The alliums stretch out to welcome us to the Marc Chagall Museum.
This museum holds the world's largest collection of Marc Chagall's work...and what a colorful delight it is! We saw mosaics, stained glass, paintings, and sketches by this modern master.
This is a room that takes your breath away...the auditorium which Chagalls designed as a visual representation of the creation.
Most of the paintings were inspired by the biblical books of Genesis, Exodus, and the Songs of Solomon. The one above here is from Genesis 18:1-5 when Abraham saw the three men and said to give them food and water to be refreshed. Chagall portrays this with the red-hot paint of the red-hot day...the angels promise Abraham a son (depicted in the upper right corner)
The large mosaic which is reflected in a pond beneath it tells of the prophet Elijah in his chariot of fire (from II Kings)
A circular room is dedicated to his Song of Songs exhibit which the sign below shows is dedicated to his wife. This one is one of 5 paintings all done in the rosy red celebrating human love and God's love.
Chagall wrote, "I've been fascinated by the Bible ever since my earliest childhood. I have always thought of it as the most extraordinary source of poetic inspiration imaginable. As far as I am concerned, perfection in art and in life has its source in the Bible, and exercises in the mechanics of the merely rational are fruitless. In art as well as in life, anything is possible, provided there is love"
His paintings are complex, often circular in composition, and draws on his Russian folk-village youth, his Jewish heritage, biblical themes, and his feeling that he existed somewhere between heaven and earth.
Much of his work focuses on couples, because he believed that humans loving each other mirrored God's love of creation and of humanity.
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