The Prayer
Jacques Lipchitz created The Prayer in 1943 to express his horror over the mass murder of Jews, which was then underway in Europe, reportedly crying as he made the statue. The central figure in The Prayer is an elderly man being consumed by flames, wearing a prayer shawl, holding a prayerbook, and swinging a rooster over his head in the kapparah ritual traditionally performed before Yom Kippur. Inside his torn-open torso is a lamb, possibly dead. The bronze sculpture was a challenge to cast because of its large scale and its many intricate forms.
Credits
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of R. Sturgis and Marion B. F. Ingersoll, 1965-207-1. © All rights reserved—Estate of Jacques Lipchitz. Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.
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