewish ritual objects and the stories they tell, The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, Jüdisches Museum Hohenems, 1994, pp. 105-108
See illustration
In the same scene the two attendants with the donkey are depicted as levantine types who both wear a turban and one of them is armed with a dagger. This image is evoked by the identification of the Midrash of the lads who accompany Abraham to the Akedah (Gen.R.56:2) with Ishmael and Eliezer (Lev.R.26:7). Gradually Ishmael, Abraham's other son became identified as the ancestor of the Arabs, who were often named Ishmaelites in the Middle Ages (see Ginzberg, legends,5,223,234).
Further of great interest is the piercing of the top of the nose of both Abraham and Isaac in accordance with the Halakhah (Jewish law) which objects to the representation of three-dimensional human figures on medals and seals in high relief and four-dimensional sculptures in the round, since by doing so a man actually "made a graven image".
Moses Sofer (1732-1839) the famous Rabbi of Pressburg has written in his responsa (at Pressburg 1810) regarding the figures of Moses and Aaron often appeared on Torah Shields: "It is obvious that there is a suspicion [of idolatry] and, therefore, there is a need to diminish its form and remove the suspicion. Indeed, the measure of the diminution of the image, appears simple. It is enough to cut the tip of its ear or the tip of its nose...this is how it appears to me...and what I saw my teachers do, and I have done with many images that are on ceremonial objects in my home...," "it is sufficient to take a piece of the top of the nose..."(Moses Sofer, Responsa Chatam Sofer, Likutim, Pt.6 (Vienna: Y. Schlesinger, 1870, no.6)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Mann, Vivian B., Jewish Texts on the Visual Arts, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 1-34 and especially pp. 126-129
Weber, Annette, Geschichten von Gegenständen, Jewish ritual objects and the stories they tell, The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, Jüdisches Museum Hohenems, 1994, pp. 105-108
See illustration