Bezalel

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Bezalel in front of the Ark of the Covenant made by him, bookplate by Boris Schatz (Ephraim Moses Lilien)

Bezalel ( Hebrew בצלאל Betsalʾel ) is the name of a biblical figure. In the ancient Greek translation ( Septuagint ) the name is Beseleel , in the Latin Vulgate Beselehel .

The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is named after Bezalel , which was founded in Jerusalem in 1906 and is now an art academy . In addition, Bezalel is also a male personal name.

Hebrew Bible

In the Torah , Bezalel is a particularly talented artisan who is commissioned by Moses to equip the tent sanctuary ( Mishkan ):

“Then Moses said to the Israelites: Look, the Lord has called Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, by name. 31 and fill him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, prudence and knowledge for all work, 32 to draw up plans and carry them out in gold, silver and copper, 33 and to make all kinds of works of art by cutting and setting stones and carving wood. 34 He also gave him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan the gift of teaching others. 35 He has filled her with a sense of art to carry out every work of a stone cutter, an art weaver and a weaver in purple and red purple, crimson and linen, as well as a weaver. You can do all the work and draw up the plans for it. "

- Ex 35.30-35  EU

Building a sanctuary requires special skills. The blueprint is in Hebrew תבנית tavnit according to Ex 25.9.12  EU from God himself, but the implementation or detailed execution leaves room for artistic creativity.

Interpretation history

Using the example of Bezalel Ben Uri (the name is interpreted as: "In the shadow of God, son of light") and his colleague Oholiab, Jewish and Christian interpreters of the Bible were able to explain their relationship to art.

Flavius ​​Josephus designated Bezalel ( ancient Greek Βασάελος Basáelos ) as an overseer of the work that was carried out by a crowd. Josephus seems to share the judgment about artists that was widespread in Greco-Roman antiquity: one admires the works of art, but not the person of the artist.

No Midrash about Bezalel has been passed down from the Tannaites . But that changed in Byzantine times. Perhaps it is no coincidence that synagogues were also fitted with artistic mosaic floors at the same time. The interpretation now sought to clarify the relationship between Moses and Bezalel, since they are both commissioned with the construction of the sanctuary and its devices. The Midrash Tanchuma commented that Moses was unable to make the menorah according to the archetype shown by God. So Bezalel was hired, who had no difficulty completing the work. Moses admired him for it: Bezalel had stood "in the shadow of God" when this Moses showed the archetype. The Midrash Exodus Rabba, on the other hand, brought Moses and Bezalel into a hierarchical relationship: Moses gave orders, Bezalel carried out.

Since the Renaissance, Bezalel became a heroic artist, the forerunner of Michelangelo and Raphael - as Giorgio Vasari says in his artist biographies. After the prohibition of images in the Ten Commandments , the commissioning of the Bezalel re-established religious art, so Vasari. During and after the Reformation, Protestants and Catholics alike appealed to Bezalel.

In Zionism, Bezalel became a kind of patron saint for an artist group around Boris Schatz , who had set themselves the task of renewing Jewish art. "The name of the school signals ... both the biblical past and the trust in human activity that is under divine protection." In the works of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design , Bezalel Ben Uri was often portrayed as he did the work of Art school decorates. The desert sanctuary has merged with the Jerusalem temple, the school's second biblical reference point. The by Ephraim Moses Lilien created bookplates for Boris Schatz shows the ark in the background, in the foreground Bezalel Ben Uri, wearing the facial features of Boris Schatz. Typically, Bezalel Ben Uri is seen in the works of the school named after him removed from the context of the desert and, contrary to the biblical report, in a fertile Palestinian landscape or in Jerusalem in the production of objects for the temple, i.e. set in one with Solomon.

In contemporary America, the appeal to Bezalel legitimizes an intensive preoccupation with figurative art among evangelical Christians.

people

  • By Einhard (* around 770 in Maingau, † 14 March 840 in Seligenstadt Monastery), the biographer of Charlemagne, is reported to have the nickname because of his practical talents in the court school of Charles Beseleel was referring to the builders of the Jewish tabernacle in Ex 35.30
  • Bezalel Stern (1798-1853) was a Russian Jewish educator
  • Bezalel Ashkenazi (born around 1520; died around 1592) was a Jewish scholar living in Egypt.
  • Bezalel Smotrich (* 1980), Israeli politician ( Tkuma )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Krüger: The human heart and God's instruction. Elements of a discussion about the possibilities and limits of the Torah reception in the Old Testament . In: Reinhard Gregor Kratz , Thomas Krüger (eds.): Reception and interpretation in the Old Testament and its environment , Freiburg and Göttingen 1997, pp. 65–92, here pp. 67–69.
  2. ^ A b Steven Fine: Art, History and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity , pp. 22-25. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2014, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 3, 104-106
  4. ^ Steven Fine: Art, History and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity , pp. 22-25. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2014, pp. 22-25.
  5. ^ Steven Fine: Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archeology . Cambridge University Press, New York et al. 2005, pp. 99-101.
  6. ↑ Ori Z. Soltes: Art. Bezalel . In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture , JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2011–2017. Volume 1: A-Cl, p. 302.
  7. ↑ Arieh Saposnik: The Desert Comes to Zion: A Narrative Ends its Wandering . In: Pamela Barmash, W. David Nelson (Eds.): Exodus in the Jewish Experience: Echoes and Reverberations. Lexington, Lanham, et al. a. 2015, pp. 213–246, here pp. 227–231.
  8. ^ Steven Fine: Art, History and the Historiography of Judaism in Roman Antiquity , pp. 22-25. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2014, p. 22.
  9. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  Einhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1479-1480.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )