Searching for Hametz and Passover Seder Among Sephardic Jews

Bernard Picart

1725

Print depicting two scenes with French text under frames: top shows women and girls in kitchen looking through cupboards and cleaning the table. Bottom shows eight individuals around a dining table in ornate room with lit fire in fireplace.
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Between 1723 and 1737, illustrator Bernard Picart partnered with the Dutch bookseller, editor, and publisher Jean-Frédéric Bernard on Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World). The book included more than 266 plates by Picart, some depicting Jewish religious practices in Amsterdam, focusing on the wealthy Sephardic community. It was the most famous encyclopedic work on religion of its time, and is considered the first global, comparative vision of religion. It was condemned by the Catholic Church but was a success with the public and was translated immediately into Dutch and later into English and German. It was reprinted many times. Here, two scenes from the holiday of Passover are depicted: (top) searching for ḥametz (leavened bread) on the eve of the holiday and (bottom) a family at a Passover seder.

Credits

Bernard Picart, 1725. Voorbereiding op Pesach en de viering van de Pesachmaaltijd. L'Examen du Levain &c / Le Repas de Pasques chez les Juifs Portugais. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

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

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