The Binding of Isaac, reverse glass painting attributed to Moshe ben Yitzhak Mizrahi (Shah). [Presumably Jerusalem, late 19th century or first decades of the 20th century].

Glass panel, reverse-painted in the naive style characteristic of the artist.

The composition is divided into two horizontal strips: At the top of the upper strip appears the inscription "remember with compassion today the binding of Yitzhak for the benefit of his offspring" (from the Zikhronot section of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf prayer; Hebrew). Below it is a depiction of the Binding of Isaac: Abraham, wrapped in a tallit, raises the knife above the bound Isaac, lying on the altar. Over them hovers a six-winged angel with calf-like legs (in keeping with Ezekiel 1:7), restraining Abraham’s hand. To the left is the ram, its horns entangled in the thicket.

The lower strip, representing an earlier moment in the biblical narrative, is headed by the verse: "And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder… (Genesis 22:5). Abraham appears once again, carrying a knife and a firepan; Isaac bears a bundle of wood and a walking stick. To their left are Ishmael and Eliezer, identified in rabbinic tradition as the unnamed "young men" in the verse, together with the donkey. The figures are labeled in Hebrew: "donkey", "Ishmael", and "Eliezer". Abraham and Isaac wear red turbans, while Ishmael and Eliezer are depicted in Ottoman-style tarbush caps, with Ishmael brandishing a curved sword. The two strips are framed within a ropework border.

Unsigned and undated, this painting is attributed to Moshe ben Yitzhak Mizrahi (known as Shah or "Tehrani"). Born in Tehran before 1870, he immigrated to Palestine ca. 1890 and adopted the surname Mizrahi. He settled in Jerusalem, where he worked as a sofer stam (scribe) and operated a shop for mirrors and frames in the Old City’s spice market. Following the 1929 Palestine riots, he relocated to the Nahalat Zion neighborhood. Known in Jerusalem as the "painter of menorahs" (Shiviti plaques), he produced devotional and biblical-themed images in his spare time. Reverse glass painting was among his favored techniques, and according to contemporary accounts from World War I, he often sourced glass panes from broken windows he collected around Jerusalem.

The composition of this work closely resembles that of the Safed artist Yosef Zvi Geiger (1870-1944; see: Kedem, Auction 86, Part I, May 24, 2022, Lot 85). Judaica collector Yitzhak Einhorn testified that Mizrahi lived in Safed for several years before settling in Jerusalem, and likely became familiar with Geiger’s rendering of the Akeidah motif, which he adopted and repeated in various works, as was common in folk art traditions.

Furthermore, Shalom Sabar, in his article "The Binding of Isaac in the Works of Moshe Shah Mizrahi", notes that the Akeidah motif originated in Eastern European folk art: "It was in Poland of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the ‘aqedah was certainly the most popular biblical episode in Jewish art. The scene appears on myriad objects, including the device of a Hebrew printer, Torah Ark curtain, Torah crowns, silver buckles for Yom Kippur belts, plates for Redemption of the First Born ceremonies, silver book bindings, popular paper cuts" (Sabar, p. 267) – as well as painted synagogue walls. As in the present example, Abraham is often depicted wearing a tallit with a silver atarah and black stripes in the Hasidic style.

References

• Art and Craft in Eretz Israel in the 19th Century, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1979 (Hebrew).

• Shalom Sabar, "The Binding of Isaac in the Work of Moshe Shah Mizraḥi: A Persian-Jewish Folk Artist in Early Twentieth-Century Jerusalem", in: Aaron Koller and Daniel Tsadik, eds., Iran, Israel, and the Jews: Symbiosis and Conflict, New York: Yeshiva University, 2019, 254-286 (English version).

19.5X25 cm. Good to fair condition. Minor paint flaking and cracks. Wear and minor blemishes to the frame. Housed in an old wooden frame with breaks and defects (not examined outside the frame).