Jacques Wiener was the eldest of three brothers who were successful Jewish Flemish medalists and engravers. His innovation was the idea of precisely engraving the exterior and interior of a building on the two sides of a medal, an approach that he employed for notable Belgian churches as well as a series of forty-one medals depicting Europe’s most important buildings. Jewish subjects included the Opening of the Jewish Home for the Aged in The Hague (1841) and the Opening of the Synagogue in Cologne (1861). Wiener also engraved the first Belgian postage stamp, an image of King Leopold I that was the first stamp issued on the European continent.
This remarkable illustration is at the same time a shiviti—traditionally, a decorative plaque bearing the verse: “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence”—and a topographic map of the land of Israel…
The young couple depicted here are in the act of embracing one another, their cheeks touching. They are one of the best-known examples of Georg Ehrlich’s representational bronze sculptures, which…