I get all my Christmas cards from the Metropolitan Museum, because they have the best Christmas cards. They have an enormous range of religious and secular cards, and almost all of them are completely beautiful.
Their Chanukah cards are awful. For years, they had essentially one design, which wasn't even a Chanukah menorah--only seven branches, not nine. Now they have four designs, all of which are atrocious, and look like your kid brother drew a menorah when he had 'flu. (I know, this is a hackneyed and generally untrue insult often hurled at modern and contemporary art, but in this case it is whang in the gold.)
I know that the most famous menorah in western art (that on the arch of Titus) is not really one we're keen to put on Chanukah cards, but there has to be something between the year 82 and now that would fit the bill. Somewhere in the world, there really, really has to be.
Edited: I checked. They have better menorahs in their collection. Step it up, chumps.
1 comment:
Re: the seven-branched menorah: the first menorah had only seven branches. You'll find that the menorah on the Arch of Titus has seven branches as well. So I guess you could call the Met's Chanukah card "retro," according to the most extreme definition of "retro."
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