The artist Shabse Sack

I vaguely recall my grandmother (z'l) once telling me that the large shul in her shtetl had murals done by a professional artist, and it was very beautiful. In looking for more information, I found in the English translation of the yizkor book about her town several references to this artwork. Zvi Hirsh-Glazer writes that "The big synagogue stood out because of its internal and external beauty. Inside, the walls of the chapel were covered with wonderful paintings in oil colors by the artist Jacques from Lvov." Martin Heliczer writes "The interior of the synagogue was decorated with paintings by the artist from Lemberg, Shabtai Jaque." In the section of the yizkor book describing Mikulince during WWII, Nusia Schweizer Horowitz writes "At the beginning of 1942, the big synagogue, the pride of Mikulince’s Jews was destroyed. The beautiful wall paintings done by the artist Jacques were broken and the stones were taken for use in road construction."

A cursory internet search for a Jewish artist from Lviv named Jacques led me nowhere, so I looked to the original Hebrew version. There the name is written as שבתי זק or זאק. This was much more useful. Shabbetai Sack is included in the index of the Center for Jewish Art, represented by two carved works, along with the information that these items belonged to Maksymilian Goldstein and are housed at the Lviv Museum of Ethnography and Crafts. We also have vital dates! 1851-1942. No sources provided here, but confirmed by the Yad Vashem Shoah victims database.

 

 

Even better was this item description from a recent Kedem auction lot. The item is a lively painting celebrating the month of Adar. The description cites a book published by Goldstein, Kultura i sztuka ludu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich. Now we're getting somewhere!

 I found the book in the YIVO stacks. It is written in Polish, obviously, and has no index, but fortunately the Kedem citation included page numbers. Thanks guys! I also found an online pdf. Goldstein was clearly a fan of Sack's work, as he opted to include several exemplars in this book, along with devoting a page's worth of text to him. 

Shabse (Sabatai) Sack cannot be overlooked on this occasion. Mr. Szabse is currently 82 years old, and is a prime example of the versatility of the Jewish people's talents. Born in Salonika, he has lived in our land since his youth, working here primarily as a painter, and has five daughters and three sons, also painters. The decorative art of painting has survived in this family for many generations. The master, despite being eighty years old, is very active, manages without glasses, has a rosy, wrinkle-free face, framed by a trimmed gray beard; he speaks a great deal, well, and eloquently. When we visited him, he was busy carving. He was carving a beautiful, large frame with allegorical scenes for the synagogue. Szabse has already embellished a whole series of synagogues: in Skałat, Kopyczyniec, Mikuliniec, Grzymałów, Radziechów, Złoczów, Zurawno, Podwoloczyska, Bolechów, Janów, etc., and even some of the decorations on the church in Gołogóry are his own. Above all, he takes care of "his" synagogue, known as the Rapp Synagogue, on Berka Joselowicza Street in Lviv, where he has completed many works. He is no stranger to stone carving, and he also plays the violin. He mastered all these arts entirely "by himself," as a self-taught artist. Of course, his greatest pride is his knowledge of Hebrew, the Bible, and Talmudic books, from which he often draws motifs and quotations. He created larger works together with his sons and brother, whom he even brought from Turkey for this purpose. Among the hand-painted mizrachi in our collection, a standout example is the one executed correctly with watercolors by this accomplished Jewish artist. Among the numerous ceiling paintings in various synagogues in Eastern Lesser Poland, we would like to mention a reduced-size typical Sack ceiling painting, which we possess. It is an oil painting on wood; on its four corners we see allegorical biblical animals: a lion, a deer, an eagle, and a tiger, along with the corresponding Hebrew inscriptions. The names of the Jewish months and a biblical verse with didactic content can also be read on this ceiling.  

(Maksymiljan Goldstein and Karol Dresdner, Kultura i sztuka ludu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich. Lviv: M. Goldstein, 1935, pp. 79-80; as translated by Google Translate)

If not the exact painting referred to above, the work reproduced on page 60 is surely very similar:

 Other Sack works among the illustrations in Goldstein's book:

While by no means expert, these illustrations reveal Sack's artwork to be lively and festive. I can now begin to imagine what my grandmother saw and felt as she stood beside her mother and grandmother during the yontifs of her childhood, gazing at the lavishly colorful ceiling as the chazan's singing filled her ears.

I would love to see more examples of Sack's work. Unfortunately, to do so, I would have to try to catch them on exhibit at the Lviv Museum of Ethnography and Crafts (deeply unlikely). Until then, I'll keep an eye on Kedem auctions.