"Tapestries"
(Jacob Baal-Teshuva)
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Tapestry, the art of weaving decorative textiles, is
one of the most ancient artistic forms. It was widespread in the early
Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian and Indian civilisations, as well as in
Ancient Greece, where tapestries adorned the walls of the Parthenon,
in pre-Columbian Peru, and among tribes such as the Navajo Indians.
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Coptic tapestry
Egypt, 6th-7th century BC |
Tapestries have been produced down the ages in
many different cultures, for the aristocracy and for ordinary
citizens. They were used to cover and decorate the walls and
floors of public and private places, and even for clothing. The
weavers of those tapestries were regarded by their contemporaries
as innovative artist-craftsmen, who with skill and patience, and
by various techniques, took the designs of other artists on paper
or canvas and transformed them into richly coloured textiles.
Some of the earliest and most beautiful tapestries were woven in
the 5th and 6th centuries by the Copts in Egypt. Their looms
consisted of a simple frame with a roller at each end. In the
Middle Ages, when tapestry weaving became an important form of
employment, new techniques were developed to create illusions of
light and shade. During the Renaissance, weavers succeeded in
reproducing every brush stroke and nuance of the image by a
skilled mixing of dyes.
Colour has always been a central element in tapestry weaving, and
the dye master's profession was a highly specialised one. Before
the development of chemical dyes, colouring substances were
extracted from insects, plants, flowers, shells, onion skins,
lemon peel and saffron.
Wool is the material most frequently found in tapestries, although
other fibres such as cotton, silk and linen are also common. The
Peruvians used fine alpaca and silky vicuna wool, the Copts
favoured linen, and the Chinese silk. Down the ages, the
predominant subjects portrayed in tapestries have been religious
motifs and scenes from myths and legends.
The age-old art of tapestry weaving flourished
right up into the 20th century. In the 1930s the French weaver
Мгле. Marie Cuttoli gave the craft new impetus by commissioning
famous contemporary artists such as Picasso, Braque, Derain,
Rouault, Miro, Raoul Dufy and Le Corbusier to create cartoons for
tapestries. Then, in the second half of the 20th century, new
techniques and artistic approaches to tapestry weaving were
developed. A leading light in this field was Yvette Cauquil-Prince,
a master-craftswoman who produced fascinating tapestries also from
the designs of leading artists, including Picasso, Leger, Braque,
Kandinsky, Klee, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder and Roberto Matta.
Marc Chagall's interest in this art form - just one of the many to
which he turned his hand during the course of his long life -
began in the early ig6os, when he was already well into his
seventies.
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Pablo Picasso
Woman with Doves
1965
Tapestry, manufactured by master-craftswoman Yvette Cauquil-Prince
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Paul Klee
Actor
1971
Tapestry, manufactured by master-craftswoman Yvette Cauquil-Prince
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Chagall's tapestries for the Knesset
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In February 1962 Chagall visited Jerusalem to attend
the unveiling of his twelve magnificent stained-glass windows in the
synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Centre. On this occasion, Radish
Luz, the Speaker of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) at the time,
asked him to take over the decoration of the state reception hall in
the new parliament building, still under construction. The Israeli
Knesset is situated on a hilltop known as Givat Ram, affording a
beautiful panorama of Jerusalem. On one side there is the Israel
Museum, facing the campus of the Hebrew University, and on the other
side several government buildings, including the Prime Minister's
offices. Originally, stained-glass windows were proposed and later a
large mural. However, in the summer of 1963, Chagall decided that
tapestries would best suit this huge hall, flooded with natural
Jerusalem light. The subject suggested to him for the tapestries was
the History of the Jewish People, from their return to their homeland,
Zion, up to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Chagall
accepted the proposition with great enthusiasm. He decided to do three
tapestries and began straightaway to work on the first cartoon
- a preparatory gouache which served as a model for the tapestry
weavers. This first cartoon was presented on November 30, 1963 in
Paris to the world-famous French tapestry manufacturers : Manufacture
nationale des Gobelins, an institution founded by Louis XIV in 1667.
The state-subsidised factory also received financial support from the
Parisian branch of the Rothschild family.
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In the summer of 1964, after returning from another
visit to Israel, Chagall completed the second and third cartoons. It
was estimated that the weaving of the three tapestries would take four
years. 160 different shades of colour and 68 kilometres of thread were
needed to reproduce Chagall's gouaches in these huge wall hangings.
The 120 cm-high cartoons had to be enlarged nearly four times to reach
the required height of 475 centimetres. Chagall, who was living at the
time in Vence in the South of France, travelled frequently up to Paris
to watch the work in progress and discuss problems with the weavers as
they arose. The weaving of the three tapestries, begun in February
1965, was finished at the beginning of 1968, a year earlier than
planned. The triptych consists of one 904-cm-wide tapestry and two
smaller, 528-cm and 533-cm-wide ones, all of the same height, that
were hung side by side. The theme of the largest of the three, in the
centre, is Exodus, that on the right, Isaiah's
Prophecy and that on the left, The Entry into Jerusalem.
