A Cast Brass Kabbalistic Hanukkah Oil Lamp, Germany, late 17th to early 18th century

A Cast Brass Kabbalistic Hanukkah Oil Lamp, Germany, late 17th to early 18th century
The ritual appurtenance of eight candle holders or sockets used for the holiday of Hanukkah symbolizes the Festival of the Inauguration of the Temple that lasted for eight days. Therefore architectural forms became a dominate shape of many Hanukkah lamps, and buildings' façade the standard pattern for the back wall of a large number of others. Starting in medieval times the motifs were modest and abstract in shape. But following the Renaissance and later in the emancipation period In the 18th century during the Jewish Enlightenment in Europe, as contact between Jews and their neighbors broaden in scope, the decoration became more ornate and extravagant

Dating the Hanukkah lamps is problematic. Whereas silver artifacts do sometimes have, the insignia of their makers or the country of their production, the cast brass ones do not. Their attribution to one country or another, based on the different variation, can be established on stylistic ground alone by an expert art historian.

 This Hanukkah lamb is dated on the basis of historic and artistic criteria as follows:

• During the 17th century the Kabbalah teaching of R. Isaac Luria (known as the Ariz"l) was highly celebrated by European Jews. Two motifs associate this lamp with this trend: (1) The central cartouche embossed in Hebrew with part of the first prayer for the holiday: 'L'hadlik Ner Hanukkah' (instead of 'Ner shel Hanukkah ') designates the citation of the blessing according to the Ariz"l. (2) The abstract tree's foliage that stamps from this cartouche brings into focus the Ari's most important book: "Ez Hayim".

• The balanced and symmetric composition of the backwall is strikingly simple. It entails the design of 2 lions, 2 birds, each with an incised eye, a central inscribed cartouche with a springing 'tree of life'. The abstract form of the lions entwined in the tree's foliage follows the Second Command (Exodus 20: 3). The two birds that sit perched on top of the back wall, identify it as an architectural façade with birds perching atop its roof. The two lions support the central tree, a replacement for the ancient motif of a 'Torah Ark'. These motifs, although it is less commonly realized, are traceable to the 6th-century floor mosaic of the Beit Alpha synagogue in Israel, insinuating the historical artistic source of the design on this Hanukkah lamp. Although hundreds of years separate between the two, the simple lines that control the composition of this Hanukah lamp supports an early vernacular origin for it, and therefore a date earlier than of most the European Jewish lamps seen around.

• The pierced, interlacing decoration of the backwall is reminiscent of Jewish paper-cut technique, mastered by Jewish artisans in Spain as early as the 14th century. This craft, renowned as Jewish craftsmanship, flourished in Germany during the 17th century.

• The construction which is comprised of 5 separate pieces, making it easy to be taken apart reflects the mobile, insecurity status of its owner.

• The two screws that fasten the backwall to the two sides of the lamp are in the shape of a four-petal flower, common in the 17th and 18th century (for similar screws see Sotheby's Important Judaica New York, 19 December, 2018).