Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam [triptych]. Paris, 1923.

Szyk’s Earliest Works of Jewish Persecution

SZYK, Arthur. Ad Majorem dei Gloriam. [For the Sanctification of the Holy Name] Signed and Dated  “Paris, 1923, A. Szyk”. Triptych in watercolor and gouache. Image sizes: 3 1/2″ x 5″, 3 1/2″ x 3″,  and 3 1/2″ x 3″. Very Good condition.

These three paintings reveal the profound reverence Arthur Szyk felt for the countless Jews who met their deaths in defense of their faith.

DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND TEMPLE. The top image is an overview of the destruction of the Second Temple. While the sanctuary burns in the background Roman looters carry off the temple’s sacred ritual objects. The bodies of those slain in the catastrophe lay upon the ground, while the still living Jewish captives are being led away to slavery.

SPANISH INQUISTION. The image at the bottom left is of three medieval Jews about to be burnt at the stake. This auto-de-fé is being enacted by the will of the Spanish Inquisition, portrayed here as pompous, overfed, zealots holding a scroll upon which is written “Sancta Inquisition, Judforum.”

RUSSIAN POGROMS. The final image is also the most recent. A small European village, synagogue in the background, is the scene of an all too common anti-Semitic atrocity. This image of a brutal pogrom, depicts a rabbi fleeing with the Torah while a Russian soldier tries to hack him with a saber. A bearded elder will soon be killed by a Cossack’s knife.

Historical Significance: THE ONLY KNOWN SZYK TRIPTYCH. This is a highly unusual example in Szyk’s canon, since he is not known to have presented multiple images in this storyboard style. The grouping of the three individually, hellish, images creates a still more powerful whole, that in turn becomes a far larger condemnation of religious intolerance.  Painted more than a decade before the unimaginable nightmare of the Holocaust and World War II, Szyk’s prescience anticipated the further martyrdom of Jews who perished  ahl kiddush hashem, sanctifiying the name of the Holy One.

HIGHLY IMPORTANT WORKS. These three incredibly detailed miniatures represent Szyk’s first comprehensive artistic rendering and expression of the persecution of the Jews through the ages. It is against this backdrop that he devoted his life and his art as the “fighting artist” to create an image of the Jew who would not stand idly by as atrocities and indignities were perpetrated against his people. These are exceptional pieces at the very beginning of Szyk’s career as an illuminator of the people of Israel.

Provenance: Harry Glemby.

Exhibition History: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 29 August 2008–4 January 2009.

Publication History: Drawing Against National Socialism and Terror, Deutsches Historiches Museum catalogue, Berlin, 2008, p. 78-79. Freedom Illuminated: Understanding The Szyk Haggadah, Burlingame, CA: Historicana, 2008, p. 174.