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Ze'ev Raban
"Song of Songs Illustration" Old Testament, Watercolor

About the Item

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Song of Songs Illustration" renders an important bibilical story that is celebrated during Jewish Passover. Song of Solomon, also called Canticle of Canticles, or Song of Songs, an Old Testament book that belongs to the third section of the biblical canon, known as the Ketuvim, or “Writings.” In the Hebrew Bible the Song of Solomon stands with Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther and with them makes up the Megillot, five scrolls that are read on various religious festivals of the Jewish year. This book is the festal scroll for Pesaḥ (Passover), which celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This work has a provenance with Sotheby's. Raban easily navigated a wealth of artistic sources and mediums, borrowing and combining ideas from East and West, fine arts and crafts from past and present. His works blended European neoclassicism, Symbolist art and Art Nouveau with oriental forms and techniques to form a distinctive visual lexicon. Versatile and productive, he lent this unique style to most artistic mediums, including the fine arts, illustration, sculpture, repousee, jewelry design, and ceramics. He is regarded as a leading member of the Bezalel school art style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a style influenced by the European Jugendstil (similar to Art Nouveau) and by traditional Persian and Syrian styles. Like other European art nouveau artists of the period, such as Alphonse Mucha, Raban combined commercial commissions with uncommissioned paintings. Good examples of Raban's specific eclectic mix of European and Oriental styles are his illustrated editions of the Book of Ruth, Song of Songs, Book of Job, Book of Esther, and the Passover Hagadah. Known are also his playing cards, where in the suit of leaves, the King is Ahasuerus, the Queen is Esther, and the Jack is Haman. Unframed the piece is 8.25" h x 5" w.
  • Creator:
    Ze'ev Raban (1890 - 1970)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 17.38 in (44.15 cm)Width: 12.25 in (31.12 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Detroit, MI
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU128617031822
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