The Haggadah: The art of illumination

The Haggadah of Pesaj is a small illustrated book that contains narrations and prayers mostly related to the Exodus; the moment in which the Jewish people were liberated fom slavery in Egypt. It is used in the Passover Seder as it explains the order of the rituals and prayings that go with the celebration of Pesaj.

This type of medieval codex was embellished with decoration applying amazing colours in all the work. Stands out how the illustrator focuses on the first letter of a paragraph, not only because it is done in a beautiful way but also because he wants to show the reader where the text is starting; not only the letters, but also the drawings of people, animals and plants give us the impression of been in front of a unique piece of art. The zoomorphic and antropomorphic representation in Jewish art is not common, however Sephardic Haggadot are special in the sense that the illustrators are breaking with the aniconic rules based on symbolic representations.

The technic followed by the artist in this illuminated books of Jewish tradition is the same process aplied in any other illustrated medieval codex, using the same materials they as parchment or vellum made from animal skin, golden ground, as one of the colour pigments, and the likes.

The type of writing used in the catalan haggadots is the square sephardic letter, which is very characteristic of the Pesaj books made in the Iberian Peninsula: cursive elegant letters.

Barcelona Haggadah. The British Library, London.

Barcelona was an important center of production of Haggadot. Artist could be Jewish or could be Christian and they were loyal to the trend of the moment which had influences coming from Flandes, France or North of Italy.

These are some of the Haggadot made in Barcelona:

Golden Haggadah

Located in the British Library in London, it has 56 panels.

The gold ground used for the ilustrations makes it a very special manuscript.

Two artist worked on the book influenced by the french trend known as the french gothic style; this is showing the cultural exchange that existed in the Jewish Quarter in Barcelona. Itlaian influence can be seen in the architectural representation and the three dimension effects.

The technic used is the lineal gothic where the artist foucusses on the lines the figures in the drawings.

The Finding of Moses from the Golden Haggadah. The British Library, London.

Barcelona Haggadah

Probably made at the same time then the Golden Haggadah, in between the 1325 and 1350.

Barcelona Haggadah. The British Library, London, f. 61r

The order followed to read this books is from right to left. Musicians and the typical musical instruments are represented at the bottom of one of the pages, the instuments are the typical ones used on the XIVth century. The hebrew writing says Matzah Zho related to the unleavened bread and in the center of the page a Seder plate with the arms of Barcelona.

Sarajevo Haggadah

Sarajevo Haggadah. Zemaljski Muzej Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo

The importance of the sephardic haggadot lies not only in its indisputable artistic value, but also on the information that we can gather through the images of the houses, the furniture, the clothes and the different details that help us reconstruct daily life of the Jewish people in Barcelona before the tragic destruction of el Call in the year 1391.