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Judaism Quintych Watercolor Study

SYMBOLISM & SOURCES

It is not by accident that Judaism has a limited history in the visual arts. The second commandment Moses issued after descending from Mount Sinai was, “You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” This prohibition created a strict regulation that has been closely followed throughout the 4,000-year history of the Jews. Instead of the visual arts, the Jews concentrated their creative efforts on the literary arts where their contributions have been tremendous. When they have felt some need for visual expression through the ages, they usually borrowed the style from the culture they were within at the time. The exception to this being in modern times when a few of the many great Jewish modern artists such as Marc Chagal, Ben Shawn, Jack Levine, and Jacques Lipchitz have expressed Jewish themes. This minimal amount of visual stimuli has led me to take a different approach to the iconography of this quintych. Rather than drawing on the visual heritage of the religion for inspiration, I have attempted to draw upon the literary heritage.

CENTER SECTION

At the top of this section are the ultimate words of Judaism, the Shema. Written in Hebrew, it reads from right to left, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One!” This is the creed of Judaism and the underlying basis of the faith.

The standing male figure is Adam before the breath of life has entered him, still in the clay from which God has formed him. My decision to make Adam the focal point of the composition grew from the writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel. He has put forth the idea that the only possible symbol for God is man, as we are created in his image. Heschel believes that this produces not simply a visual linkage but also a responsibility, in that human beings, in their divine likeness, deserve respect and care, “An act of violence [toward man] is an act of desecration. To be arrogant toward man is to be blasphemous toward God” (234). He goes on to say “…man is described as having been formed out of the dust of the earth. Together image and dust express the polarity of man. He is formed of the most inferior stuff in the most superior image…” (235).

The question in creating the quintych was, what is the superior image of man and God? The menu to select from is vast, spanning the diverse imagery of man created by the world’s cultures. My selection was the depiction of man by fifth century BCE Greeks. There is a brief period between the “severe” and Hellenistic styles where the male form exudes a sense of sublime perfection in my subjective opinion. My Adam is modeled on Warrior A from Riace Marina (Italy). Lying in shipwreck for centuries, it is one of the few over-life-size bronze figures to survive. I have modified the figure to suit my needs but attempted to reproduce at least a part of the beauty of the original. Another appealing aspect of the Greek choice is that it was nearly contemporary with the compiling of Torah and is symbolic of another culture’s image of man in God’s image and man as the dominating force in the world.

BOTTOM SECTION

Adam extends into this section with clay shavings and debris of the sculpting process in a pile at his feet. The Hebrew calligraphy of this section tells part of the story of the creation of Adam:

Then God said: Let us make a being in our image, after our likeness, and let it have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and over the cattle; over all the earth and over every creature that crawls upon it. Thus God created us in the divine image, creating us in the image of God, creating us male and female. And God blessed us, and said to us: Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and over every living thing that movesupon the earth. (Gates 414)

TOP SECTION

The creatures that dominate this section have their origin in the book of Exodus where God gave Moses very detailed instructions for the design of the ark of the covenant, a container for the tablets of the commandments. Among the instructions for embellishments were two cherubim of gold attached to the cover with their wings arching out above and shielding the cover of the ark. The contemporary image of the chubby infant cherub with a bow and arrow extends back to the European eras of the Baroque and Rococo time periods. The cherub of the ancient Near East was a very different winged creature of many diversified animal combinations.

The cherub was a guardian spirit to protect and defend. There had been a long tradition of these creatures in the region with the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians creating a long sculptural heritage of fierce composite creatures. Because the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, was being formally structured during the reign of the Persian empire in the region, I took Persian imagery as the basis for my cherubim. The winged lions bear rams’ horns that were drawn from a domestic ram’s skull a student gave me some years ago. The cherubim symbolize to me the power and wrath of the God of Israel that is so evident in reading the scriptures.

RIGHT AND LEFT SECTIONS

The cherubim stand on piled stones containing more Hebrew calligraphy. After their forty years in the wilderness Moses instructed the Israelites thus:

As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones. Coat them with plaster and inscribe upon them all the words of this Teaching. … enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey…

The stones of the right section contain the first three commandments:

1. I, the Lord, am your God who led you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

2. You shall have no other gods besides Me.

3. You shall not invoke the name of the Lord your God with malice.

The left section’s pile of stones contains the remaining seven commandments:

4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet. (Gates 418-9)

These basic edicts were enhanced by many more commandments and instructions in the Torah and formed the design for living of the Jewish people. They also formed the fertile ground for thousands of years of interpretation and application by sages from every period. The wildflowers at the base of rock piles symbolize the beauty and wisdom that would grow from the nourishment of this foundation.

SOURCES CITED

Gates of Repentance, The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1984.

Heschel, Abraham J., Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism, selected, edited and introduced by Fritz A. Rothchild, New York: The Free Press, 1959.

Biblical quotes not from the above sources came from:

Sacred Writings Volume 1: Judaism The Tanakh. The New JPS Translation (Jewish Publication Society), New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan, 1992.