Important 18th-century Judaica textile acquired by Saint Louis Art Museum

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 8, 2023—The Saint Louis Art Museum shared today that it was the successful bidder for a magnificent, embroidered 18th-century cover for a reader’s desk (known as a “bimah” or “teivah”) sold at auction by Sotheby’s in December.

Made to cover the elevated desk used in Jewish services—from which the Torah is read and congregants are led in prayer—the work features a cerulean blue silk satin ground that is ornately embroidered with silver and gold metal-wrapped threads and wire, with a pattern of volutes and scrolls intermixed with flowers stitched in colorful silk threads. The sides are trimmed with a delicate metallic lace, with a gilt fringe on the three sides visible to congregants.

Similar design elements are found in a Torah ark curtain created by Simhah Viterbo (Italian, 1739-1779) in 1754/55—and which SLAM acquired in 2019. The reader’s desk cover also features two prominently placed cartouches containing clusters of grapes, believed to be the crest of the Viterbo family, and further supporting the Museum’s curators’ belief that the reader’s desk cover is likely also the work of Simhah Viterbo.

“In addition to the beauty and evident attention to detail in this rare and exceptional textile, we hope it will also aid in reconstructing the biography of Simhah Viterbo, an important 18th-century woman artist about whom not enough is known,” said Min Jung Kim, the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Little is known about Simhah Viterbo. The daughter of a rabbi, she lived in Ancona, an Italian port city—likely in the ghetto that forcibly separated Jews from the rest of the city’s residents. Despite this segregation, the rich materials and complex design of Viterbo’s textiles attest to her connection to both trading networks and artistic trends across Italy and the Mediterranean world. Writings left by her son refer to her as an artist, and two other works known to be by Viterbo are in private collections in Israel.

“This expertly designed and made work is a superb example of 18th-century Italian embroidery and offers an exciting glimpse into the world of a young woman artist,” said Genevieve Cortinovis, SLAM’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts and Design. “While Italy is perhaps more commonly recognized for its Renaissance paintings, beginning in the 1400s the artists and artisans involved in textile production were famous across Europe for the quality of their work. Viterbo’s textiles follow in that tradition, using sumptuous materials with remarkable skill fitting their devotional nature.”

Support from Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg and the Deanne and Paul Shatz Judaica Fund made the museum’s purchase of this work possible.

CONTACT: Molly Morris, 314.655.5250, molly.morris@slam.org