The Synagogue
Alessandro Magnasco·c. 1730
Historical Context
The Synagogue (c. 1730) by Alessandro Magnasco is one of several synagogue interiors he painted, offering rare documentary images of Jewish worship in early eighteenth-century northern Italy. Magnasco had access to the Jewish communities in Genoa and possibly elsewhere, and his synagogue paintings capture the drama of communal prayer with the same nervous energy he brought to Christian devotion. The flickering light, gesticulating figures, and tall candlesticks create an atmosphere simultaneously documentary and visionary. These images are significant as early examples of non-Christian religious life depicted with sympathetic interest rather than caricature, marking an important moment in the cultural history of religious tolerance.
Technical Analysis
Magnasco's flickering brushwork creates an atmospheric interior suffused with candlelight and spiritual energy. The worshippers are rendered with his characteristic elongated, gestural forms, while the architectural space is suggested through dramatic light and shadow. The warm, golden palette evokes the interior candlelight of the synagogue.
Provenance
Arthur Sambon, Paris, 1929 [according to Paris 1926, suppl. no 24]. Bessand, Paris, by 1931. [according to Delogu, 1931, p. 124]; bought by Italico Brass (d. 1943), Venice, by c. 1932 [see letter by from his grandson, Italico Brass Jr. to Henry Clifford, Philadelphia Museum of Art, regarding the provenance of the pendant, The Catechism in the Cathedralof Milan; copy in curatorial file]; by descent to his son Alessandro Brass [see 19 November 1949 letter from Alessandro Brass to Daniel Catton Rich in curatorial file]; sold by Alessandro Brass to the Art Institute, 1949.
