In the Days of the Barley Harvest: The Iconography of Ruth Author(s): Sarit Shalev-Eyni Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 26, No. 51 (2005), pp. 37-57 Published by: IRSA s.c. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483774 . Accessed: 18/10/2013 07:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Fri, 18 Oct 2013 07:34:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SARIT SHALEV-EYNI Inthe Days of the BarleyHarvest: The Iconographyof Ruth Introduction contain the first eight books of the Old Testament, a format that gained much popularityduring the post-iconoclastic peri- In the Days of the Judges, when a famine came over the od.2 However, while the first books of the illuminated land of Judah, Naomi and her family found a refuge in Moab. Octateuchs were adorned with a vast selection of miniatures, Afterthe death of her husband and two sons Naomi, bitterand Ruth, the last book, received two scenes only.3 Two more destitute, returnsto Bethlehem. Ruth, one of her two Moabite scenes appear in the eleventh century Catalan Roda Bible, daughters in law, is determined to go with her, holding fast to where the earliest Western illustrations of Ruth are found.4 her and to her religion. The days are the beginning of the bar- Some more examples are known from the twelfth century,the ley harvest, and Ruth,like other poor people, goes to the fields time of the giant Romanesque Bibles from Salzburg,5 to glean ears of corn afterthe reapers. On her way, she comes Florence6 and Canterburyor St. Albans.7 A century later,the to a field belonging to Boaz, kindredof Naomi's late husband, elaborated biblical cycles developed in Paris reserved a place who takes her under his protection and finally accepts her of honor for the story of Ruth.8The French illuminatorsnot request to marryher. They become the great grandparents of only based themselves on earlier English and Byzantine mod- David,the King of Israel whose heir is the Messiah. els,9 but expanded the cycle, occasionally by using motifs In the Jewish tradition,the book of Ruth, telling the story from everyday rural life.10The French version became wide- of Ruth and her mother in law, is recited during the feast of spread in Western Europe and during the thirteenthand four- Shavuot (Pentecost) also known as the Feast of Harvest. It is teenth centuries turned into a general Europeantradition.11 thus one of the five scrolls (megillot)associated with particular This paper discusses the iconography of Ruthas depicted liturgical events, which are placed together in the Hagio- in two manuscripts:the TripartiteMahzor, a Jewish Ashkenazi grapha, the third section of the Hebrew Bible.1 However,the prayer book of around 1322 from the Lake Constance region, setting of the story in the period of Judges (1:1) is the reason and the Padua Bible, a Christianpicture Bible of around 1400 why in the Greek and LatinBibles the book of Ruthfollows the from Italy.Both manuscripts were influenced by the general book of Judges and figures as the eighth biblical book. It was European iconography of Ruth. Notwithstanding the geo- therefore part of the illuminatedByzantine Octateuchs which graphical and chronological distance between the two, they 37 This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Fri, 18 Oct 2013 07:34:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SARITSHALEV-EYNI share some iconographic similarities. While the general laborers (2: 3), while in the thirdshe reaps. The last scene, to European iconography basically follows the Vulgate, the Latin the left of the tree trunk,depicts Boaz giving Ruththe six mea- version of the Bible by St. Jerome (c. 345-420), some of the sures of barley (3:15). specific components of the TripartiteMahzor and the Padua Ruth, like most women (but usually not men) in the Bible are based on Jewish commentaries and midrashictexts. TripartiteMahzor, is depicted as an animal headed figure. The The midrashic interpretationsof the book of Ruth were heads were originallydesigned by the draughtsman with nor- partlyincorporated in various Jewish translations such as the mal humanfeatures, as can be discerned under the pealing off Aramaic Targum, as well as in some discussions in the colours in the extreme left figure of the panel. The animal Babylonian Talmud and several corpora of midrashim.12 heads were added later by the colourist, who did not neces- Others, such as the sixth or seventh century Ruth Rabbah or sarily understand the scenes, for he endowed each Ruth fig- the tenth century Ruth Zuta were compiled as independent ure with a differentanimal head. In doing so he was recalling