Rare Ceramic Plaque Created by Boris Schatz – Portrait of Prof. Otto Warburg – Repousée Brass Frame – ...

Rare Ceramic Plaque Created by Boris Schatz – Portrait of Prof. Otto Warburg – Repousée Brass Frame – “Bezalel”, 1905 / 1929
Cast ceramic plaque, depicting Prof. Otto Warburg in profile, created by Boris Schatz. Signed and titled. [Berlin, 1905].
Mounted in a repousée brass frame, designed by Ze’ev Raban, head of the repousée department of “Bezalel” and by the department’s craftsmen, for Prof. Warburg’s 70th birthday in 1929.
On top of the frame - a vignette depicting the biblical artisan Bezalel Ben Uri, builder of the temple, sitting in front of the ark, the sun shining behind him, all surrounded by images of branches, pomegranates and flowers. The margins are decorated with Menorahs, with an engraved inscription: “From Bezalel to our President – Prof. O. Warburg”.
A long Hebrew inscription appears on the lower part of the frame: “Bnei Bezalel, its director, teachers, staff, students, artists and workers present you, our president, for your seventieth birthday, with this present, wishing you a long and good life, and the ability to revive Bezalel, to bring joy to your heart and benefit to Eretz Israel and the people of Israel”.
On the right and left appear two twisted pillars, with stylized Menorahs on their bases; topped with a depiction of “Bezalel” buildings surrounded by two snakes with their tongues sticking out.
The plaque was created by Schatz in 1905, when he stayed in Berlin (with Ephraim Moshe Lilien) in order to use the famous foundry “H. Gladenbeck & Sohn” for some of his work. Lilien introduced him to Dr. Franz Oppenheimer, a Zionist activist and supporter of cooperative settlement, and the latter introduced Schatz to Otto Warburg (1859-1938), a professor of Botany, expert on colonization matters and later the third president of the Zionist Organization. The two supported with enthusiasm Schatz’s initiative to found an art academy in Jerusalem and promoted the idea of “Bezalel”. Prof. Warburg was elected to serve as the head of the executive committee of “Bezalel”, and to mark this appointment, Schatz created the plaque offered here.
In 1929, following several severe financial problems, “Bezalel” was closed (until the reopening of the “New Bezalel” in 1935). Three years later Schatz passed away.
The plaque offered here is one of the last works created in “Bezalel” during the crisis of the school, and it supplies evidence as to the dire condition of the institute and the persistent attempts of Schatz to revive it: this is evident in the dedication hoping to revive “Bezalel” and in the unique allegoric depiction, of poisonous snakes surrounding the school’s buildings.
Plaque: 39X26.5 cm. Some damage to lower part, restored. Frame: 68.5X39.5 cm. Good condition.
Literature:
1. The Palestine Weekly, to Bezalel on the Occasion of the 25th, Jerusalem, August 1st 1930 (photographed).
2. Bezalel by Schatz 1906-1929, exhibition catalogue (Jerusalem, 1982) P. 134 (photographed).
3. Boris Schatz, the Father of Israeli Art, (Hebrew), by Yigal Zalmona. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2006. p.74; p. 79 (photographed).
See: Sotheby’s, Judaica, Tel-Aviv, October 30, 2002, lot no. 243A.