Feas of Trumpets

This portrayal of the Jewish Feast of Trumpets is one of the most important works in Aleksander Gierymski’s (1850-1901) output. It deals with rituals associated with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana, popularly known as the Feast of Trumpets, and analogous in significance to the generally accepted New Year. The feast commemorates the creation of the world and reminds practitioners of God’s judgement, thus during ritual prayers, sins are symbolically cast off into bodies of water. The rites of the Feast of Trumpets are shown at the moment that dusk falls. The static landscape of the riverbank corresponds to the quietude and concentration of the men lost in prayer. There were three versions of The Feast of Trumpets by Aleksander Gierymski. The first, painted in 1884, is today held in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw. The two remaining versions were painted in Munich in 1890; the larger is believed to be lost while the smaller is displayed at the National Museum in Krakow, in the Sukiennice branch.