ART
Past and Present by goldie gross
Two-tone T wo o-tto tone ton ne ca canvas anvas tarps mounted on tubular poles. Vinyl-covered fiberglass panels held together by a matte aluminum frame. A roll-up roll up bamboo mat retrieved from the corner of the basement: these are the trappings of the modern Sukkah. But were things always this way? The answer is a resounding no. The Sukkahs that dot Jewish backyards, roofs, and porches are inherently modern inventions, a contemporary way to celebrate an ancient holiday. So how were Sukkahs built in past generations? One of the best ways to study the practices of the past is through art (their halachic status is beyond the scope of this article). For looking at medieval times, illuminated manuscripts serve as a helpful guide for getting an idea of how holidays were celebrated. Engraved works (prints) rose in popularity with the rise of printing and also offer a more detailed picture than miniature paintings in manuscripts can offer. Finally, we are lucky to have some surviving examples of Sukkahs from Eastern Europe that weren’t destroyed during the Holocaust. A number of Italian illuminated manuscripts contain illustrations of Sukkahs. One Italian siddur from 1383 shows several suggestions of a Sukkah, but not a complete picture of how it would have been built [Figure 1]. In this illustration, we see three pointed trefoil arches. These elements belong to a Gothic style of architecture, something of an “ecstatic Classicism.”1 This style is a sort of revamping of more traditional forms with an emphasis on soaring arches, columns, and points, a “mysticism made possible by advances of engineering” that began in the middle of the 12th century.2 Whether this painting is a peek from the square-headed window of an Italian home or a peek into an architecturally complex Sukkah is hard to tell.
Figure 1: Forli Siddur, 1383, British Library
The plant-based sukkah, the one smuggled out of Germany, the attic sukkah in Belarus, the stained glass porch Sukkah in Poland and Sukkah City in Manhattan
Tishrei 5781 Edition 47
