Image of the Week: Renaissance Jew

© D. Yael Bernhard

Tomorrow at sundown Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins.  It seems like a good time to focus on the cover image of this year's Jewish Eye calendar.  Renaissance Jew (oil on canvas, 24"x30") is a Renaissance-style interpretive self-portrait – portraying my lifestyle as much as myself.  

I'm no portrait painter, and have never attempted one of myself before.  Rarely do I need to capture a specific likeness in my work.  For this painting it seemed worth some effort.  I aimed for what I looked like in my early forties, when my youngest child was born.  But as the painting progressed, my self-portrait became more emblematic and less realistic.  This woman actually looks more like an old friend of mine than myself (Deborah, are you reading this?).

The title is a pun, for all my life I've been called a "Renaissance woman."  As a contemporary expression, that means I'm involved in many creative pursuits and practices, which is true.  Beyond my primary passion as a visual artist, I'm also a dancer and musician; an avid gardener and natural food cook; a [non-professional] herbalist; a budding mycologist; an active hunter in my earlier years; a student of Hebrew and French; a children's book author; an art teacher; a forager and hiker – and more.

But for me, the historical meaning of "Renaissance woman" speaks louder – for only in a re-imagined Renaissance could a woman or a Jew undertake such diverse creative endeavors.  Not a day passes that I don't appreciate my freedom to pursue my passions in ways my foremothers only dreamed about.  In the 15th or 16th century, no woman and certainly no Jew was permitted to freely engage in creative expression.  

Could I depict a modern "Renaissance woman" as a Jewish woman in the Renaissance?

The Renaissance was a terrible time for the Jews – tens of thousands were tortured and murdered in the Inquisition – but it was also a time of flourishing in the arts, nourished by the newly-emerging humanism (not to be confused with humanitarianism) that was finally beginning to make subjects more human.  Three-quarter dimensional angles became popular, rather than the flat, expressionless figures of medieval art.  Facial expressions took on depth and emotion.  Gestures appeared more natural – yet a painted scene was still very much contrived, more like a still life with figures than a snapshot of life.  Objects were arranged in an architecture that was beginning to be spatial, with idealized landscapes receding in the distance.  More attention was given to light.  Renaissance artists also incorporated surrealistic elements into their work, such as two different skies, flying people, or inanimate objects coming to life – parallel to the fantastic imaginings of their northern counterparts such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

I tried to emulate all these elements in this painting, envisioning an idealized Renaissance in which a Jew and a woman like myself would be free to pursue her creative potential.  It wasn't easy to work in this style, or to make a harmonious composition of all these parts.  Renaissance Jew took several months to bring to completion, but it was a thoroughly satisfying effort.  

Reminder for my local readers! >> Tomorrow is the second day of my art studio sale, from 1-4.  I'll be giving a talk, including more on this subject, around 3pm.  Stop by and say hello!

It's not too late to order The Jewish Eye 5783 /2023 Calendar of Art!  You can find it in my webstore or on Amazon.  

A good week to all – and to all my Jewish readers, L'Shana Tova u'metukah – may 5783 be a good and sweet New Year.  

 

D Yael Bernhard http://dyaelbernhard.com children's books • fine art • illustration  posters • cards • calendars