How Jesus is depicted by Jewish artists

AtlantisEmpire
Published on Oct 31, 2021
(10 Mar 2017) LEAD IN :
Jesus of Nazareth also known as King of the Jews, presents a challenging problem for modern Jewish artists.
How do they present this figure, so central to westen art and theology ?
An exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is tackling the once taboo issue.
STORYLINE:
"Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art".
Marc Chagall's painting "The Crucifixion in Yellow" is featured in a new exhibition at The Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
The exhibit's name references the words Pontius Pilate is said to have uttered when Jesus was shown to the crowds before his crucifixion.
The exhibtion spans some 130 years of work by artists, whose common theme is that Jesus Christ features as the central figure in the art work.
On display are 150 works by some 40 artists, ranging from Reuven Rubin, to Marc Chagall, to Sigalit Landau.
The curator of the exhibit, Amitai Mendelsohn, says the artists claim Jesus as one of their one, whilst remaining sceptical about his divinity.
"This exhibition explores the figure of Jesus in Israeli art. It comprises about 130 years of creation, from the second half of the 19th Century until today through the artists, 150 works of art, a very large exhibition. It starts with the idea of Jews looking again at the figure of Jesus, putting him inside of their art as a Jew, in the beginning as a kind of a bridge between the Jewish world and the Christian world because Jesus was a Jew, getting back to Judaism as a universal figure, a prophet figure, a figure of moral importance without believing in his divinity. That's very important to say in a general word because this whole exhibition is about the way the Jewish artist depict the figure of Jesus" says Mendelsohn.
The works have been sourced from the museum's archive and from private and public collections in Israel and internationally, including the Polish National Museum, Warsaw, and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Mendelsohn says that Jesus has long been a taboo subject in Israeli culture.
"In Israel there's a sort of a blank spot that has to do with the Christian story because Christianity is of course part of the landscape in Israel and of course it's the biggest cultural influence on Israeli culture in general. But, in a way Jews have a sort of a blind spot to the Christian theology, to the figure of Jesus, also because of the fact that he is considered a kind of a taboo sort of area. So for me this process was about finding Jesus in the works of Israeli artists and looking at the different levels in which he's portrayed."
Polish artist Maurycy Gottlieb is typical of the Jewish artists featured, many of whom struggled to reconcile their spiritual, cultural and national identities during a time of great change, both in Jewish life and in European society.
Russian artist Marc Chagall is often viewed as an historian of the 20th century.
Through rich, colourful allegories of the two world wars, the Russian Revolution and his experience as a Jew fleeing Nazi Europe, Chagall's paintings portrayed an account of the turbulent 20th century.
Images of pogroms, Russian soldiers, war and Jewish persecution are juxtaposed with Judeo-Christian iconography.
Chagall and Maurycy Gottlieb used the image of Jesus both as a bridge of reconciliation between Jews and Christians and as an emblem of the persecuted Jew.
Visitor Anat Dycian says the exhibition was not only about Jews as the image of Jesus encompasses a wider meaning.
"He can be a symbol for a lot of things, for compassion also but also for suffering, Dycian says.
The exhibition ends on the eve of Easter.

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