VIVIAN B. MANN Jewish Theological Seminary

OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIBLICAL MINIATURES IN SPANISH HAGGADOT

Abstract the seder itself. Illuminated borders and word pan- This essay discusses the last two centuries of medieval Spanish art, els completed the program of illumination. and demonstrates that cooperative relations existed between Christians In all, there remain some seven haggadot from and Jews who worked either independently or together to create art Spain produced from ca. 1300 to ca. 1360 in the both for the Church and the Jewish community. Artists of different Crown of Aragon and Castile in which biblical faiths worked together in ateliers such as that headed by Ferrer Bassa miniatures precede the text of the haggadah. In an (d. 1348), producing both retablos (altarpieces) as well as Latin additional example, the Barcelona Haggadah (British and Hebrew manuscripts. Library, Add. 14761), the biblical scenes serve as The work of such mixed ateliers is of great signicance when text illustrations.3 The number and contents of these considering the genesis ca. 1300 of illuminated with haggadot illustrations are not uniform. The Hispano-Moresque prefatory biblical cycles and genre scenes that were produced in Spain until ca. 1360. These service books for Passover have Haggadah (British Library, Or. 2737), the Rylands always been viewed as a unique phenomenon within the Jewish art (Rylands Library, JRL Heb. 6), and its related of Spain, their origins inexplicable. When the biblical scenes, brother manuscript (British Library, Or. 1404) however, are viewed in the context of contemporaneous Spanish art adhere most closely to the text of the haggadah for the Church, their sources become more transparent. since their miniatures are based solely on the book of Exodus, while the illustrations in the Sarajevo We now know that the haggadah, the service book Haggadah (Sarajevo, National Museum), as well as for the Passover seder, became an independent the Golden Haggadah (British Library, Add. 27010) codex—no longer always attached to a prayer and its sister manuscript (British Library, Or. 8448) book—around the year 1000.1 Three centuries later, begin with the Creation described in Genesis. The it was transformed again. In this second reformula- most extensive biblical cycle is in the Sarajevo tion, which took place in both Ashkenaz and Spain, Haggadah; it begins with Creation and ends with the haggadah became a lavishly illuminated manu- the Death of Moses. Two haggadot with a limited script. This paper concentrates on the Spanish number of biblical illustrations, the Prato (Library examples produced during the fourteenth century, of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Mic. 9478) and largely in Barcelona and the region surrounding it. a partial manuscript in Bologna (Biblioteca Univer- These haggadot were decorated with text illustrations, sitaria, Ms. 2559)4 are related iconographically to such as the Drinking of the Four Cups of Wine, the illuminations of the Sarajevo Haggadah. There and with the symbols of ritual foods like the matzah may have been similar manuscripts that were lost and bitter herbs,2 and were often furnished with in the upheaval of the Expulsion from Spain in 1492 prefatory biblical scenes that range from the Creation or the Expulsion from Portugal in 1496/7 (where to the Death of Moses, and with genre scenes show- Spanish Jews had found a temporary refuge). ing preparations for the Passover holiday as well as Manuscripts were virtually the only artistic genre

1 For the earliest haggadot manuscripts, see Jay Rovner, “An Fragments of the Haggadah,” Jewish Quarterly Review 10 (1898): Early Passover Hagaddah according to the Palestinian Rite,” 381. Jewish Quarterly Review, 3–4 (2000): 337–96. I want to thank Dr. 3 Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Rovner for answering my questions pertaining to the earliest Isles, vol. 1, Spanish and Portuguese Manuscripts (New York: Oxford haggadot. University Press, 1982), gs. 230–235, 239. 2 Representations of the symbolic foods eaten at the seder 4 The second half of the Bologna manuscript is in Modena appear in eleventh-century haggadot, but are isolated illustrations. (Biblioteca Estense, cod. A–K. 1-22-Or. 92). This haggadah is For examples, see David Kaufmann, “Notes to the Egyptian part of a ma4zor, a prayer book for holy days.

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that the Jews of Spain were allowed to carry with ance of richly illuminated haggadot ca. 1300 with them into exile.5 All works in precious metals were their extensive cycles of biblical and genre scenes. conscated; even synagogue textiles woven or One would expect such lavishly decorated manu- embroidered with silver and gold were seized and scripts to be preceded by tentative experiments with burned to extract their bullion.6 only a few miniatures, but that is not the case. The Popular literature, like the recent novel recount- illuminated haggadot from fourteenth-century Spain ing a “history” of the Sarajevo Haggadah,7 has appear complete with three types of miniatures and made the public aware that medieval manuscripts text decoration, as if “sprung full-blown from the may suddenly appear. Those made for private use head of Olympian Zeus.”11 Art historians have given are generally small works of art. The reappear- various explanations to the sudden appearance of ance of the Sarajevo Haggadah in the nineteenth this new type of manuscript. One approach empha- century, brought to Hebrew school by a young boy, sizes the fact that the biblical and genre miniatures inspired the writing of the rst monograph on of the haggadot precede the text and are not inte- Jewish art in 1898 by the eminent art historians grated with it, as is also the case with Books of Hours David Heinrich Müller and Julius von Schlosser, and Psalms, or manuscripts that contain both Hours with an additional essay by the collector and bib- and Psalms.12 Although the placement of the min- liophile David Kaufmann.8 Their study was the rst iatures in both the haggadot and the Latin prayer to consider a work of Jewish art from an art his- books is the same, and the latter may have inspired torical perspective, although the text was not devoid the positioning of the former, their content is very of the prejudices of its writers.9 Since the Sarajevo different. The prefatory biblical scenes in Books of Haggadah became known, there have been no other Hours and Psalms also include individualized sub- “miraculous” discoveries of hitherto unknown illu- jects according to the history and religious preferences minated Sephardi manuscripts. Recently, Spanish of the patron or recipient, while the themes of the and Italian conservators have begun the painstak- haggadot illustrations are universal. In Spain, a Book ing process of retrieving lost pages by exploring of Hours was written for Ferdinand I of Léon and book bindings made of folios of medieval Hebrew Castile in the eleventh century that included prefa- manuscripts. These investigations have yielded tory miniatures (Santiago de Compostela, University some illuminated pages and marginalia, although Library, Res.1). Ferrer Bassa (d. 1348), head of an not entire manuscripts.10 To understand the biblical atelier that produced Latin texts as well as Hebrew miniatures in the Spanish haggadot, we are conned books—such as Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed to seven fourteenth-century manuscripts and to (Copenhagen, Koniglege Bibliothek, Hebr. XXXVII) works related to them. and a medical treatise in Hebrew (Paris, Bibliothèque The major question treated in previous literature nationale, Hébreu 1203)13—created a Book of Hours is the identication of “related works,” whose study for Mary of Navarre, wife of Pedro IV, between would allow an understanding of the sudden appear- 1338 and 1342. Ferrer was also responsible for

