International Women's DayRuth is one of the first documented Jews by choice

Spotlighted at the Morgan, Book of Ruth’s strong women tell a contemporary tale

At NY’s Morgan Library and Museum through June, intricate manuscripts dating from the Middle Ages until today show how famine and a refugee led to the rise of the House of David

Reporter at The Times of Israel

'Illuminated Book of Ruth' artist Barbara Wolff applies silver leaf to the manuscript. (Courtesy)
'Illuminated Book of Ruth' artist Barbara Wolff applies silver leaf to the manuscript. (Courtesy)

NEW YORK — Famine and flight, emigration and immigration, the idea of being a stranger in a strange land — the story of Ruth is as much a biblical story as it is a story for today. It’s also the subject of a new exhibit, “The Book of Ruth: Medieval to Modern,” at the Morgan Library and Museum.

“Everyone is aware of the large numbers of refugees in the world right now and that in this country, and in other countries, there are very strong feelings about that,” said Roger S. Wieck, the Morgan’s Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, calling the timing of the exhibit with current events an “unhappy accident.”

The show’s focal point is the Joanna S. Rose Illuminated Book of Ruth, a nine-inch tall by 18-foot-long accordion-fold vellum manuscript, designed and illuminated by New York artist Barbara Wolff. The intricately designed work commands attention, displayed as it is in conversation with 12 manuscripts, drawn from the Morgan’s holdings of Christian texts from the Middle Ages.

A band of blue representing the sky and a magnified frieze of the landscape that borders the manuscript contrast with the gallery’s parchment hued walls. The colors surrounding the manuscript are meant to evoke the land in which Ruth lived.

‘Illuminated Book of Ruth’ artist Barbara Wolff. (Courtesy)

“People who know the landscape will know where they are when they look at the border,” Wolff told The Times of Israel from her studio in Manhattan. “At the opening I had people come up to me and say they could see the cliffs on the other side of the Dead Sea that would be Moab, or the Judean hills. I felt sort of vindicated.”

Where Wolff painted all the illustrations and applied the gold, silver and platinum leaf, Izzy Pludwinski, who lives in Israel, did the calligraphy. The two also worked on the Rose Haggadah together and are now collaborating on a Song of Songs project. Wolff’s husband Rudi custom designed the box which originally housed the book.

Wolff said she’s awed that both the Rose Haggadah and the Rose Book of Ruth now reside in the Morgan’s permanent collection.

“I’d visit the Morgan as a teenager growing up in New York,” she said. “They had no Hebrew manuscripts until the Joanna Rose Haggadah. It became the first Hebrew text in their collection. It’s wonderful to know that our texts are there.”

According to the Bible, Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi was an Israelite who, with her family, fled a famine in Judea. They found refuge in Moab, but then Naomi’s husband and two sons died. After their deaths she told her Moabite daughters-in-law she would return to Judah alone.

The Joanna S. Rose Illuminated Book of Ruth, part of the new exhibit, ‘The Book of Ruth: Medieval to Modern,’ at The Morgan Library and Museum. (Courtesy: The Morgan Library and Museum)

Orpah stayed in Moab. Ruth chose to accompany Naomi, telling her “Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God.” And so Ruth became one of the first documented Jews by choice.

The pair arrived in Bethlehem during the spring harvest and found work in the fields, gleaning barley. That’s where Ruth first sees Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi. Soon after she introduces herself to him they marry and found what becomes the House of David.

Ruth and Naomi embracing, from the ‘Illuminated Book of Ruth’ by artist Barbara Wolff. (Courtesy Wolff)

Wolff, who has exhibited at the Society of Illustrators, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Yeshiva University Museum, spent two years working on the project. But the idea for it began percolating in 2000.

“What was really interesting to me was that a lot of artists took their inspiration from the story’s first words: ‘In the time of Judges there was famine in the land.’ I started to think about that and look at the headlines at the time,” she said. “There were daily headlines about famine and drought in the Middle East, about farmers having to come to cities, about large numbers of displaced people. Seeing what happens when people are sent from their homes really interested me politically.”

An image in a 13th century French manuscript on display appears to underscore Wolff’s work. The illustration depicts three faces that seem to frown on Ruth’s arrival.

“They are looking at her with expressions that seem to say, ‘What are you doing here, who are you?’” Wieck told The Times of Israel.

Like the surrounding manuscripts, Wolff’s masterpiece was entirely handmade.

‘Illuminated Book of Ruth’ artist Barbara Wolff paints grain in the accordion-fold manuscript. (Courtesy)

Wolff prepares her own glues and binders for paint, and gesso for laying gold leaf. Although she sometimes grinds her azurite, malachite and lapis lazuli stones to create pigments to paint with, she used modern, light-fast colors for this project.

Majestic reds, blues, purples and greens, as well as illuminated gold, silver and platinum, pop from the Hebrew side of the parchment. Simple black-and-white, pen-and-ink drawings decorate the English text.

Roger S. Wieck, curator of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, April 2014. (Courtesy Morgan Library and Museum/ Photography: Graham S. Haber)

Save for one painting that shows Naomi and Ruth embracing, Wolff used objects rather than people to illustrate the story. Here a threshing tool, there a bright red and blue striped marriage belt woven with silver bells and shells. Here a sandal, there a flowering caper bush.

“I took the caper bush because I was inspired from a Michener quote [in ‘The Source’] about how it could grow anywhere. I took that to be a symbol of Ruth and Naomi and their perseverance,” Wolff said, adding that the she felt showing the embrace was “the strongest thing I could say there. They almost become one person when they return to Bethlehem. They take care of each other.”

Where men dominate most biblical narratives, women’s voices dominate the Book of Ruth. They recount lives spent in close contact with the natural world, of sustaining the family, the tribe, and the community.

Wieck said he hopes the exhibit, which runs through June 14, 2020, will spur visitors to reflect on the story’s themes of courage and self-determination.

“I hope visitors see a positive overlap between this figure of Ruth and the ideas of acceptance and understanding,” Wieck said.

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