The Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law [Simchat Torah] at the Synagogue in Leghorn [Livorno], Italy, by Solomon Alexander Hart (1806-1881). This oil painting dates from 1850, and measures 55 5/8 × 68 3/4 in. (141.3 × 174.6 cm). The gift of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Gruss, it is in the collection of the Jewish Museum, New York, with the accession number JM 28-55. It is available for download as being in the public domain.
Close-up of the figures at the right.
The Jewish Museum's commentary (which cites Maurice Berger et al. 126-27 as its source) is very helpful in understanding the painting:
One of Hart's works listed in the 1850 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue appears to be the painting now in the collection of The Jewish Museum.... Using one of the artist's few observations of a Jewish structure during his Italian tour, the work shows the interior of the magnificent synagogue in Leghorn, originally built in 1591. This interior is perhaps the foremost example of the lavish redecoration common to Italian synagogues in the eighteenth century. Hart captures a romantic vision of the exotic dress of his Italian coreligionists as they parade the scrolls of the Law on Simhat Torah, the feast of the rejoicing of the Law. This marks the end of the fall harvest festival, Sukkot, and is the holy day on which the yearly cycle of reading the Pentateuch ends, immediately beginning again with Genesis.
Also noted here is the balance that Hart kept between subjects relating to Judaism, and those relating to Christianity and British history and literature. In one painting, The Conference of Menasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell, he very obviously connected "Englishness with Jewishness." This links very well with an anecdote in his Reminiscences, in which he recalls a Jesuit friend insinuating that "being a member of the Ancient Race, I could have no strong feelings of patriotism." Hart's retort — "I was an Englishman, and I had a right to remain in England as long as it suited me" (142) — met with general approval, and he and his Jesuit antagonist left the gathering arm-in-arm. The very fact that this anecdote is recorded, however, does remind us that the struggle for equal rights for Jews in various areas was still going on (see "Judaism in Nineteenth-Century England: A Chronology" — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Berger, Maurice, Joan Rosenbaum, Vivian B. Mann, Norman L. Kleeblatt. Masterworks of the Jewish Museum. New York: Jewish Museum, 2004.
The Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law at the Synagogue in Leghorn, Italy. Jewish Museum (New York). Web. 15 September 2018.
Hart, Solomon. Reminiscences of Solomon Hart. Ed. Alexander Brodie. London: Wyman & Sons, 1882.
Valentine, Helen. "Hart, Solomon Alexander (1806–1881), historical genre painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 15 September 2018.
Created 15 September 2018