Folio 36
Barcelona Haggadah
Folio 36
Folio 36
‘As for the one who does not know how to ask, you must broach the subject to him…'{f. 36a} On the page facing the end of the Four Sons sequence, fol. 36a, the flat leaves with serrated edges found in this quire are repeated, the forms now terminating with tapered, coloured leaves rather than with the acorn motif found earlier in the manuscript. It bears ornamental designs, but no illustrations. The initial word panel, containing the Hebrew word for ‘Thou shalt tell…’, is embellished with a hybrid animal whose head extends beyond the frame to the left margin, while a rampant lion presses its front paws against the right side of the panel.
The text on fol. 36b describes the earliest history of the Israelites, before Abraham’s covenant with God. The midrashic accounts of Abraham’s appearance before King Nimrod, when he was charged with breaking his idolatrous father Terah’s idols and sentenced to death in a furnace, were chosen as the themes for this illustration to the word ‘At first…’. The narrative begins within the initial word panel, extends into the inner margin and continues at the foot of the page. The youthful Abraham stands in the panel before the enthroned king, brandishing the stick with which he broke the idols, the upper part of which has been scratched away. In the bottom border he appears engulfed in flames and flanked by winged angels, while Nimrod watches from the centre of the border.
This leaf is supplied as a double page spread together with folio 37
Leaf size is approximately 255 x 190mm (10 x 7.5in)
£55.00
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