“In every generation, one is obliged to regard himself as though he himself had actually gone out from Egypt…(Passover Hagadah)” Many might say that this is the purpose of our seder, to fully experience the exodus from Egypt. The question remains, exactly how do we do this? Surely it is fulfilled with the symbolic Pesach sacrifice and the Matzah and Maror set before us on our seder table. And yet the Rambam’s Hagadah reads; “…one is obliged to show himself as if he had gone out from Egypt.” Some Hagadahs by their contemporary artwork actually fulfill this mitzvah.

Two printed hagadahs auctioned by Kestenbaum and Company on March 12, 2002 illuminate how a Hagadah can evoke the present. The “Second Mantua Hagadah” from 1568 is considered by Cecil Roth as “One of the most remarkable and at the same time perplexing illustrated works of the sixteenth century.” This extremely rare second edition of the original Mantua Hagadah (1560) contains a commentary by Joseph of Padua. In order to accommodate the additional text certain changes had to be made in the surrounding decorative woodcut images. Almost all the changes and many of the original features express not only the comfort the Jews of Italy had with their surrounding culture but also how immediate the seder narrative was for them.

The 1568 title page is festooned with the most fashionable and au courant Italian Renaissance decorations. An ornate arch covered with fruit laden vines stands as a backdrop to the classical figures of Mars and Minerva. Mars represented the cruel arts of war and spring, traditionally the season when wars are initiated, while the female warrior Minerva epitomized prudence and wisdom incarnate. The title page demonstrates that with God’s help the Jews of Mantua were victorious over their enemies and, as members of the larger Mantuan society, had proudly published their sacred Hagadah. This assertive attitude was a reaction to the relatively recent campaign against Hebrew books that began with the burning of the Talmud in Rome in 1553. Clearly the city of Mantua was a safe haven for Jewish life and publishing. Each of the succeeding pages is surrounded by woodcuts of bountiful garlands graced with cherubs offering fruits and Matzah shaped disks and playing various musical instruments. Though the printer was Jewish, most of these images are stock Renaissance designs. What is of great interest is the ease with which secular motifs are appropriated into this Hagadah.

In the original 1560 Mantua Hagadah the wise son was represented by a woodcut image that was taken directly from Michelangelo’s figure of Jeremiah executed in fresco in 1512 in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo, still alive in 1560, was arguably the most famous artist of his time and this powerful prophetic figure was well known among the cultural elite by way of contemporary etchings. The emblematic Jew’s hat has fully appropriated the image originally created for the Pope’s private chapel. Notably in the second edition of 1568 this image was captioned as a “A portrait of a old man who has acquired wisdom, replying to the wise [son] with knowledge and deliberation.” For the Mantuan Jewish community this Hagadah was filled with modern and meaningful images that made the seder a totally contemporary experience.

Almost three hundred years later in the Trieste Hagadah, designated by the 20th century scholar Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi as the “most distinguished illustrated edition produced in Europe during the nineteenth century,” the Italians are again creating hagadahs relevant to their time. This Hagadah is different in format and illustration than any that preceded it. It is ordered and sensible in a typically nineteenth century enlightened sort of way, with forty illustrations on the top of almost every page. The text is neatly divided with Hebrew on the right and Italian on the left. Contemporary scenes frame the beginning and end of the Hagadah. We see a fashionable lady cleaning her Trieste household before the holiday and her husband and son searching for chametz with candle and feather. In one of the final illustrations with a snapshot-like clarity, an entire middle class Italian family is seated ready to say Birchas ha Mazon. This contemporary depiction challenges the more anachronistic depictions prevalent in the preceding two hundred years of Italian Hagadahs.

The primitive style of C. Kirchmayr’s etchings consistently offer a fresh interpretation of traditional Hagadah subjects. Among those included is the enslavement of Israelites, Abraham sending away Hagar and Ishmael, the Akeidah, the forced labor of the Israelites building the Store Cities, the passage of the Jews through the Red Sea (seen from above), and non-traditional subjects such as the stolen blessing of Isaac, the sale of Joseph, Moses striking the rock and David and his harp. While most of these are rendered in an eclectic mix of invented and biblical dress, at least one stands out for its pure contemporary feel.

The Finding of Moses along a bucolic north Italian river, with Pharaoh’s daughter and her maidens dressed in modern mid-nineteenth century finery, is a prize. While the black slave girls fanning their mistresses could be taken from an illustration from the contemporaneous Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the introduction of Miriam into the scene as a child is truly a gem. Her protective attention for her little brother lends poignancy and immediacy to the scene. Each woman at the seder could imagine herself in Miriam’s place. A final illustration of mid-nineteenth century Jerusalem confronts each Jew at the seder table with a visual representation of the final redemption in their time. At seder’s end, Trieste Jewry of 1864 exclaimed with conviction, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”

The Hagadah cites the Torah, saying; “You shall tell your son on that day, saying: ‘For the sake of this, Hashem did for me when I went out from Egypt.’” May this be fulfilled in all our Hagadahs and seders until we are redeemed in Jerusalem.

Haggadah and History by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Jewish Publication Society, (1997) was the source of background information for this article.

Richard McBee
March 11, 2002

Kestenbaum & Company; (212 366 1197) Viewings at The Doral Park Avenue Hotel 70 Park Avenue, New York, NY

Mantua Hagadah (1568) Ha lachmah Detail Courtesy Kestenbaum & Company


Mantua Hagadah (1568) Old man replies to wise son Courtesy Kestenbaum & Company


Prophet Jeremiah, detail from Sistine Chapel (1512) Michelangelo The Vatican Frescos by Pierluigi de Vecchi; Abbeville Press, 1996


Trieste Hagadah (1864) Brochos ha mazon Courtesy Kestenbaum & Company

Trieste Hagadah (1864) The finding of Moses