5 The number of manuscripts carried into exile is a matter Sarajevo, Wischnitzer in Weimar: The Politics of Writing about of dispute among scholars. Gabrielle Sed-Rajna noted that very Medieval Jewish Art,” in Eva Fromovicj, ed., Imagining the Self, few Hebrew manuscripts remain on the Iberian peninsula; Imagining the Other: Visual Representation and Jewish-Christian Dynamics in therefore most must have been carried into exile. “Hebrew the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 8–19. Illuminated Manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula,” in Vivian 10 For an account of this research, see Fragments from the “Italian B. Mann et al, eds., Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Genizah,” an Exhibition ( Jerusalem: Jewish National and University Medieval Spain (New York: George Braziller, 1992), 133. Library, 1999). Among the works published is a marginal depic- 6 Henry Kamen, “Toward Expulsion,” in Elie Kedourie, ed., tion of David and Goliath, as well as illuminated word panels. Spain and the Jews: The Sephardi Experience, 1492 and After (London: The manuscripts stem from all over the Jewish world, including Thames and Hudson, 1992), 71. Spain. 7 Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book: A Novel (New York: 11 Aeschylus, Eumenides. Viking, 2008). 12 This approach is taken by Michael Batterman, “The 8 David Heinrich Müller and Julius von Schlosser, with an Emergence of the Spanish Illuminated Haggadah Manuscript” appendix by David Kaufmann, Die Haggadah von Sarajevo: Eine (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 2000). spanisch-jüdische Bilderhandschrift des Mittelalters (Vienna, 1898). 13 Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, “Hebrew Manuscripts of Fourteenth- 9 For a critical view of the rst publication on the Sarajevo Century Catalonia and the Workshop of the Master of St. Mark,” Haggadah, see Eva Fromovicj, “Buber in Basel, Schlosser in Jewish Art 18 (1992): 117–128.

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completing the decoration of the Anglo-Catalan within a building and Abraham serves the three Psalter (Biblio-thèque nationale, Lat. 8846), a work angels who sit at a table occupying the right half of with many biblical scenes based on Genesis and the composition. Occasionally, Sarah is omitted from Exodus that was begun in Canterbury in the thir- the scene. A tree in the background represents the teenth century and arrived in Spain by the fourteenth. terebinths of Mamre that gure prominently in the Although there is no evidence for a haggadah from story (Genesis 18:1–6). Abraham’s Hospitality is Bassa’s atelier, the portion of the Anglo-Catalan depicted in the fourth-century catacomb of Via Psalter he painted may have been based on an ear- Latina and is one of the mosaics in Santa Maria lier manuscript available to the atelier. The Pamplona Maggiore.16 A fragment of the composition remains Bibles (Amiens, Bibliothèque, Ms. Lat. 108 and in the mosaic oor of the synagogue at Sepphoris, Harburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Ms. I, 2, lat. 4, 15) dated to the early fth century.17 It then appears in completed in 1235 for King Sancho el Fuerte of San Vitale in Ravenna (526–547), in the Pamplona Navarre (1153–1234) contain 365 compositions on Bibles, on a twelfth-century capital in the cathedral biblical subjects that could have served as an icono- of Valencia,18 the Golden Haggadah, and in the graphic model.14 Sister of the Golden Haggadah.19 During their visit, Another explanation for the sudden appearance the angels foretell the birth of a son to the aged of illuminated haggadot with a well-developed pro- Sarah. Subsequently, Abraham is commanded to gram of illustrations is to postulate that they sacrice his son, but is prevented from doing so by represent the reappearance of biblical iconography an angel. In the mosaics of Sepphoris and San that is known from early Jewish and Christian art, Vitale, the Offering of Isaac is juxtaposed to the which is best represented by the large number of Hospitality scene, linking the prophecy of Isaac’s biblical scenes painted on the walls of the syna- birth to a dramatic moment of his life. gogue in Dura Europos ca. 245 and found in later Another scene with roots in early Jewish and Christian monuments such as the mosaics of Santa Christian art is the Crossing of the Red Sea and Maria Maggiore, ca. 432–440. There are some the Drowning of the Egyptians. In its antique form, striking correspondences between the iconography this composition is divided diagonally into two of works from the earlier period and the Spanish wedges: one occupied by the eeing Israelites and haggadot, and between the Roman-era works and the other by the drowning Egyptians. The nexus works of Christian art created in Spain during the between the two is the gure of Moses, who points late Middle Ages. A noteworthy example is the his staff toward the sea to effectuate the return reappearance of the nude Egyptian princess who of the waters and the drowning of the Egyptians. bathes in the Nile, sometimes with her handmaidens, The composition appears in the fourth-century Via and nds the baby Moses in his basket. This version Latina catacomb and among the mosaics of Santa of the subject appeared in the synagogue of Dura Maria Maggiore.20 A variant, also seen in classical Europos, then in the Pamplona Bibles, and in the art, appears in the Golden Haggadah: Moses points Golden Haggadah ca. 1320 and its related manu- his staff toward the drowning Egyptians, but the script, the Sister of the Golden Haggadah.15 Another composition lacks a clear diagonal division between scene with a similar history is Abraham’s Hospitality the two groups.21 A century and a half later, a ver- to the Three Angels, in which Sarah stands at left sion of the rst classical composition appears on the

