An Elaborate Parchment Cut Esther Scroll, Ahron Starr [Jerusalem: 2011]

Ink on parchment, (16 x 202 in.; 401 x 5131 mm). Text written in square Hebrew script arranged in 20 columns with 21 lines to a column, on 6 membranes stitched together. Housed in a custom octagonal olivewood case. 

Paper and parchment cut artworks were an especially popular form of decorating Jewish liturgical objects such as ketubbot , Omer calendars, and wall hangings such as shivitis and mizrahs. In the late eighteenth century, Jewish artists in Italy initiated a new tradition of adorning megillot with intricately designed cutout borders.

The present contemporary scroll, an extraordinarily skilled example of the artistic technique of parchment-cut work, presents a remarkably detailed depiction of the Purim story. The artist has designed a complex series of forty-four images which highlight the dramatic events of the Book of Esther. These narrative scenes enrich the meticulously penned scribal text of the megilla, by providing a visual counterpoint though the use of delicately rendered cut-out designs.

The American-born Israeli artist, Ahron Starr is renowned for his elaborate, one-of-a-kind paper and parchment cut Judaica creations.