Hi Everybody!
It’s Livia and I’m back for another blog post.
This upcoming week, I’ll be celebrating my parents’ anniversary. I’ve been thinking a lot about joy, weddings, and how we choose to celebrate- something I’ve always really liked about Jewish weddings is the chuppah. The chuppah is the canopy that a majority of a Jewish wedding ceremony happens under, symbolizing the future home of the couple. I love how couples can choose from a variety of materials to get married under. My parents got married under my uncle’s massive tallit (a prayer shawl), with the four groomsmen holding up the supporting poles. My grandmother created a needlepoint chuppah for my aunt’s wedding.
Many painters pay special attention to the chuppah in wedding scenes. In Mira Eisen’s piece, aptly named “Chuppah”, the chuppah is the center of the painting, painted with pale yellows and greens. It draws the viewer’s eye to the chatan and kalah, the groom and bride, who would almost blend in with the painting, if not for the chuppah.
In Huvy Elisha’s painting, she illustrates two different parts of the wedding: the ceremony under the chuppah and the celebration afterwards. Here, the bride and groom are married under a tallit and Huvy cleverly uses the bride’s dress and flowing veil to direct the viewer to the masses of people celebrating and dancing in simcha– joy.