14 François Bucher, The Pamplona Bibles (New Haven: Yale g. 50; for the depiction in the Pamplona Bibles, see Bucher, University Press, 1970), pls. 1–365. The Pamplona Bibles, pl. 32; for the haggadot, see Narkiss, Hebrew 15 Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, Ancient Jewish Art: East and West Illuminated Manuscripts, pls. XXIX and XLVII. (Paris: Flammarion, 1975), 74; Bucher, The Pamplona Bibles, 20 For the catacomb fresco, see Henry N. Claman, Jewish pls. 98–99; Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, gs. 131 and 176. Images in the Christian Church: Art as the Mirror of the Jewish-Christian 16 Jeffrey Spier, Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art (New Conict, 200–1250 C.E. (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), gs. 48–49. 2000), gs. 2–4; and for the mosaic in Santa Maria Maggiore, 17 Ze’ev Weiss and Ehud Netzer, Promise and Redemption: A see Wolfgang Volbach and Max Hirmer, Early Christian Art (New Synagogue Mosaic from Sepphoris ( Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, York: Harry N. Abrams, 1961), pl. 129. 1996), 32–33. 21 For classical examples, see a fourth-century Roman sar- 18 See pp. 11–15 below for a discussion of all the Valencia cophagus now in the Vatican Museums, no. 31434, and the capitals. doors of Santa Sabina, dated ca. 432 (Spier, Picturing the Bible, 19 For the scene in San Vitale, see Spier, Picturing the Bible, cat. no. 43 and g. 88).

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Fig. 1. Atelier of Jaime Huguet, The Crossing of the Red Sea and the Drowning of the Egyptians, Retablo de San Bernardi i l’Angel Custodi, 1462–1482. Barcelona: Diocesan Museum.

Retablo de San Bernardi i l’Angel Custodi of 1462–1482 individualize the faces of the Israelites and to vary (Barcelona: Diocesan Museum), which is the work of their dress. The foremost Jewish gures, representing a painter from the atelier of Jaime Huguet (Fig. 1).22 Moses and Aaron, are thought to be portraits of the The drowning Egyptians appear in a lower cor- leading Jewish residents of Banyoles, where the retablo ner, while the Israelites stride along the Red Sea. rst hung. The gure guided by the guardian angel Although composed traditionally, the Israelites on is tentatively identied as Bonjuà Cabrit, who was the retablo are represented as contemporary Jews, doctor-surgeon to the royal house of Barcelona.23 and in this they are different from all the actors in He wears a striped garment over his head, probably the biblical scenes of the haggadot, who are gener- a tallit or prayer shawl, and a gold-bordered cloak, alized gures dressed in indistinguishable tunics. and carries a codex with gilt edges. Although most The painter of the altarpiece took great care to of the women leaving Egypt wear simple scarves

22 Joan Molina i Figueras, “Al Voltant de Jaume Huguet,” 23 Bonjuà Cabrit is cited in legal records as possessing a L’Art Gòtic a Catalunya: Pintura III. Darreres manifestacions (Barcelona: copy of Avicenna that was stolen from Meir of Figueras, Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2006), 142–143. the son of a deceased physician. Robert I. Burns, Jews in the

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over their heads, one near the end of the procession investigator generally turns to a lost model hypoth- wears an elaborate headdress with a chin strap that esis as a last resort when other explanations have forms a roll around her head and has a protruding proved fruitless.”27 element on top that is dotted with pearls. Attention That one work of art can serve as a model for is drawn to this elaborately dressed woman by her another has long been known, but is not always bright red cloak, which links her visually to Bonjuà obvious for the haggadot. The choice of scenes and Cabrit, the man at the head of the procession who style differ from cycle to cycle, except for the may have been her husband.24 The same headdress Rylands and Brother haggadot, which are stylistically worn in this Exodus scene is used on Christian sculp- related,28 and the iconography of the Sister of the tures and on altarpieces to identify Jewish women, Golden Haggadah, which is based on the earlier which indicates that it was considered distinctive. Golden Haggadah dated ca. 1320, but these two It appears, for example, on a retablo panel of the manuscripts are unrelated stylistically. An example Massacre of the Innocents dated 1390–1400, now of copying from one manuscript to another dating in the Saragossa Museum,25 and is worn by a group shortly after the period of the haggadot is described of women on a fourteenth-century capital in the in the preamble to a Bible now in the Palacio de cloister of Barcelona Cathedral.26 These particular- Liria, Madrid (no. 399). In 1422 Don Guzman, ized details of dress combine with individualized master of the Order of Calatrava, commissioned a representations of the gures involved. They are new translation of the Hebrew Bible into Castilian truly portraits, which might be explained in terms of from Moses of Arragel, which became known as La Gothic naturalism, but they are also evidence for the Biblia de Alba.29 Don Guzman wished the text to be artist’s knowledge of his Jewish contemporaries and accompanied by a commentary and illustrations, but signify the continuation of convivencia, living together, the rabbi was reluctant to violate what he understood in the century of the Expulsion. to be the biblical prohibition against images. In How would this biblical iconography—known response, Don Guzman agreed to provide several from the frescoes and mosaics of immovable build- illuminators from Toledo and to provide them with ings—have been transmitted to medieval Spain? The a manuscript from the cathedral to serve as a model key monument, the synagogue of Dura Europos for the miniatures. Thus, the model was another, with its many biblical scenes, lay hidden from the preexistent manuscript containing illustrations of the year 256 CE, when the city was destroyed during a Hebrew Bible. That this manuscript from Toledo hostile attack, until its discovery in 1932 by a team was replete with illuminations may be presumed from Yale University. The usual answer to the from the fact that the completed Alba Bible contains question of transmission is a manuscript intermedi- 334 miniatures. It must be noted that a signicant ary, although as Robert Scheller has noted, “The number of these scenes include midrashic material

