Presentations Feature Shabbat Art

One of our latest in-person presentations highlights the Art of Shabbat, with Jeiwish visual art from throughout history celebrating one of the unique gifts that Judaism has given to the world. This presentation discusses the role of visual art in portraying the Sabbath, one of the central tenets of Jewish life.

We are featuring several of the images from the presentation. Confranetto is a chest, from Italy about 1470, with images portraying scenes from Shabbat. Lighting the Sabbath Lamp is a wood cut noting the traditional lighting of the Shabbat candles.  Shabbat is a wood cut by Jacob Steinhardt. who depicted Jewish and biblical scenes, with a particular memory of his East European home. He worked in the middle of the 20th century.

Here is a bit more about one of the images, with description that might be used during a JAE presentation:

THREE STARS-Venice, 1593. Kosofsky, S. M. (2004).  The Book of Customs.  San Francisco:  HarperCollins.

The Sabbath begins and ends when three stars are visible in the sky. This woodcut is from a Book of Customs, printed in Venice in 1593. It is a literal visualization of the recognition of three stars in the sky. Jewish days are counted from evening to evening.
A day starts at sunset one day and ends at nightfall the next. The practice follows the biblical description of Creation:

  “And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.”

  (Genesis 1:5).

Let us know how you like this new production and watch for additional exciting programming.

Video Visits Studio of Featured Artist

A nice video below explores the techniques of Susan Schwalb, the subject of our latest J Art Blog posting. She shows how she works with silverpoint, a Renaissance era technique that is undergoing somewhat of a revival. Schwalb is considered one of the premier artists using this technique. She says in our art blog that her Judaism emerges from her work in the visual arts.

Enjoy!! And then visit our blog.