Prominent Rabbis - Lithograph - Breslau, Late 19th Century

Prominent Jewish Rabbis, chromolithograph. [Published by S. Schottlaender [?]. Breslau, ca. last decade of the 19th century]. Portraits of 40 leading rabbis throughout the generations, including the Rambam, Isaac Abarbanel, Rabbi Shmuel Eidels (the Maharsha), the Vilna Gaon, the Maggid of Koznitz, the Chatam Sofer and his sons, Rabbi Akiva Eiger and others; each portrait is within a medallion with a golden frame. In the center of the lithograph, above the portrait of the Rambam, appears a Torah Crown. The group portrait, a common cultural phenomenon at the time, portrayed the rabbis of that generation as part of a larger whole - as partners in the historic enterprise which started with the great rabbis of the Middle Ages, continuing the chain of tradition of the Oral Torah. 49.5X36.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Suspension holes. Minor blemishes. All margins are trimmed, with loss of the printing details and location. Open tears at margins of leaf. Literature: And Your Eyes Shall See Your Teachers: The Rabbi as Icon, by Yerachmiel Cohen and Richard I. Cohen. Zion, vol. 58. 1993. Pp. 445-446.