Notarial Culture: Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250–1350 26 For the capital, see Elena Romero, ed., La vida judía en (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996), Sefarad (Toledo: Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de 64. Bellas Artes y Archivos, Centro Nacional de Exposiciones, 1991), 24 Her headdress is similar to that worn by the mistress of 60. Until early in the twentieth century, the Jewish women of the household in the seder scenes of the Sarajevo Haggadah Salonica wore headdresses whose constituent elements were and the Sister of the Golden Haggadah. See Cecil Roth, The similar to those depicted in Spanish art, but whose proportions Sarajevo Haggada (Belgrade: Beogradski Izdava -Gra ki Zavod, were somewhat different. See Batsheva Goldman-Ida, “The 1975), n.p.; Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, g. 188. Sephardic Woman’s Head-Dress,” in From Iberia to Diaspora: Knowledge of this headdress had even spread to Germany by Studies in Sephardic History and Culture, ed. Yedida K. Stillman and the beginning of the 15th century. In a scene of the birth of Norman A. Stillman (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 525–530. Mary on the Buxtehuder Altar, Meister Bertram painted one 27 Robert W. Scheller, Exemplum: Model-book Drawings and the of the women serving Elizabeth wearing a headdress with a Practice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (ca. 900–ca. 1470), trans. chin strap and a circular element at top. See Jürgen Wittstock, Michael Hoyle (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1995), 27. ed., Aus dem Alltag der mittelalterlichen Stadt, Hefte des Focke 28 Sed-Rajna, “Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts from the Museums 62 (Bremen: Das Landesmuseum, 1982), 165, Iberian Peninsula,” 145. g. 7. 29 A facsimile of the Alba Bible has been published, accom- 25 Alfredo Romero Santamaría, ed., Hebraica aragonalia: El panied by essays on the manuscript: Moses of Arragel, trans., legado judío en Aragón (Saragossa, Palacio de Sastago: Diputación La Biblia de Alba, ed. Jeremy Schonfeld (Madrid: Fundación de Zaragoza, 2002), 1:155. Amigos de Sefarad, 1992); see there the older bibliography.

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that may have been present in the model or was as the image of Mary] in the retablo mayor of the added by Moses of Arragel.30 Cathedral of Valencia.”33 The existence of Ferrer Bassa’s atelier is of great Another path for the transmission of biblical signicance when considering the genesis of the iconography is the movement of small works of art, illuminated haggadot produced in Spain during the such as textiles with cycles of scenes from the lives fourteenth century. Given the fact that medieval of Abraham and Joseph that were woven in Coptic Spanish ateliers like Bassa’s (and there are others) Egypt during the eighth to tenth centuries.34 It must produced works for both Christian and Jewish be recognized, however, that the Coptic textile patrons,31 and that one can demonstrate the inu- scenes are abbreviated, showing only the essential ence of originally Jewish or Christian compositions elements necessary to an understanding of the sub- on works made for patrons of another faith—as in ject. Another genre of small works with both the scene of the Finding of Moses—we can postu- biblical scenes and Hebrew inscriptions, which has late that medieval artists may have had before them not been discussed in relation to the haggadot, is a both earlier Jewish and Christian works that served group of cameos from southern Italy, dated to the as models. The interreligious character of the Bassa mid-thirteenth century, whose exact purpose is workshop explains how a miniature of Maimonides’ unkown.35 The extant scenes include an enthroned Guide for the Perplexed could be based on a Byzantine gure of King David (Madrid: Prado Museum); composition of the four Evangelist symbols.32 The Noah’s Ark, the only cameo lacking an inscription simultaneous presence of the same creatures in (British Museum, Department of Medieval and Jewish lore (Ezekiel 1) would have facilitated the Later Antiquities, Inv. Nr. M&L 90, 9-1); Joseph and transfer of the composition to Maimonides’ Guide. his Brothers (St. Petersburg: the Hermitage, Inv. Nr. With both Christian and Jewish works available, the K 690); Jacob Blessing the Sons of Jacob (Private likelihood of the transmission of iconography from Collection, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of the period of the early synagogues and the early Art; Fig. 2); and Samson and the Lion (Vienna, churches becomes more plausible. Kunsthistorische Museum, Sammlung für Plastik Manuscripts were not the only illustrated works und Kunstgewerbe, Inv. Nr. IX 1949).36 Similar to based on earlier art. The contracts that govern the this group are two inscribed cameos attributed to production of Spanish altarpieces of the fourteenth thirteenth-century France: Ahasueros and Mordecai, and fteenth centuries sometimes specify the exact and King Jehu. The scenes that are found in Spanish work of art on which the new work was to be mod- haggadot are very different in style and composition eled. Consider, for example, a portion of the contract from those on the cameos—for example, the scene written in 1483 for the painter Pere Cabanes, who of Joseph Revealing Himself to his Brothers that is was to create an altarpiece in a Valencian funerary found in the Sarajevo Haggadah and in the Golden, chapel. It reads: “First, in the center, the image of and that of Noah and the Ark that appears in the the most glorious Virgin Mary that is [the same Golden and Prato haggadot.37 On the basis of the

