Song of Songs

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Horizontally oriented composition composed of intertwining, biomorphic forms.

Artist Jacques Lipchitz (American, 1891–1973)

Title Song of Songs

Date 1945

Medium Bronze

Dimensions Overall: 20 x 36 x 11 in. (50.8 x 91.4 x 27.9 cm)

Credit Line Gift of Mrs. Sally Hope-Davis, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 91.1

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About this Work

Commissioned to create a sculpture for a “very loving couple,” Lipchitz turned to the Song of Songs, the Hebrew Bible’s book of love poetry, for inspiration. The work’s biomorphic forms suggest a couple locked in an embrace. Rabbinic literature interprets Song of Songs as a metaphor for God’s love for the Israelites, and the book is traditionally chanted in synagogues during Passover, the commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, was Lipchitz also meditating on Jewish survival in modern times?

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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Song of Songs | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=91.1