Broadsheet Accompanying Model of the Tabernacle

Jacob Judah Leon Templo

ca. 1652

Broadsheet with Dutch text on left and right margins, with large illustrated map in the middle of many squares and lines. Around the map are five images in squares: a man in hat and moustache, layers of priestly garments, a smaller map, rectangular building, and items of worship such as a candelabrum.
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This broadsheet is based on a famous model of the Temple in Jerusalem, owned by Jacob Judah Leon, a rabbi from the Netherlands. Probably produced in Amsterdam, the poster includes illustrations of the Tabernacle as well as the encampments of the Israelites in the desert. The broadsheet accompanied the model of the Temple, and Jacob Judah Leon traveled around displaying it. Leon himself is portrayed in a prominent place, in the top center of the broadsheet, flanked by Temple vessels to the left and priestly vestments to the right. The Temple was of great interest to both Christians and Jews in the seventeenth century and was a longtime passion of Leon’s; he gained the appellation “Templo” for this interest. By 1642, he had published a book on the First Temple that was later widely translated.

Credits

Courtesy Allard Pierson — the Collections of the University of Amsterdam, Ros A 7-1.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Faience-tile mosaic of floral designs throughout, two lines of Hebrew text at the top, and three niches at bottom.
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Related Guide

Early Modern Visual and Material Culture

1500–1750

Early modern Jewish visual culture flourished, with illuminated manuscripts, ornate synagogues, and portraiture alongside increasing non-Jewish interest in Jewish customs and greater Jewish self-representation.

Creator Bio

Jacob Judah Leon Templo

1602–1675

Jacob Judah Leon Templo, born in Hamburg to a family of former New Christians, became a prominent rabbi, teacher, and scholar of the Netherlands, where he moved at a young age. He was most famous for his models of the Temple of Solomon and Tabernacle of Moses, which were exhibited for many years in traveling exhibitions. He also wrote treatises on the ark and cherubim, which he illustrated himself. Indeed, his models and the pamphlets about them overshadowed all his other works, among them a Spanish poetical translation of Psalms. Leon became acquainted with King Charles II of England while the royal was in exile in Holland, and he visited London in 1675. Leon also drew over two hundred figures and vignettes to illustrate talmudic subjects.


 

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