Cultural Exchange by Shatzmiller Joseph

Author:Shatzmiller, Joseph
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2013-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 17. The Leipzig Mahzor, copied in southern Germany at the first quarter of the fourteenth century, presents in this illustration (on fol. 27r) three Jews engaged in prayer. The faces of the first two are indeed those of birds but painted with a gentle hand. The last person in the line has a perfectly human face.

Universitaetsbibliothek Leipzig, Ms. v. 1102/I–II.

The Lepzig Mahzor did not, however, change the course of art history; distortion and surrealism continued to be present in German Jewish art. The makers of the Bird’s Head Haggadah, (which, incidentally, was copied by the scribe of the Leipzig Mahzor), used the system of animal heads extensively. This Bird’s Head Haggadah can be found today in the Bezalel Art Museum in Jerusalem (call number Bezalel 180/057).20 The vast majority of illuminations consist of depictions of human beings. No animals or flowers and (with one exception) no grotesques can be seen in the unnumbered folios of the codex. Birds are the only animals depicted in the hybrids. In this work I have counted ninety-one men and eight women. Most of the men are wearing the Jewish hat and some are bearded. A considerable number of them are either preparing for the feast or already celebrating the seder. As in other codices of this genre, the painter has included some “classic” events of Jewish sacred history such as the crossing of the Red Sea (fol. 22r; see fig. 18), Moses handing down the Commandments on Mount Sinai, or Abraham about to sacrifice his son. But there are also unique scenarios, such as that of the Israelites in the desert collecting the manna from heaven, or the Garden of Eden with its angels. Most interesting is the scene where Pharaoh at the head of the Egyptian Army (fol. 24v), carrying the flag and the insignia of the German Empire, is chasing the Israelites at the beginning of their exodus. There are eight of these German knights and their servants, and other than Pharaoh they are the only non-Jews featured in this Haggadah.

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