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, Marc 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.
In honor of the Jewish Passover holiday beginning this evening at sundown, ARTKABINETT art collector social network explores their history and fabrication.
Chagall accepted the proposition with great enthusiasm. In February 1962 while 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. 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.
Weaving begins
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.
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 (picutured in situ at top of page), 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.
Three biblical themes
The theme of the largest of the three, in the centre, is Exodus (above right), that on the right, Isaiah's Prophecy (shown here) and that on the left, The Entry into Jerusalem (bottom right).
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.
