Sukkah Decoration

Israel David Luzzatto

ca. 1775

Paper with Hebrew text in the shape of an astrolabe. — This micrographic drawing designed for a sukkah decoration is the best-known artwork of Israel David Luzzatto. Micrography, a form of drawing originally created by scribes, in which lines of miniature text form an image, has been employed by artists to establish a connection between the image and a textual reference. In Luzzatto’s sukkah decoration, the artist uses the text of Ecclesiastes to depict the form of an armillary sphere, an astronomical instrument used to model the motion of the celestial realms, which in turn alludes to the references to the movement of time in Ecclesiastes. Such paper decorations were popular among Italian Jews of the eighteenth century.

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Credits

The H. Ephraim and Mordecai Benguiat Family Collection, the Jewish Museum, New York.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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