30 Carl-Otto Nordström, The Duke of Alba’s Castilian Bible: A Sefarad, Sefarad: La España Judía (Madrid: Lunwerg Editores, Study of the Rabbinical Features of the Miniatures (Uppsala: Almquist 1992), 212; for the others, see Rainer Hausherr, ed., Die Zeit der and Wiksells, 1967). Staufer: Geschichte-Kunst-Kultur (Stuttgart: Württembergisches 31 Vivian B. Mann, “Jews and Altarpieces in Medieval Spain,” Landesmuseum, 1977), cat. nos. 881, 885, 889, 898, 899; and Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians and Altarpieces in Medieval Hans Wentzel, “Die Kamee mit dem ägyptischen Joseph in Spain (New York: Museum of Biblical Art, 2010), 106–118. Leningrad,” Kunstgeschichtliche Studien für H. Kaufmann (Berlin: 32 Rosa Alcoy i Pedrós, “Ferrer Bassa, un creador d’estil,” Gebr. Mann, 1956), 85–100. The cameos of King Jehu and L’Art Gòtic a Catalunya: Pintura I., De l’inici a l’italianisme (Barcelona: Ahasveros and Mordecai are attributed by Rainer Hausherr to Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2005), 162. thirteenth-century France (cat. nos. 898 and 899), and the 33 Judith Berg Sobré, Behind the Altar Table: The Development of Samson and the Lion cameo is attributed to Italy or Germany the Painted Retable in Spain, 1300–1500 (Columbia, MO: University (cat. no. 889). of Missouri Press, 1989), 36–37. 37 For Joseph Revealing Himself, see Cecil Roth, The Sarajevo 34 See Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya, Coptic Fabrics (Paris: Haggadah, n.p., and Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, g. Adam Biro, 1990), 78–79 and 129–131. 130; for Noah, see Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, g. 35 I want to thank Charles Little of the Metropolitan Museum 125, and Naomi M. Steinberger, ed., The Prato Haggadah: Facsimile of Art for sharing his research on the cameos. (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 2007), fol. 84r. 36 For the gure of King David, see José Luis Lacave et al.,

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Fig. 2. Cameo with Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, Southern Italy, mid-13th century. Private collection, on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

extant scenes, the Hohenstaufen cameos appear to frescoes in the Spanish monastery of Sigena,40 belong to a different tradition of biblical iconography there is no evidence that artists of the haggadot trav- than the Spanish haggadot, although it is worth not- eled to Naples and Monreale, although Monreale was ing that Gabrielle Sed-Rajna proposed that Jewish part of the Crown of Aragón in the fourteenth cen- communities in southern Italy or North Africa were tury (but Naples was not). Indeed, there are biblical intermediaries in passing on the art of the classical cycles closer to “home,” in the area in which most of period to Spain during the twelfth and thirteenth the haggadot were created, namely altarpieces and the centuries, as can be demonstrated for other literary cloister reliefs of Girona Cathedral and the twelfth- and artistic traditions.38 century portal of the cathedral in Valencia. Recently, Katrin Kogman-Appel proposed that The sculptures of Girona and Valencia and other the haggadot miniatures were composed in Spain of Spanish art of the twelfth through the fteenth iconographic details seen by artists on their travels centuries provide a context for understanding the and remembered, particularly the reliefs of San haggadot that has not been discussed in the scholarly Restituta in Naples and the capitals of the Cathedral literature. Important to an understanding of this of Monreale.39 Although a famous example of an context is Millard Meiss’s 1941 essay that drew itinerant artist who transmitted iconography and attention to the close stylistic relationship between style is the English artist who worked on both the an altarpiece dedicated to St. Mark, now in the thirteenth-century English Winchester Bible and the Morgan Library, and the Ceremonial de consagración y

38 Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, The Kaufmann Haggadah (Budapest: PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), 56–61. Kultura International, 1990), 12. 40 For an account of the extant frescoes from Sigena, see 39 Katrin Kogman-Appel, Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Eduard Carbonell i Esteller et al., Guía arte románico (Barcelona: Spain: Biblical Imagery and the Passover Holiday (University Park, Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya, 1998), 170–175.

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coronación de los Reyes de Aragón in the Museo Lazar manuscript, the Hispano-Moresque Haggadah in Galdiano in Madrid (R.14.425).41 Meiss analyzed the the British Library (Or. 2737) is stylistically related gure style and the compositions and concluded that to scenes from the Life of Christ on a fragmentary both types of work had been created in the same late thirteenth-century altarpiece in the Cloisters atelier, which he named the St. Mark’s workshop. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 55.62 a, Meiss’s thesis revolutionized the customary view that b and 1977.94; Figs. 3 and 4) and to similar retablos. workshops were devoted to producing single types In these works, the scenes are set in architectural of art, and emphasized the stylistic link between frames, often painted a deep red, above which are retablos (altarpieces) and miniatures. Francis Wormald rubrics indicating their content (in Latin on the added another innovative insight to Meiss’s work altarpieces; Hebrew in the haggadah). The languages by demonstrating that a Hebrew manuscript of of these rubrics, assuming they served as instruc- Maimonides, the Guide for the Perplexed in the Royal tions to the artists, indicate that Jewish artists created Library, Copenhagen (Hebr. XXXVII), was a prod- the haggadah scenes and Christian artists worked uct of the same workshop.42 Since the publication on the altarpiece.46 The action takes place against of Wormald’s article in 1953, other art historians blank backgrounds with only the minimal props have added both Hebrew and Latin manuscripts required by the narrative. Terracotta and ochre are to the corpus of works produced by the St. Mark’s the dominant colors on both works, and they appear atelier, whose chief artist is now identied as Ferrer saturated rather than shaded. Through-out, the size Bassa, who died in 1348, presumably a victim of of key gures such as Jesus or Moses and Aaron, or the Black Plague.43 The result of all this scholarship even the baker of matzot (the unleavened bread for was to link manuscripts to altarpieces, and works for Passover), is enlarged to indicate a subject’s impor- Jewish patrons to those for Christians as the products tance. Still, differences between the two works indicate of a single workshop, thereby enabling comparison that more than one artist was responsible for the of the style and iconography of different types of haggadah and the retablo. Although the heads and art.44 Another atelier that produced two different hands of the gures of both works are outlined rather media created the frescoes in the sala capitular of the than modeled, the painter of the Christian scenes Monastery of Sta. Maria of Sigena, dated 1190– often added a small circle of red paint to indicate a 1194 (Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, MNAC/ protruding cheek and furnished his gures with eye- MAC 68703-68709),45 as well as the Winchester brows, details absent on the haggadah gures. As is Bible (Winchester Cathedral Library) and the mid- typical of the art of this period, gures are slim and thirteenth century Morgan Picture Bible (New drapery hides the body in both works, but the cloaks York, Morgan Library and Museum, Ms. M.638). of the altarpiece gures are slightly more detailed, An itinerant English artist contributed to the three with a white highlight along the edge of the material. works, resulting in stylistic relationships between the The haggadah and the retablo fragments in the two manuscripts and the frescoes. Cloisters belong to a group of works whose style has With this understanding that Jewish artists and been termed “linear Gothic,” nearly all of them dated scribes worked together with Christians, it is possible to the rst half of the fourteenth century.47 to develop the Spanish context for the appearance A frequently made observation about the haggadot of the haggadot. For example, the earliest surviving is the inclusion of biblical scenes without any

