Interior of a Synagogue (c. 1725–35): Art, History and Details

Interior of a Synagogue (c. 1725–35) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667–1749).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Jewish synagogue was among Magnasco's most frequently painted subjects, here presented in a mystical and imaginative way. Expansive architectural space creates room for a multitude of tiny, fantastical figures with elongated limbs. These characters respond to the service with emotion and expressive gestures. Flashes of light dash across the surface against a dark, muted palette of earthy tones suggesting an otherworldly presence. The composition invites the viewer to enter the space and experience the service. Though he used characteristic elements of Baroque composition and was strongly influenced by Venetian painting, Magnasco's loose brushwork, elongated figures, and mysterious subject matter set him apart. Magnasco peers into a world of which he was not part: he was not Jewish and probably perceived Jews as outsiders. At the dawn of the Enlightenment in Europe progressive aristocratic families commissioned paintings by Magnasco, suggesting the painter's support for Enlightenment ideals which included religious tolerance, but Magnasco's personal views on Judaism in Italy remain unknown.

Object facts

• Title: Interior of a Synagogue
• Date: c. 1725–35
• Creator attribution: Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667–1749)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 140.5 x 167.5 x 6 cm (55 5/16 x 65 15/16 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 122 x 148.5 cm (48 1/16 x 58 7/16 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1930.22

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "The Synagogue, by Alessandro Magnasco." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 4, part. 1 (April 1930): 66-73.
• Francis, Henry. "Loans to Important Exhibitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 7 (July 1939): 123
• Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.