Balthasar Bernaerts

BALTHASAR BERNAERTS (Holland, active 1711-1737)
"The Purim Feast at the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam".
Early 18th-century Dutch engraving.
Texts in French.
Published in Amsterdam by Jean Frédéric Bernard.
Soiling, damp stains, cracks, creases and some tears.
They were part of the book "Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde", which appeared from 1723 to 1743.
Size: 35 x 44 cm (larger) .
Engravings of similar characteristics to the one presented here are preserved in the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Balthasar Bernaerts Dutch engraver and illustrator of biblical subjects; active in Amsterdam ca. 1720.
Jean-Frédéric Bernard (1683-1744) was a French publisher and writer. Born into a Huguenot family, he took refuge in Amsterdam because of the persecutions to which the Huguenots were subjected in France during Bernard's lifetime.Jean-Frédéric Bernard's most famous work is probably the encyclopaedia of religions entitled Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde, created in collaboration with the engraver and designer Bernard Picart between 1723 and 1743. This work is considered "the book that changed Europe" by scholars Lynn Hunt, Margaret C. Jacob, and Wijnand Mijnhardt, according to whom Cérémonies is the first major comparative study of religions published on the Old Continent, making a significant contribution to religious tolerance, appearing on the cultural scene at a time of persecution and conflict between religious communities.