Scenes from the Life of Rabbi Isaac Luria, Shalom Moskowitz the Galilean, Safed: [mid-20th century]

Scenes from the Life of Rabbi Isaac Luria, Shalom Moskowitz the Galilean, Safed: [mid-20th century]

Shalom Moskowitz of Safed (1895-1980) was a folk artist who created a large oeuvre of paintings devoted to the themes of Jewish life. His great-grandparents had immigrated from Eastern Europe to the Holy Land in the eighteenth century, and Shalom lived in picturesque Safed in the Galilean hills for most of his life. Although his artistic talents were discovered late in life, within a short time Shalom attained a worldwide reputation as a talented naïve painter.

The subject of this painting is a series of vignettes from the life of the renowned sixteenth-century kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as “The Holy Ari.” Luria is shown in the lower register seated in his study and teaching his students the secrets of the Kabbalah. In the upper register, he is depicted leading his many students to welcome the Sabbath in the fields surrounding the city of Safed.

Physical Description

Tempera on paper (17 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.; 445 x 315 mm). Matted and framed.