| The
Word Became an Image
The
visual image is not a problem in Judaism. We have
countless examples of images and representations
of Jewish subjects and ideas done by pious Jews
throughout the centuries, whether as ancient synagogue
mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, synagogue wall
decorations or paintings. But, in spite of this
evidence, there is a parallel Jewish sensitivity
to images. We understand, in light of the Second
Commandment, that images may be fraught with accusations
of idolatry and blasphemy. We are exquisitely
aware of this tension concerning images of whenever
we express ourselves visually. Out of exactly
that tension Jews have championed a unique art
form that by its very nature attempts to resolve
any residual issue with images.
Micrography
resolves the iconographic problem by synthesis.
This art form takes words and specifically holy
words, and creates images by the shaping of words
written small. In doing so, this ancient art form
can, in Jewish terms, become its own opposite.
The dangerous image is made kosher with the safe
and holy word.
Micrography,
The Hebrew Word as Art is a small but intense
exhibition at the Library of the Jewish Theological
Seminary that explores this fascinating art form.
The exhibition provides us with examples of two
kinds of micrography. The first kind, decorative
micrography is devoted to hiddur mitzvah, creating
purely decorative designs as borders or as entire
pages of abstract decoration. The second type,
pictorial micrography, creates complex representational
images that actually add meaning to the text.
Shir
ha Shirim is an example of decorative micrography
that was created by Baruch ben Shemariah of Brisk
in Lithuania in 1824. It is a tour-de-force of
the art of micrography, recalling the carpet pages
of mesorah from the tenth century codices that
are the first examples of this Jewish art form.
With the exception of the crown and the bouquets
of flowers along the edges, the entire design
is created by minuscule lettering of the Song
of Songs. Line flows into line and then chapter
into chapter in a beautiful, delicate and elegant
presentation piece probably created as a wedding
gift. The tumble of words creates an object that
only occasionally relates to the work of Solomon.
When the letters are used larger, such as in the
inner circle (the beginning of the text) and along
the outer edges and corners, the text leaps alive.
In the rest of the design the text is too small
to read without a magnifying glass and therefore
becomes a decorative object that murmurs the holy
words softly.
A
transition between the decorative and pictorial
is the Brochos for Betrothal and Marriage and
Pidyon ha Ben by Dayyan Aaron ben Yehudah Leib
of Lissa, done in London in 1849. Here the artist-scribe
includes the Song of Songs along with the blessings
that will consummate the love between a man and
a woman. The decorative border surrounds a fantastic
architectural motif that encloses a crowned eagle,
all evoked in diminutive text. The majority of
this image is delightful decoration, an adornment
to the blessings for a bride and groom. Nevertheless,
the inclusion of the image of a crowned eagle
gives the imprimatur of official royal recognition
of the marriage and a nod to the legitimate authority
of the kingdom.
Micrography
arose as an art form sometime in the tenth century
in Egypt and the Land of Israel, heavily influenced
by the surrounding Islamic culture. Although it
is unknown if it originated in Jewish or Islamic
culture, Hebrew micrography was the creation of
the Masorah scribes of Tiberias in the production
of Bible codices (the book form of the Tanach
that included marginal notes of the masorah and
nikudot). The Leningrad Codice from 1009 written
in Cairo, has sixteen diverse carpet pages presenting
the small but fully legible masorah text in architectural
and abstract designs surrounded by beautiful gold
and red illuminations reminiscent of Middle Eastern
carpets. This art form spread throughout the Levant,
with Yemen as an especially important center,
and then to north into medieval Europe. The Sephardic
scribes of Spain utilized micrography, especially
in some of the Catalonian Haggadot. The Ashkenazi
scribes, with their micrographic specialty of
medieval grotesques and bestiaries decorating
the margins and front pages of luxury Bibles,
and Haggadot also flourished from the thirteenth
to the fifteenth centuries. After the invention
of printing in the mid-fifteenth century, the
use of micrography expanded to ketubbot, omer
counters, amulets, and other independent works
on paper, eventually to its use in portraits and
secular Jewish illustrations. Throughout the centuries
it has remained a predominately Jewish art form.
Much of this historical information is drawn from
the research of Dr.Leila Avrin (1935 - 1999),
to whom this exhibition is dedicated.
Pictorial
micrography presents us with an entirely different
phenomenon, as seen in the Megillat Esther by
Hirsch Elia ben Leib Schlimowitz. Created in Lithuania
in 1879, this folk-art bear takes the art form
to a new level of creativity. The text has become
totally secondary to the creation of the image
of the bear, perhaps referring to the bear of
Russia that always hovered over the affairs of
Eastern Europe. The text panel (by curator Sharon
Liberman Mintz) links this image with a verse
in Daniel 7:5 that compares Persia, the setting
of the Megillah, with the bear. Whether this is
what the artist intended or not is almost beside
the point. Rather what is striking is that micrography
is used here to create an independent visual work
of art. The delightful Omer Calendar (1825) from
Italy is another example in which the actual letters
and words used have been rendered moot in the
creation of the image of a deer about to feast
on the tender new shoots of the budding tree,
perhaps in anticipation of the approaching holiday
of the giving of the Torah at Shavous. It is a
perfect metaphor of the rejuvenation of Jewish
Torah pursuits in the springtime of Omer counting.
The
portrait of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lysdy created
by Nathaniel Chasin in Washington, D.C. in 1924
is made up of text from the Tanya. While less
interesting artistically, this work represents
a reverence and piety for the founder of Habad
that is truly inspiring considering the work and
exactitude necessary to create this work. One
of the most fascinating works in the exhibition,
unfortunately not reproduced, is a Megillat Esther
done in Corfu in 1782. The image is made up of
the text of Esther and Parshas Zakhor and creates
an eerie and powerful scene. Decorative columns
frame a two-part center panel with a stark gallows
and ladder on the left. Each rung of the ascending
ladder is composed of one of the names of Haman’s
sons. In the right panel Haman himself is hung
in the miniature script. His face expresses shock
and surprise as his hair flies up from the grip
of the hangman’s noose. This depiction of an execution
we all applaud has a beauty and conviction seldom
matched in any depiction of this subject. The
power of the text becoming its own image is amazing.
The
art of micrography, old and venerable as it is,
presents some unsettling problems. As early as
the twelfth century, there was criticism. Rabbi
Judah he-Hasid (1150-1217) complained that the
designs render the text unusable and ordered that
a patron commissioning a scribe to copy a Bible
must instruct the scribe not to shape the masorah
into any ornamental pattern (from curator Sharon
Liberman Mintz). From the examples that have come
down to us, not many listened to this sage. It
is obvious that where the text is too small to
be legible or too convoluted to make sense as
text, holy words and letters are being made into
abstract elements for some other purpose. Whether
this purpose is to kosher a representational image
or adorn a sacred document, is this proper use
of divre kodesh? The fact that we as a people
have utilized this art form for more than a thousand
years up to today reveals both a comfort level
with our holy texts in addition to the never ending
need for visual images to express our Yiddishkeit
in a myriad of ways.
Richard
McBee
January 9, 2002
Micrography:
The Hebrew Word as Art
The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
3080 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
212 678 8082
Sunday through Thursday; 9:30 am - 5:00pm; Fridays,
9:30am - 2:00pm
Through February 28, 2002
Free Admission
Published in The Jewish Press
|
| |
Shir
ha Shirim |
