Interior of a Synagogue

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Artist: Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667–1749)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: Unframed: 122 x 148.5 cm (48 1/16 x 58 7/16 in.)
Culture: Italy
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The Jewish synagogue was among Magnasco's most frequently painted subjects, here presented in a mystical and imaginative way. Expansive architectural space creates room for a multitude of tiny, fantastical figures with elongated limbs. These characters respond to the service with emotion and expressive gestures. Flashes of light dash across the surface against a dark, muted palette of earthy tones suggesting an otherworldly presence. The composition invites the viewer to enter the space and experience the service.

Though he used characteristic elements of Baroque composition and was strongly influenced by Venetian painting, Magnasco's loose brushwork, elongated figures, and mysterious subject matter set him apart. Magnasco peers into a world of which he was not part: he was not Jewish and probably perceived Jews as outsiders. At the dawn of the Enlightenment in Europe progressive aristocratic families commissioned paintings by Magnasco, suggesting the painter's support for Enlightenment ideals which included religious tolerance, but Magnasco's personal views on Judaism in Italy remain unknown.