41 Millard Meiss, “Italian Style in Catalonia and a Fourteenth- 46 That they were not titles for the nished miniatures is Century Catalan Workshop,” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 4 indicated by the discrepancies between the texts and the subjects (1941): 45–87. depicted. 42 F. Wormald, “Afterthoughts on the Stockholm Exhibition,” 47 The architectural frame and drapery style of the Cloisters Konsthistorish Tidskrift 22 (1953): 74–78. retablo panels are particularly close to those on the frontale (altar 43 Sed-Rajna, “Hebrew Manuscripts of Fourteenth-Century frontal) of Santa Perpetua de Mogoda of the rst or second Catalonia and the Workshop of the Master of St. Mark,” quarter of the fourteenth century (Barcelona, Museo Diocesano, 116–128; Rosa Alcoy i Pedrós, “Ferrer Bassa, un creador d’estil,” Inv. MDB/400). See Marisa Melero-Monea, “La Pintura sobre L’Art Gòtic a Catalunya. Pintura I, 162–163. tabla del Gótico lineal. Frontales, laterales de altar y retablos 44 Mann, “Jews and Altarpieces in Medieval Spain,” 112–118. en el reino de Mallorca y los condados catalanes,” Memoria 45 See Eduard Carbonell i Esteller et al., Guia arte románica, Artium 3 (2005): 72–79. 170–175.

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Fig. 3. Preparations for Passover, Hispano-Moresque Haggadah, Castile, ca. 1300. British Library, Or. 2737.

Fig. 4. Anonymous, Panels with Scenes from the Life of Christ, Castile, 13th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, 1977.94, Bequest of Carl Otto von Kienbusch.

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relationship to the text, which focuses on the the Tree of Knowledge (2:16–17), the Temptation Israelites’ bondage in Egypt and their Exodus. and Reproach (3:1–6; 11), and the Expulsion (3:24). Among the most commonly added miniatures are Both the retablo and haggadah scenes are set against scenes of the Creation, sometimes with the addition diapered gold backgrounds, with the foregrounds of the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden and made up of landscape elements: earth and styl- Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. A highly com- ized trees. The patches of earth on the retablo are pressed account appears in the early Golden composed of stylized forms stacked against one Haggadah in which ve episodes in the Garden of another, while in the haggadah the landscape is a Eden occupy two frames: Adam Naming the continuous, shaded mass. On the altarpiece, God Animals is in its own frame, while the remaining dominates through his size or his appearance in a four occupy a single frame of the four elds found mandorla; he is absent from the haggadah scenes. on each page (Fig. 5). The sequence reads chrono- Despite differences in the gure style and iconogra- logically from right to left, the direction in which phy between the haggadah and the altarpiece—the Hebrew is read: Adam Naming the Animals (Genesis retablo gures are more linear—there are striking 2:20), the Creation of Eve (2:21–22), the Temptation stylistic and iconographic similarities between the of Eve (3:1–5), Adam and Eve Covering their two works, in particular their devotion of consider- Nakedness (3:7) and God (in the guise of an angel) able space to the story of Creation in works whose Reproaching Adam and Eve (3:16–18). In the sec- primary subject has no connection to the text of the ond, composite frame, the gure of Eve is shown Bible. Both works also share an emphasis on a few tempted by the serpent and simultaneously covering important gures in scenes set against a diapered herself with a large leaf, while Adam both covers background and anchored to a foreground of earth himself and raises his head as an angel reproaches and stylized trees. him. Nevertheless, the rubric for the second frame The biblical story of Creation has a special refers only to the third episode, Adam and his Wife place in Spanish art, appearing in frescoes, tex- Naked. The Golden Haggadah is dated ca. 1320 tiles, miniatures, metalwork, and sculpture from based on its gure style, which is similar to that of the eleventh century on. Among the early works the Usatges de Paris (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale ms. with multiple scenes are the Shrine for the Relics lat 4670) and like the Latin work was produced in of San Isodoro dated 1063,49 the frescoes from San Barcelona or nearby Lleida.48 Martín de Sescorts (province of Barcelona) dated A retablo dedicated to St. Andrew with scenes of late eleventh to early twelfth century,50 and the early the Creation (Fig. 6) has both stylistic and icono- twelfth-century Tapiz de la Creación in the museum graphic connections to the Golden Haggadah (Fig. 5). of Girona Cathedral.51 Scenes of Adam and Eve The altarpiece originally included seven Creation also appear on a corner pillar of the cloister at scenes, but the location of three of them is today Girona dated shortly before 1150.52 They include unknown. With one exception, each of the altar- the Creation of Eve, God Showing Adam and Eve piece scenes is given its own pictorial space: God the Tree of Knowledge, and a composite scene of the Creates the Creatures of the Waters and the Birds Temptation of Eve, Adam Eating the Apple, and (Day 5; Genesis 1:20–23), the Creation of Man Adam and Eve covering their Nakedness and Hiding (Day 6; 1:26–27), God Casts a Deep Sleep on from God. These are followed by scenes occurring Adam (2:21), God Presents Eve to Adam (2:22), after the Expulsion: Adam and Eve Working, and God Commands Adam and Eve Not to Eat from the Story of Cain and Abel. Other corner pillars in

