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Haggadah
Joseph Leipnik
1737
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The scribe and illustrator Joseph ben David came from Leipnik, in northeastern Moravia (now the Czech Republic) and lived in Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Altona, and Hamburg. In the eighteenth century, Hebrew manuscript illustration experienced a revival in Germany and Central Europe. While he was neither the most prolific nor the most skilled artist of his time, Leipnik became a famous and influential scribe and illuminator, introducing new themes and using color in innovative ways. Fifteen of his manuscripts (one illustrated by another artist) have survived, dated between 1730 and 1740, among them fourteen Haggadahs. Some information about his life, including his patrons, can be gleaned from the colophons he added to his manuscripts. He probably supplemented his income by teaching children of rich families.
This page from a Haggadah produced in Amsterdam is an example of the work of Joseph Ben David, a prominent eighteenth-century scribe and artist known particularly for his illustrated Haggadahs. This…
This woodcut depicts Jewish women and girls lighting candles to mark the beginning of the Sabbath or a holiday. The illustration appears in a Yiddish translation by Shim’on Levi Gintsburg, printed in…
These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…