Wandalin Strzałecki's ‘Song on the Destruction of Jerusalem'. A Homage to Maurycy Gottlieb and Poland

The destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple has remained a constant cultural, religious, and theoretical preoccupation of Jews and non-Jews. Deeply enshrined in historical memory, the destruction has occasioned a wide range of interpretations, associations, and metaphoric analogies. As such, it has, of course, also captured the imagination and interpretation of a wide range of artists – from Rembrandt and Nicolas Poussin in the seventeenth century, to Eduard Bendemann (1811-1889), the German artist of Jewish origin and Wilhelm von Kaulbach in the nineteenth. While often utilizing the destruction as a metaphor for other historical events or cultural phenomena, artists have chosen to depict either the acts of violence and havoc during the tragic event itself or created a more contemplative atmosphere that focused on the feelings of loss, mourning, and displacement that came in its wake. The Italian artist Francesco Hayez (1791-1881), known especially for his history painting, can serve as an example of the former in his 1867 work (fig. 1), whereas the artist Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874-1925), born in Galicia (in the Austrian Empire) imbued with Zionist leanings, represents the latter tendency with his 1910 creation On the Rivers of Babylon (fig. 2)