There has been a lot of news the past few years about a painting depicting Yoshke that may or may not be a Leonardo. Earlier this month Artnews reported that the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna claims that a version they have of the same image is a Titian. What caught my attention in the article is the following paragraph:
Titian put his own spin on the traditional... subject, which typically shows [Yoshke] raising one hand in a gesture of blessing, by including a Hebrew inscription on Jesus’s tunic referencing the Kabbalah, suggesting the work was commissioned for a Christian patron with Jewish leanings.
What they are referring to are the faint Hebrew letters on the gold trim on the upper left side of the tunic (click on the article to see the image) which spell (as far as I can tell - it's hard to see) aleph - shin - vav.
(I am no expert, I think this gold band does not appear on other artists' versions of this iconic image, so it seems Titian deliberately added it as a way to highlight the letters.)
I am curious as to what in the world these letters mean and what kabbalistic reference they see here. I was thinking that aleph-shin-vav may simply be a corrupted spelling of yud-shin-vav for the name, but I am just guessing and have no clue. Could it just be random letters?
My wife sent an email to the Kunsthistorisches Museum to try to get more info. We'll see if they reply.
It looks to me as if there's a yud before the shin and vav, spelling out his name. No idea what the aleph is for.
ReplyDelete