The Song of Songs Carpet, Jerusalem, ca. 1920s

Inspired by the Art Nouveau style, this vibrant carpet is replete with free flowing, curving lines and intertwining floral patterns set against a light gray-blue background centered by a large stylized palm tree. The shape of the canopy evokes the Tablets of the Law, and the scene below illustrates the verses from the Song of Songs repeated within the inner text border: “The blossoms have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come; the song of the turtledove is heard in our land. The green figs form on the fig tree, the vines in blossom give off fragrance” (2:12-13). Appropriately, the field beneath the tree is inhabited by both flora and fauna, including deer, antelope, ibex, peacock, crane, turtledove, vines, and flowers. The words “Song of Songs” are inscribed throughout the outer text border, which itself encloses a repeating pattern of peacocks flanking fountains alternating with grape clusters.

The carpet was designed by Aviezer Yaacov Kanterovitch (1890-1961), head of the carpet department at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts and manager of its affiliated Marbadiah carpet-weaving workshop, founded in 1920. It comes from the personal collection of Anton Felton, an internationally recognized authority on the history of Jewish carpets.

Physical Description

Undyed cotton and wool (55 1/2 x 37 in.; 1410 x 940 mm). Sewn with a cloth band for suspension on the reverse.

Literature

Chaya Benjamin, Early Israeli Arts and Crafts : Bezalel Treasures from the Alan B. Slifka Collection in the Israel Museum (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2008), 75.

Anton Felton, Jewish Carpets: A History and Guide (Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1997), 90-91 (no. 26).

Jay Weinstein, A Collectors’ Guide to Judaica (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1985), 168 (no. 22).