Exodus shows Moses, portrayed by Chagall in blue,
leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Hovering over them is the
large cloud that accompanied them on their long journey and protected
them from their Egyptian pursuers until they had crossed the Red Sea.
The angel blowing the shofar, or ram's horn, over the cloud has been
sent by divine providence to guide them on their way. The tapestry is
full of symbols and references to biblical events, such as Abraham
sacrificing Isaac, and Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on two
tablets on the right of the picture. Higher up, one can see the Golden
Calf and Jacob wrestling with the Angel. More recent events such as
pogroms, the burning of houses, and memories of the Holocaust were
also incorporated into the work. The figure of the wandering Jew with
a sack on his back is a reference to Chagall's exile in the United
States during the Second World War. The central theme, however, is the
return of the Jews to their Holy, Promised Land - Israel. This
monumental wall hanging is dominated by two great biblical figures:
Moses, receiving the Ten Commandments, and King David, playing on his
harp. These two themes recur again and again in Chagall's biblical
works, including the monumental paintings he did for his own museum,
the Musee National Message Biblique Marc Chagall in Nice.
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Exodus
1964-1968
Tapestry, manufactured at the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins
in Paris by master-craftsman M. E. Lelong
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Exodus (detail)
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Exodus (detail)
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To the left of Exodus is the
Entry into Jerusalem, the site of the Jewish Temple and the
capital of Israel. The central figure of King David playing the harp,
in red regalia and crown, makes this tapestry an obvious continuation
of the narrative beside it. A festive scene is portrayed with many
figures playing musical instruments, beating drums and blowing horns.
In their midst the Ark of the Covenant can be seen. To the left you
find the Israeli flag with the Star of David and "Israel" written in
Hebrew. In this magnificent tapestry, with its magical colours,
Chagall combines biblical history, the present, and the future.
The three tapestries draw together the main elements
of Jewish history relating to the foundation of the State of Israel.
While Exodus shows the handing over of the tablets of the Law to Moses
and the suffering throughout history of the Jewish People, The
Entry into Jerusalem portrays the triumphal entry of
King David into Zion and the return of the Jewish people to their
ancestral homeland. The third tapestry, to the right of Exodus,
entitled Isaiah's Prophecy depicts the idyllic vision of
the prophet Isaiah. Chagall has translated the Bible passage into
pictorial language, word for word: "and the wolf shall dwell with the
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and
the young lion and the fading shall graze together; and a little child
shall lead them." (Isaiah n, 6)
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The Entry into Jerusalem
1963-1964
Tapestry, manufactured at the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins
in Paris by master-craftsman M. Bourbonneaux
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Isaiah's Prophecy
1964-1967
Tapestry, manufactured at the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins
in Paris by master-craftsman M. E. Meot
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These three tapestries, with their powerful imagery,
constituted a huge triumph for Chagall. They were a testament to his
successful collaboration with the weavers, whose faithful rendering of
all the many blue, green, red, gold, yellow, brown, purple and white
colours of his cartoons was a great accomplishment. All three
tapestries bear the date of completion and are signed by the artist
and the weavers involved.
The triptych was officially unveiled with great
ceremony on June 18, 1969 in the presence of the artist, the then
President of Israel, Zalman Shazar, Prime Minister Golda Meir, and the
Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz. In his speech, Chagall said that these
works had been inspired by the founding of the State of Israel, that
they represented a kindling of "new hope" and that he had put into
them "the experience, the suffering and the joy of a whole lifetime".
"My aim was to get closer to the biblical homeland of the Jewish
people, to the land where the creative spirit, the Holy Spirit, is at
home, such as hovers over every page of the Bible; and hovers here in
the air, over the fields and in the hearts and souls of the
inhabitants!...] Works of genius and luminosity are so rare [...]
People prefer to be content with evil and injustice than to reach out
with love [...] There is no art or creation in a life without love.
Love lives in this land and everything that comes of love is great and
sublime. Let my work here, whatever it may be, serve as an expression
of my love and devotion to this land, the land of justice and biblical
peace."
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President Zalman Shazar, Marc Chagall
and Prime Minister Golda Meir
at the inauguration of the Knesset Tapestries, June 1969
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The three Knesset tapestries are full of harmony and
inspiration. Chagall once said: "I am against terms such as 'fantasy'
and 'symbolism'. Our whole inner world is real, perhaps even more real
than the visible world." For Chagall, tapestries were a completely new
venture and a unique experience, yet his were acclaimed the world over
as masterpieces. In his inimitable way he had composed a symphony of
colours for the eyes, those unique colours that Chagall used in the
many biblical works he painted in the course of his long and rich
career. As he himself said: "You have to arrive at an age like mine
before you can produce something like this."
In his world-famous tapestries for the Knesset,
Chagall shows his admiration for the phenomenal achievement of the
Jewish people in bringing to fulfilment the biblical prophecy of the
rebirth of Israel. The brilliant, magical colours, the light effects
and the rhythm of this monumental project of huge dimensions, energy
and power, express his faith in Israel and the Jewish people.
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