Moses Group Portrait

This lithograph portrays great figures from Jewish history whose first names are Moses. Clockwise from the center: the biblical Moses (evoking Michelangelo’s famous sculpture), Moses Mendelssohn, Baron Maurice Moses de Hirsch, Moses Montefiore, and Moses Maimonides (Rambam). Although the style is very similar to that found in rabbinic portraits of the nineteenth century, this is the earliest-known example of such a sheet portraying modern and even self-consciously untraditional modern figures in this style. The graphic style, gold-toned printing, and lacquer finish suggest it was designed in Breslau. It was printed by the Breslau publisher Kunst- und Verlags-Anstalt v. S. Schottländer, one of the largest Jewish printing firms in Germany, founded by Salo Schottländer, a scion of a wealthy Jewish merchant family.