The King is dead.
King Herod died in his palace in Jericho in April of 4 BCE.
His body was laid out on a golden bier encrusted with gems.
Wrapped in purple, with a crown on his head and a scepter beside his right hand, he departed for his final journey from Jericho to Herodium accompanied by his family, army, and servants.
At Herodium the mausoleum and sarcophagus he had prepared for himself awaited him.
We invite you to join us on the King's final journey. . . .
The first exhibition entirely dedicated to Herod the Great, Israel’s greatest builder and one of the most controversial figures in Jewish history. Large reconstructions and new finds from Herod’s palaces in Herodium, Jericho, and other sites are on display. Exhibited to the public for the very first time, these artifacts shed new light on the political, architectural, and aesthetic influence of Herod’s rule (37–4 BCE). Herod’s tomb – discovered at Herodium after a 40-year search by the late Prof. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University – holds pride of place. The exhibition is held in memory of Prof. Netzer, who fell to his death in 2010 on the site of his discovery.Have a gallery tour here.
In the 17th century, mirrors were among the most expensive items to possess and at the time, the Venetian Republic held the monopoly on the manufacture of mirrors..
In order to maintain the integrity of his philosophy of mercantilism, which required that all items used in the decoration of Versailles be made in France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert enticed several workers from Venice to make mirrors at the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs.
According to legend, in order to keep its monopoly, the government of the Venetian Republic sent agents to France to poison the workers whom Colbert had brought to France.
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In a burial cave in north Jerusalem, an ossuary was discovered inscribed with the name "Yohohanan son of Hagkol.".
The iron nail embedded in the right heel bone indicates that Yehohanan was put to death by crucifixion, the torturous and humiliating method used by the Romans to execute rebels, murderers, and thieves.
Even though thousands of people were executed in this manner, this is the only archaeological evidence that has reached us.
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The bones of the deceased allow us to reconstruct the method used for his crucifixion:
his legs were nailed to the sides of the crucifixion post, while his hands were tied or nailed to the crossbar.
Adi Nes.
Israeli, born 1966
Untitled
Chromogenic print, 90 x 144 cm
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What appears to be a routine photograph of soldiers eating is, in fact, a carefully staged scene showing Nes’s characteristic attention to detail. It was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, depicting one of the most dramatic moments in the story of Christ: the announcement of Judas’s betrayal, which led to the Crucifixion, the ultimate sacrifice.
In Israeli society and art, the soldier is often represented as an object of reverence. Brave and confident, he is the heir to mythical figures like the pioneer.
Nes chooses to emphasize the youthfulness of the soldiers, in transition from adolescence to adulthood, from innocence to disenchantment. They face the greatest danger of all, the risk of dying in battle.
Nes’s analogy between the iconic Christian scene and Israeli reality conveys a political message regarding commitment and sacrifice. Like Christ’s apostles, the soldiers are disciples of an ideology, a power stronger than themselves.
But they are also victims of a geopolitical constellation over which they have no control.
The bullet holes in the wall, cigarette smoke, and bitten apple are symbols of transience, reminding us that this might indeed be their last supper.
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Here in Israel last week, and again yesterday at his White House seder Pesach, President Obama spoke often about the Jewish imperative of tikkun olam:turning the world upside down, jerusalem, 2010anish kapoor, born India 1954, active londonstainless steelcommissioned in memory of teddy kollekfounder and father of the israel museummayor of jerusalem for 28 yearsas a tribute for his vision for the museum
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For the five-acre (16-dunam) "sculpture" that he created for the Israel Museum, Isamu Noguchi used dramatic contrasts, which are known as harmonic combinations in Japanese culture . . .
He used concrete, which is artificial stone, and natural Jerusalem stone; simple local vegetation and paths made of delicate gravel imported from Japan.
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The Hebrew University commissioned the first version of the Nimrod statue from Israeli sculptor Yitzhak Danziger.
The planned sculpture was to be placed at the entrance to the Museum for Jewish Antiquities, however the order was cancelled and the completed sculpture never reached the University.
The statue depicts young and naked Nimrod, the hunter, carrying a bow on his back and a falcon on his shoulder.
Danziger drew his inspiration from the ancient Near Eastern cultures and the description in Genesis 10:8-9: "Cush also begot Nimrod, who was the first man of might on earth. He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the Lord."
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The shape is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian statues and its name is connected to the Mesopotamian heritage.
Nimrod is a corruption of the name of the Assyrian god Ninurta.
The Nubian sandstone from which the statue was carved conjures an image of exotic cultures.
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The ancient Near Eastern sources of inspiration for the statue and their conception of a young and daring figure were viewed by many as an aspiration to identify with proto-Jewish sources.
For this reason the statue was considered a symbol of the movement of Young Hebrews, called "The Canaanites," which emerged in Palestine at the end of the 1930s.