48 Kim Dame, “Les haggadot catalanes,” L’Art Gòtic a 51 The Third Day of Creation: Separation of the Waters Catalunya. Pintura I, 106. from the Dry Land; Fourth Day: Creation of the Sun and 49 Creation scenes on the reliquary include The Creation of Moon; Fifth Day: Creation of the Birds and of the Deep Waters; Adam, The Temptation, God Admonishing Adam and Eve, Sixth Day: The Creation of Adam; The Creation of Eve, Adam God Clothing Adam and Eve, and the Expulsion from Paradise Naming the Animals (De Palol and Hirmer, Early Medieval Art (De Palol and Hirmer, Early Medieval Art in Spain, gs. 71–73). in Spain, pl. XXXV, gs. 132–133). 50 The remaining frescoes are Adam and Eve Hiding from 52 For the scenes of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and God and the Expulsion from Paradise. They are now in the Noah, see De Palol and Hirmer, Early Medieval Art in Spain, gs. Museo Episcopal in Vich (De Palol and Hirmer, Early Medieval 144–147. Also, Josep Calzada i Oliveras, Die Kathedrale von Girona, Art in Spain, pl. XXVI). 2nd ed. (Barcelona: Editoral Escudo de Oro, 1988), 14.

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Fig. 5. Scenes of Creation, The Golden Haggadah, ca. 1320. British Library, Add. 27010.

the cloister are devoted to twelve biblical scenes: the First, there is the compression of scenes in both the story of Noah, scenes from the lives of Abraham, sculptures in Girona and the Golden Haggadah. Isaac, and Jacob, and scenes of Samson, Daniel, and In the cloister, one capital presents the Temptation Habakkuk. A biblical cycle was also created on the of Eve, Adam Eating the Fruit from the Tree of capitals of the twelfth-century Palau Portal of the Knowledge, and its consequences: the Nakedness of cathedral in Valencia (Fig. 7). Adam and Eve, and God in the form of an Angel The extensive array of scenes from Genesis Reproaching Them. Two more scenes appear: the sculpted in the cloister of Girona Cathedral and Temptation and Adam and Eve Hiding their Naked- the Palau Portal in Valencia (the latter never before ness with large leaves.53 Presumably, the artist of both mentioned in the haggadot literature) provide sev- works felt impelled to include as many episodes as eral interesting comparisons to those found in the possible within a limited area, despite the fact that Sarajevo, Golden, and Sister of the Golden haggadot. the rubric above the frame in the Golden Haggadah

53 John Reeve, ed., Sacred: Books of the Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (London: The British Library, 2007), 152.

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haggadot is the presence of a gure who is God or Jesus in the carvings, while only an occasional angel appears in the haggadot. The gure of God at Girona is unusual for a Christian work: he has no halo and is the same size as the humans with whom he interacts, while the “God” gure at Valencia always has a cruciform nimbus identifying him as Jesus. The more than twenty biblical scenes at Valencia are distributed on twelve capitals and begin with the Fifth Day of Creation and end with Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law. The temporal scope of its subjects is nearly equal to those in the Sarajevo Haggadah, and the iconography of some scenes is strikingly similar to that of the miniatures in the manuscript. In both representations of the Fifth Day of Creation, the earth is a sphere whose bottom half is occupied by the waters, above which ies a bird or birds (Fig. 8, left).54 The same sphere appears on the next capital, this time accompanied by the gure of Jesus who points to it, a scene that may represent the phrase that occurs repeatedly in the account of Creation, “And God saw that this was good” (Fig. 8, right). This phrase follows the textual account of the fth day that appears on the rst capital (Genesis 1:21).55 Other scenes whose iconography is shared by the capitals and the Golden Haggadah are the Creation of Eve and the Temptation (Fig. 9), which on both works appear in the same spatial unit, and the Offering of Isaac, where the Sarajevo scene appears to be a reverse of the capital depiction. Sometimes the same subject appears in both works, but their iconography dif- fers.56 The capitals include scenes that are not found in the fourteenth-century haggadot, for example God Fig. 6. Anonymous Castilian Painter, Scenes from the Creation; Scenes Discussing with the Angels the Creation of Man from the Life of Saint Andrew, Añastro, Castile, late fourteenth cen- tury. Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, (Genesis 1:26, Fig. 10). A very unusual detail of this 1925 (25.120.257). scene is that the foremost angel wears a Judenhut,57 a hat that sometimes identied the wearer as a Jew, refers only to one subject, the Nakedness of Adam a symbol unusual for Spanish art but common in and Eve. Each of the capitals at Valencia bears two or contemporaneous Ashkenazi miniatures and sculp- more scenes, yet their presentation is more detailed. ture. Other unusual iconography is that Abraham A major difference between the sculptures and the rides a camel to Shechem—a detail absent from

54 On the representation of the earth as a sphere in the Sarajevo 56 For example, Adam and Eve Covering Themselves, The Haggadah and its relationship to other manuscripts, see Herbert Offering of Abel and his Killing by Cain, The Drunkeness of Broderick, “Observations on the Creation Cycle of the Sarajevo Noah, and Moses at the Burning Bush. Haggadah,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 3 (1984): 320–334. 57 In the scene of the Second Council of Joseph’s Brothers 55 The phrase also appears in the account of the rst day of in the Golden Haggadah (fol. 6v), one of the brothers wears a Creation (Genesis 1:10) and following the account of the sixth Judenhut. day (1:25).

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Fig. 7. The Palau Portal, Valencia Cathedral, 12th century. Photo by author.

Fig. 8. The First Two Days of Creation, Palau Portal, Valencia Cathedral, 12th century. Photo by author.

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Fig. 9. Scenes of Adam and Eve, Palau Portal, Valencia Cathedral, 12th century. Photo by author.

Fig. 10. God Discussing with the Angels the Creation of Man, Palau Portal, Valencia Cathedral, 12th century. Photo by author.

