Iconological Reading of Pictorial Jewish carpet at “Beth Tzedec Museum”

 
 
Jewish rugs were a group of Qajar pictorial carpets that were  created by a combination of Jewish motifs and Persian carpet designs. By using Iconology on structure and content, this research has studied and analyzed one of famous Jewish rugs to find factors affecting the worldview behind its creation. After studying  the history of the subject, and detailed description and analysis of the work, the motifs have been interpreted. Iconology is an important theoretical approach in  arts and methodology that narrates artworks as reflections of political, social and economic contexts, and hails them as evidence of reality of their era. Erwin Panofsky, an art theorist in imagery, has attempted to implement two methods of Iconography and Iconology  in the study of pictorial artworks. This  process starts from description of visual elements of the artwork and concludes with the interpretation and analysis of each element and the work as a whole.
This research is qualitative and is based on analytical descriptive methods; and by implementing Panofsky’s approach, attempts to present a novel interpretation of the Jewish pictorial carpet woven in 1890 in Kashan, which is being kept at Beth Tzedek Museum in Toronto.
The reasoning behind choosing this particular rug is its uniqueness and presence of symbols and signs of Jewish religion with motifs and design of Qajar era carpets. Jewish rugs are a subgroup of Persian carpets in Qajar era, which showcase the ethnic tastes, wishes and feelings of a people, through the artistic features, motifs and colors .Therefore, in order to understand these icons; we first need to have an understanding of their historical and cultural source. Since the creation and popularity of these works, was due to their cultural and ethnic values, they were created by a combination of religious motifs with designs and motifs of Persian carpets. On the other hand, by emigration of Jews from all over the world to the occupied Palestine, the life experiences of Jews from Iran and other countries famous for their rugs, and Jewish Union Schools, helped the establishment of art workshops that  provided an environment suitable for production of cultural illustration for the new Jewish community.
The main focus of this research is to find out how helpful Panofsky’s iconographic approach is in the comprehension of the work; and also to understand the extent to which the Jewish artists, or Jewish patrons of art, have used their religious and ethnic beliefs and  history to create such artworks. And also to ponder on the motivations and concerns of the Jewish people that resulted in the creation of arts that contain Jewish religious and ethnic values, and what could be their purpose. In order to answer these questions, after a thorough study on the historical and social origin of the Jewish Rug of the “Beth Tzedek” Museum, this research has studied the iconography of the rug by relying on description, analysis, and interpretation, to achieve an in depth comprehension of the artwork. This approach, and iconographic study of the subject, provide a binary study – artistic and religious – on similar subjects, and pave the way towards a better understanding of art of carpet in Qajar era.
This rug consists of two plans, each part has several images and symbols. In the bottom plan, a three arched scene is shown with two lions at the bases of the central arch. In the left and right arch, two men are depicted, one is holding a tablet in his left hand and his right hand is pointing upwards, and the other man is wearing a special (ceremonial) costume with a Menorah in his background. In the central arch a view of a mountain is shown and at its bottom, there is a tablet with two guardian angels. In the upper part of the rug at the top of the arch, a crown  is depicted and 12 figures are shown around the crown, inside frames, including: Wolf, Gazelle, Lion, Sword, Snake, Grape, Plate, Boat, Branch, Flag, Mule, Trees. A luminous tablet is depicted under the crown. And below a temple is shown with columns and image of two angels (Cherubs) on both sides.
The margins of this rug also narrate separate, episodic imagery of religious Jewish stories, which are interrupted by frames of gazelles and hares and trees and structures.
 Analysis of this rug requires the knowledge of epistemological concepts that are reflected in its imagery. First, this rug reveals holy and religious figures in Judaism: Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, Moses and his brother Aaron etc. Second, it reflects the history and sacred events of Abrahamic religions, especially in the episodic imagery on the margins that narrate the most important stories in Judaism, such as: Abraham getting ready to sacrifice Samuel; Joseph being sold to slavery; Moses in everglade, Elijah and his ascension to heaven; Noah’s Ark landing on top of Ararat; the Victory arc and the twelve tribes.
In upper part of the rug, above the arch, a crown is depicted, which is crown of Torah and its manifestation and illumination has appeared in form of RA (Egyptian god of midday sun), which is a direct reference from Kabbalah which teaches that under the illumination of the Torah, three hundred gates appear and the central gate is guarded by two cherubs with a Torah scroll between them, and no one but Messiah can observe this scene. Therefore, all the characters depicted on this rug, in a way, can be different manifestations of Messiah.
Iconography in Judaism, whether actually represented in artworks or in form of traditional images, has been observed on the basis of “prohibition of images” in the Old Testament. This prohibition, which has been expressed in various forms in Jewish holy texts, can be understood as follows: 1) Prohibition of any image in religious rites, regardless of its subject. 2) Prohibition on depiction of God and using the imagery in religious ceremonies as an idol.
 
History of Art shows that Imagery has played an integral role in men’s religious life and many studies prove that implementation of illustrations has existed in religious rites. This study concludes that appearance of this rug’s illustrations have been adapted and encoded from Jewish religious texts and beliefs, but adjusted or changed in accordance with standards of Qajar era.
Due to explicit prohibition of Iconography in Judaism, there are symbolic hints conveying the history and cultural and structural beliefs of the Jewish people, reflected in the creation of the subject. Icons, like religious texts, convey religious concepts and teachings to the followers of the faith on one hand and on the other, they eternalize the sacred remembrance of the sublime. From this point of view, this rug is an example of a religious icon which, based on iconography of the imagery and the narrative can be a symbolic contribution to Parokhet..