- Object Name:
- Marriage Contract
- Artist/Maker:
- Studio of Isidoro Baratta
- Place Made:
- Livorno (Italy)
- Date:
- 1751
- Medium:
- Pen, ink, gouache, and gold paint on parchment
- Dimensions:
- 21 × 13 5/8 in. (53.3 × 34.5 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Anonymous gift
- Accession Number:
- U 8440
Not On View
For more than 2,500, Jewish brides have received a written contract from their grooms as an integral part of the marriage ceremony. Some scholars beleive that the institution of the ketubbah (contract) may be even older. By the 10th century, Jews living in the Levant had begun to decorate their contracts, a custom that prevailed only in Oriental and Sephardic communities until the modern era. This magnificent example was created for the marriage of two Sephardim, Eliahu, son of Solomon Judah Hayyim Teglio al-Fierino, to Suna Rachel, daughter of Isaac Yeshurun. The ceremony took place on Wednesday, the 6th of Adar, 5511 (=1751), in Livorno, a city that was settled in the late 16th century by Sephardic Jews and New Christians (Marranos) who wished to return to Judaism.
The city boasted a magnificent synagogue which was enlarged and refurbished over a period of many years in the 18th century. In 1740, Isidoro Baratta, a sculptor form Carrara, was chosen to design an elaborate marble ark. The overall structure of his design as well as many of its details were incorporated into the rich frame of this ketubbah. The columns turned at an angle to the plane of the entablature, the rococo cartouches above and below the central area, and the differently colored marble inlays are features appearing on both the ark and the ketubbah. Though putti were not part of the decoration of the ark, Baratta carved framing figures similar to those on the ketubbah in the local church. The decoration of the ketubbah is thus heavily dependent on Baratta's work in Livorno.
The use of a fancilful combinations of figures and architecture as a frame for texts has a long tradition in manuscripts illumination. From the 16th through the 18th centuries it appears in the design of frontispieces in printed books, and on earlier Italian ketubbot. The achievement of the artist who decorated this contract was to have wed these many traditonal elements into a balanced yet dynamic compostiion that is unified by a harmonious palette of blue, green, red, gold, and white.
The city boasted a magnificent synagogue which was enlarged and refurbished over a period of many years in the 18th century. In 1740, Isidoro Baratta, a sculptor form Carrara, was chosen to design an elaborate marble ark. The overall structure of his design as well as many of its details were incorporated into the rich frame of this ketubbah. The columns turned at an angle to the plane of the entablature, the rococo cartouches above and below the central area, and the differently colored marble inlays are features appearing on both the ark and the ketubbah. Though putti were not part of the decoration of the ark, Baratta carved framing figures similar to those on the ketubbah in the local church. The decoration of the ketubbah is thus heavily dependent on Baratta's work in Livorno.
The use of a fancilful combinations of figures and architecture as a frame for texts has a long tradition in manuscripts illumination. From the 16th through the 18th centuries it appears in the design of frontispieces in printed books, and on earlier Italian ketubbot. The achievement of the artist who decorated this contract was to have wed these many traditonal elements into a balanced yet dynamic compostiion that is unified by a harmonious palette of blue, green, red, gold, and white.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.