treatises.13Later, the outstanding medieval Jewish commenta- an earlier Ashkenazi tradition,which depicted both men and tors such as Rashi (Rabbi Shiomo Yzhaki, 1040/1-1105) and women as animal headed figures. The phenomenon has not Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164) devoted full commentaries to yet been fully understood.21 It calls for comprehensive the book.14 Such prominent Christian medieval exegetes as research into the roots of the custom, which manifests itself Hugh of St. Cher (ca. 1200-1263) and the later Nicholas of Lyra about a hundred years prior to the TripartiteMahzor. Here I (ca. 1270-1340) showed a special interest in some of the shall consider the panel as it was designed by the draughts- Jewish commentaries on Ruth,especially that of Rashi, whose man, withoutreferring to the animal heads. work is based on earlier rabbinic literature.15The impact of The Ruthpanel of the TripartiteMahzor will be discussed in midrashic sources and rabbiniccommentaries on the iconog- detail. I shall first define the common Christianiconographical raphy of Ruth,their details and implicationsare demonstrated elements, and then consider the special components, based on here, through the cycles of episodes in both the Tripartite Jewish literature,which are paralleled in the ChristianPadua Mahzorand the Padua Bible. Bible. The Padua Bible22 was produced in Padua around The TripartiteMahzor is an illuminatedAshkenazi prayer 1400,23more than seventy years afterthe TripartiteMahzor. This book that was used by the cantor in public prayer during the Christianpicture Bible consists of a wide cycle of miniatures Jewish Holydays, and special Shabbats.16It includes liturgical illustratingthe Pentateuch, Joshua and Ruth,accompanied by poems, prayers and readings from the Scriptures for each a paraphraseon the biblicaltext writtenin a Venetiandialect.24 feast.17 The manuscript was written in Hebrew by a Jewish The text substantiallybased on the LatinVulgate, also includes scribe, whereas the illustrations were executed in a local details partlyderived from Jewish sources. Despite the late date Christian urban workshop. The strong stylistic link between some of the illustrationsdepend on earlierpictorial sources. H. the Mahzorand the Graduale of St. Katharinenthalof around Kessler, who analyzed some of the scenes, showed how the 1312 from Lake Constance region,18indicates the provenance cycle of miniaturesreflects early Christiansources which seem of the Mahzor, as well as its direct connection with the to have been known in the ninth century Tours and eleventh Graduale'sworkshop.19 The Christianartists of this workshop century Canterbury.25G. Vikan, who discussed the Joseph probably executed the painted panels of the Tripartiteunder cycle, thinks it includes numerous parallels to monuments of the guidance of a Jewish scholar, who determined the details the Cotton Genesis tradition.26The iconographicalsources of of the illustrations.Two main models were involved, a local the Ruth cycle have not yet been thoroughly studied.27 The Christian(with the Western iconography of Ruth)and a Jewish Jewish influence on its iconography and text is the subject of one with some midrashic components. While the Christian the second part of this paper. Althoughthe Padua Bible cycle model was available in the workshop, the Jewish model was comprising about fortysix scenes, is much wider than the sim- probably presented to the artists by the Jewish adviser.20 ple panel of the TripartiteMahzor, the remarkableiconographi- The Book of Ruth appears in the Mahzor within the cal similaritiesbetween the two suggest that both manuscripts prayers for Shavuot (Pentecost), in accordance with the tradi- go back to a common earlierJewish iconographictradition. tion of reading the book during this feast. The initial word panel presents several scenes fused together. They read from rightto left and, as I shall show, depict Ruthfour times in four In the Field: the French Model episodes. Inthe firstscene (on the extreme right)she declares her faith in Naomi's God by raising her hands (Ruth 1:16). In Ruth gleaning in Boaz's field is depicted in the centre of the following one she gleans in Boaz's field among other the right side of the TripartiteMahzor panel [Fig. 1].28 She 38 This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Fri, 18 Oct 2013 07:34:27 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions INTHE DAYS OF THEBARLEY HARVEST: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF RUTH 1) <<Scenesof Ruth>,Tripartite Mahzor, Lake Constance region, c. 1322, British Library,London, Add. 22413, f. 71.