A piece of heaven on earth!
Many claims that Jerusalem is a piece of heaven on earth, as a representation of the eternal and as an immense city full of historical, religious, and cultural significance. This beautiful city has inspired art of great beauty and complexity.
The land of Israel has been characterized as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for many artists of different eras and creeds. Although the architecture, culture, and language have changed over the years, the natural landscape of Israel has been a bit more gradual.
Many European painters of the 18th and 19th centuries depicted Israel as the land of Jesus Christ, whether they actually visited the land themselves or based their depictions on their imagination or the experiences of others.
Taking into account that Jerusalem is not only a holy city for the Jewish people. We can see paintings of Jerusalem represented by other religions which have a very different ways of representing God. However, in this aspect, the paintings of Jerusalem are mostly contributed by Jewish and Christian painters.
In some representations, various artists portray the Renaissance ideas of an ideal city. To recreate the temple, on some occasions, they move away from the biblical description opting for the circular form, which is more allusive to celestial perfection.
Most influential works of paintings from Jerusalem.
Jerusalem by Vanmour:
The young French artist of the 17th century Poussin has something to admire in his painting of Jerusalem. Even though he had not visited the Holy Land, this detail did not prevent him from accepting the opportunity to paint the destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. This painting was given as a gift to Cardinal Richelieu who, at that time, represented the highest power in France.
Lear’s Bethlehem.
Edward Lear, a complete English artist, and illustrator of the 19th century provided a different approach to the land of Jerusalem. This series of paintings of Jerusalem showed a very deep connection to it. Painting such holy and hallowed sites as Bethlehem and Gethsemane. Lear was able to present a slightly darker and more deserted view of Israel, tinged with an air of great nostalgia.
Jaffa Port by Bauernfeind.
Gustav Bauernfeind stood out as a German painter and architect of Jewish origin, who was known for his intense love of Jerusalem and Israel.
Each of his works reflects a deep understanding of his land, compared to those who have never seen it before. Works such as the Jaffa port and the fishermen’s market are colorful, authentic, and vivid representations of the culture and history of Jerusalem and Israel.
Surrealism Jewish Paintings.
Beyond the religious.
The works of Jewish surrealist paintings are born as a form of expression of the subconscious and dreams. It is an art that explores far beyond the depths of the human being. Expressing this type of art and being recognized as surrealist painters for the Jews was not an easy process at all.
It was not until the second half of the 19th century that artists were finally able to enjoy the emancipation movement that manifested itself during that period in Europe.
In the past, very few Jews had had the opportunity to devote themselves to painting. The reasons were very varied, one of them was because of the social conditions to which they were subjected. Another was the simple fact that religion itself limited the painters to be the ability to express their art with total freedom. Representing human figures was forbidden since it was directly related to idolatry.
However, this prohibition was not fully respected. Some artists claim that even in antiquity and the Middle Ages, this type of work was present especially, in everything related to traditional rituals.
The painters of the early nineteenth century completely ignored this fact and began to dabble in Jewish surrealist paintings, leaving aside the religious principles, in which the representation of images was forbidden. This is how the history of Jewish art, the visual arts, and surrealist art in general, became important transmitters of Judaism, being able to represent various aspects of Jewish culture and history.
It is in the first decades of the twentieth century that the art world was strongly influenced by the experimentalism of various Jewish artists especially those from Romania, where Jewish surrealist paintings, abstract, constructivist, and Dada works were a very easy task for them.
Among them, of course, Tristan Tzara, Victor Brauner, Marcel Janco, and, M.H. Maxy stand out. Inspired by their predecessors, two very young artists Jules Perahim and Paul Păun placed themselves at the forefront of Jewish surrealist painting.
