Caricature with various Hebrew phrases seeking to vindicate the artist

PADOVA, ZECHARIAH

Modena, Italy 1777

Etching. Framed (with autograph notes by Cecil Roth pasted to back)

Not in Rubens

Unique in both its caricature art form, and as the only one Known of its kind Padova, a scholar from Modena, produced this etching after a quarrel he had with community leaders. He depicts himself seated in his study with his elegantly dressed opponents advancing on him, one of whom his most bitter of enemies within the body of a dog. A noteworthy achievement as curiously enough, even with Italian Jewry's strong artistic tradition, it is rare to find the use of caricature in 18th-century Jewish art. See C. Roth Jewish Art (1961) col. 521