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the biblical text (Genesis 12:6–7, Fig. 11)—and the Sigena (Huesca) ca. 1230. The scenes included the representation of a horned Moses in the scene of Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, God the Receiving of the Law (Fig. 12)58 There are also Pointing to the Tree of Knowledge, the Temptation, other parallels between the capitals and haggadot and the Expulsion, followed by later biblical subjects with biblical cycles, but we will limit this aspect such as Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law of the discussion and list scenes absent from the and the Anointing of David as King,62 repeating the Sarajevo Haggadah but sculpted on the Valencia choice of subjects on the Valencia sculptures with capitals: Abraham Entertaining the Three Angels their Christological emphasis. who foretold the birth of Isaac, which is also in the Another Genesis cycle appears in the profusely Golden Haggadah (fol. 3r). (This is the only capital illustrated Pamplona Bibles. In the Bibles, Jesus is that is out of order according to the biblical nar- the God of Creation and is furnished with a cruci- rative.) The gaps in the narrative presented by the form nimbus. He is always larger than Adam and capitals, for example the omission of any subjects Eve, his bulk enhanced by a dark mantle over a that took place in Egypt concerning the salvation lighter tunic. As noted earlier, the Pamplona Bibles of the Israelites, and the concentration on scenes of consist of two copies of the same work, one in the Creation and on others that pregure Christian Amiens and the other in Harburg. Collating the two history, like the Sacrice of Isaac, the Giving of works yields a total of 262 images based on Genesis, the Law (a parallel of the Giving of the New Exodus, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. Law), Abraham Rides a Camel to Shechem (hint- Besides the scene of the Finding of Moses men- ing at Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem), and Abraham tioned earlier, the Pamplona Bibles manifest other Entertaining the Three Angels, a symbol of the correspondences with the iconography of the hag- Trinity, suggest a thoughtful choice by the patron or gadot. For example, the third day of creation is sculptor to concentrate on the biblical content that represented by an orb whose bottom half is covered had the most meaning for the cathedral’s worship- with wavy lines, while the top half is monochro- pers. In 1909, José Sanchis y Silva, who identied matic. The same form of the earth appears in the the subjects on the Valencia capitals, interpreted Sarajevo Haggadah63 and on the rst two twelfth- even those that were faithful to the biblical narra- century capitals of the Palau Portal of Valencia tive as Christological scenes.59 For example, the fth Cathedral (Fig. 8). In scenes of Moses at the Burning day of creation, represented on the rst capital by Bush in the Pamplona Bibles, God’s presence is a bird hovering over the waters of the earth, as in rendered as a youthful head emerging from the the Sarajevo Haggadah, is identied by Sanchis y shrubbery, and the same is true in the Golden Silva as the creation of the Holy Spirit. Haggadah (fol. 10v), in its Sister manuscript (fol. The story of Adam and Eve was also painted on 13r), and in the Brother of the Rylands Haggadah church walls and in Christian manuscripts.60 One (fol. 1v). The Crossing of the Red Sea in the mural, in the Capilla de la Vera Cruz de Maderuelo Pamplona Bible shows the waters divided into dif- (Segovia) of the third quarter of the twelfth century, ferent zones, but not the pairing of the tribes with includes a composite Temptation and Adam and individual zones as in the Brother Haggadah, whose Eve Hiding their Nakedness whose iconography is composition is based on a midrash.64 identical to that on the St. Andrew retablo in the The Spanish haggadot and related works incorpo- Cloisters.61 An extensive biblical cycle was also rate iconography from various sources. The oldest painted in the chapter house of the convent of are works of early Jewish and Christian art that were

58 Camels gure prominently in a later episode, Eliezer’s 61 Palol and Hirmer, Early Medieval Art in Spain, pls. XL and search for a bride for Isaac (Genesis 24:10–14). On the horned XLI. Adam and Eve also appear in frescoes from Vich Moses, see Ruth Melnikoff, The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and (Barcelona), late eleventh to early twelfth century (ibid., pl. Thought (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970). XXVI). 59 José Sanchis y Silva, La Catedral de Valencia: Guia historica y 62 See above, n. 40. artistica (Valencia: F. Vives Mora, 1909), 72–73. 63 Bucher, The Pamplona Bibles, pl. 3, and Roth, The Sarajevo 60 For example, a Bible from the Monastery of San Pedro de Haggada, n.p. Cardeña in Burgos, ca. 1175 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 64 Bucher, The Pamplona Bibles, pl. 118; Narkiss, Hebrew The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200, no. 152). Illuminated Manuscripts, g. 294.

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Fig. 11. Abraham Riding to Shechem, Palau Portal, Valencia Cathedral, 12th century. Photo by author.

Fig. 12. Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law, Palau Portal, Valencia Cathedral, 12th century. Photo by author.

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transmitted through intermediate works to late those creating miniatures for haggadot. ( Jews are medieval Spain. As many have said, Christian art known to have frequented churches when forced to may have served to transfer compositions developed hear conversionist sermons, or attended on their in the ancient Land of Israel and surrounding areas own out of interest in intellectual discourse.)65 Jews to Europe, with southern Italy playing a key role, who were artists employed by the Church created but the remarkable thirteenth-century cameos with works of art on Christian themes66 and the mixed Hebrew inscriptions indicate that Jews also commis- ateliers like that of Ferrer Bassa provided other sioned and created portable works in the same avenues by which Jewish and Christian iconography region. Ferrer Bassa was one of the Spanish artists could have been exchanged during the fourteenth who journeyed to Italy and absorbed its painting century, when illuminated haggadot were popular style before returning to work in the region of among those able to afford them. Barcelona where his workshop created art for both The result of all these inuences was a very Christians and Jews. creative, productive period in Hebrew manuscript The most important and signicant parallels painting. The production of illuminated haggadot occur in Spanish art that was created from the ceased in Spain, even before the destruction of the twelfth century onward. The works that were Jewish quarter of Barcelona during the pogroms of installed in public spaces such as the Valencia portal 1391, for reasons that are still inexplicable. and church frescoes were available as models for

65 Mann, “Jews and Altarpieces in Medieval Spain,” 119. 66 Ibid., 86–92.

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