The mention of Nimrod as a negative figure in Jewish midrash, as well as the bold creativity of the sculpture, its unorthodoxy, and perhaps even overt sexuality are what caused the University to reject its inclusion in the museum over seventy years ago.
Today, the Nimrod statue stands at the entrance to the Israeli Art Wing in the Israel Museum.
. . . In the 1940s a group of intellectuals calling themselves "Young Hebrews" identified closely with this sculpture.And the final outcome? -- as it says many times in the Book of Esther, read today on Purim, "Venahafoch hu" -- just the opposite happened.
Dubbed "Canaanites" by their opponents, they connected to the ancient cultures of the land and called for a total break with Judaism and Jewish history.
Nimrod became a symbol for many youngsters at the time, as the most extreme expression of a native identity based solely on this geographic heritage.
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Ram's horns (shofars) make up the core of Yom Kippur Flotilla. The shofar, symbolizing the ram that was sacrificed in place of Isaac, is blown on the Jewish Day of Atonement to evoke the Lord's mercy and forgiveness.
In the olden days, the sounding of the shofar would signal entry into war--and, indeed, the title of the work alludes to the Yom Kippur War that broke out in October 1973.
Nir's depiction of the fleet is reminiscent of naval battle scenes from European genre paintings of the 17th to the 19th centuries.
The curvature of the horns resembles the rolling waves, forming an intimate bond between a solid from the realm of terrestrial animals and the flow of the liquid sea.
Finally the shofar constitutes an ancient musical instrument whose sound is produced by blowing it. Here the carved horns refer to a different type of wind: the marine wind blowing the ships to an unknown destination.
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Eighty partridges decorated the area below the dome of the divan (reception room) of the palace bathhouse, one of the palace's most spectacular rooms.
The room was embellished with mosaic floors and carved stucco (plaster), which covered most of the walls and the ceiling.
The choice of motifs reveals a strong Persian-Sassanian influence.
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a life-scale book shop filled with hundreds of books and collectibles culled from various locations and cultures worldwide and across an impressive range of periods in time.
Dion’s house-like structure is locked and not accessible, creating a kind of still-life motif within the dynamism of the Garden’s seven-acre setting.
The work seeks to find connections between disparate peoples and moments in history and literature, revealing underlying commonalities of humankind and resonating both with the European tradition of the 16th–17th-century Wunderkammer, and with the Museum’s encyclopedic collections.
Its special setting in the Garden, near works by such minimalist masters as Sol LeWitt and Donald Judd, creates yet another level of dynamic reflection about the nature of empty forms, as well as of those – such as Dion’s – that are filled with rich material content.
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When the Magi came in search of Jesus, they go to Herod the Great in Jerusalem and ask where to find the newborn "King of the Jews". Herod becomes paranoid that the child will threaten his throne, and seeks to kill him. Herod initiates the Massacre of the Innocents in hopes of killing the child.
But an angel appears to Joseph and warns Joseph to take Jesus and his mother into Egypt.The passage from Matthew 2:
Egypt was a logical place to find refuge, as it was outside the dominions of King Herod, but both Egypt and Palestine were part of the Roman Empire, making travel between them easy and relatively safe.
When [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
Historically, this massacre may or may not have happened.When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
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Auguste Rodin , French, 1840–1917.
Pierre de Wiessant, Large Model , 1885–86
Bronze, 214 x 116 x 118 cm
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The Burghers of Calais, Rodin’s first completed major public monument, commemorates an historical event that took place in 1347 during the Hundred Years’ War. The king of England, having besieged the city of Calais, agreed to free the inhabitants if six prominent citizens would surrender to him to be put to death. The six walked to the king’s camp wearing sackcloth and halters and carrying the keys to the city. At the last moment, the English king’s wife interceded on their behalf and saved their lives.Rodin portrays the six citizens as they are about to leave Calais. Each man expresses his own personal anguish. To heighten the dramatic impact, Rodin exaggerated the proportions of the hands and legs, and created strong contrasts of light and shadow. Rodin produced several hundred studies of the group, isolated figures, and parts of figures, recombining these elements until the six burghers became a cohesive unit. The individual figures were finished by 1888; yet it wasn’t until 1895 that the complete monument was unveiled in Calais. To Rodin’s dismay, the city council harshly criticized the work, as it was a depiction of human crisis rather than a heroic-patriotic statement.
Pierre de Wiessant is particularly impassioned. His bent head, furrowed brow, half-closed eyes, and parted lips express deep sorrow and apprehension. His enlarged, muscular limbs, and the dramatic gesture of his right hand amplify the emotional impact of the work and convey the burgher’s agony. Cloaked in the deeps folds of sackcloth, Pierre's twisted, elongated body and tragic face recall Gothic representations of Christ as the “Man of Sorrows.”
