Language:
English
Pages:
Illustrationen
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Ars Judaica : the Bar-Ilan journal of Jewish art
Publ. der Quelle:
Ramat-Gan
Angaben zur Quelle:
1 (2005), Seite 117 - 132
Abstract:
The origins of the typical shtetl-like image of the Fiddler so popular in Chagall's art go back to his 1908 work, The Seated Violinist, which initially introduced this subject. This image of Chagall's uncle playing a violin offers a basis for a complex development of the theme. Locating The Seated Violinist in the proper Russian and Jewish intellectual atmosphere influencing Chagall during his early student years in St. Petersburg enables discovery of such various sources as Symbolist art and interest in music, Hasidic traditions of niggunim, Jewish folk art, and Yiddish songs. By skillfully combining these elements with a childlike, primitive, and unfinished quality, Chagall created an image which simultaneously expressed the tribulations of Jewish life in the Diaspora, a deep connection with Jewish sources, fascination with Russian literature and art, and hopes for a better future. Once taken outdoors, as in the work entitled Musicians of the same year, the fiddler became a wandering, blind Jewish klezmer musician who played both for Jews and Gentiles and helped bridge the gap between those two worlds. Moreover, the artist himself, torn between his Jewish roots and Russian culture, found inspiration in the fiddler's blindness, which helped him create art that was new and original, independent of the surrounding, realistic world. Through this early image of the fiddler Chagall thus set out upon the path towards creating modern Jewish art.
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