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A very late night and a very early start

A zoom lecture from Fairfield University, Connecticut was taking place at 7.30 eastern time but 12.30 am our time. It was about a subject who has been overlooked for a number of years but, thanks to historian and antiquarian and writer, Irvin Ungar, is regaining the prominence that he deserves in the field of art and illumination. That man is Arthur Szyk who was born in Poland but escaped before the Nazis entered his beloved country. He illustrated books, he drew and painted political cartoons and in 1940, in London, 250 copies of his illuminated Haggadah (the book we read at the Festival of Passover) were printed on vellum and sold for 100 Guineas each. At the time this was the most expensive new edition of a book ever sold anywhere in the world.

The four questions that we get the youngest child at the Seder table to ask. (Jesus’ Last Supper is by many thought to have been the Seder meal at the beginning of the Festival of Passover – the festival of liberation from slavery).
The Egyptian taskmasters were drawn with aryan colouring to allude to the rise of the Nazis
There were hidden swastikas throughout the original illuminations but these were removed before printing in London possibly because the British were trying to appease Germany before war was finally declared
Szyk’s work was recognised and honoured in three countries and he was called the greatest “Illuminator” since the 16th century.

Do take a look at his work through Dr Google, Wikipedia or the szyk.com website. It is simply beautiful and also, many pieces, highly political. a modern,inexpensive edition of the Haggadah is available in paperback and hardback. I just ordered one.

I didn’t manage to stay awake until the end of the talk because a hungry lamb needed his early morning bottle and chicks needed feeding and goats opened up. Bless ‘em all!

Mum and chicks have moved to a downstairs cage, nearer to the rest of the birds. They will soon venture out to meet the “big” chooks.

One thought on “A very late night and a very early start”

  1. Thank you for flagging up the work of Arthur Szyk. I would not have been aware otherwise. While not all appeasers of Nazi Germany were anti-Semitic, a number were. I have just finished reading Chris Bryant’s The Glamour Boys. He and other historians are throwing new light on British society in the ’30s and’40s.

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