Exhibition Details
Sacred Splendor features Christian reliquaries on loan from St. Vitus Cathedral—the most extensive presentation of this treasury ever exhibited outside Europe—together with Jewish treasures never before shown in the United States. Through a robust presentation of over 160 objects, the exhibition examines shared urban and artistic environments, and the distinct ritual and theological frameworks that shaped sacred art across Central Europe. Highlights include rarely seen medieval Jewish-owned objects from hoards buried during periods of persecution that remained hidden for centuries, as well as Jewish ceremonial works from Bohemia and the Germanic regions, among them Torah ornaments, metalwork, and manuscripts.
Additional Details
The exhibition also features tehillim [Psalms] (2018) by contemporary artist Edmund de Waal, whose work engages interculturally with history, memory, and language. tehillim’s spare composition of ceramic, alabaster, and gold leaf resonates powerfully with surviving fragments from medieval Jewish hoards that are also on view, engaging with the Book of Psalms as “songs and poems of exile.” Concurrently, in the Museum’s new third-floor collection galleries, two focused contemporary installations will expand on Sacred Splendor's themes. Featuring artists Hannah Altman and Afruz Amighi, these presentations dialogue with the themes and materiality of the treasures on display from St. Vitus Cathedral and other sources across Europe and the United States.
Location
The Jewish Museum
1109 5th Avenue (at 92nd Street)
New York, NY 10128
Left: Gothic Sacrament House, Prague, Master Wenceslas, c. 1375. Iron, gilded. Prague, Saint Vitus Cathedral, Saint Wenceslas Chapel. Right: Spice Container, Germany, c. 1550. Silver: traced, pierced, cast, and parcel-gilt.
Image Courtesy of The Jewish Museum, New York.
Photo by Kris Graves