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prćpares cn vue dc realiser unc exposition itine-rante qui sera envoyec dans plusicurs pays d'Europę. Un Iivre sera egalement publić (fig. 71^72).

D’autre part, le musće tire de ses abondantes archivcs dc photographies et de reproductions cn couleurs lc matćriel nćcessaire 1’ćlaboration d’autrcs expositions itinerantes. Consacrees a Pćtude d’un mouvement ardstique, d’une ćpoquc ou d’un artiste, ces cxpositions sc com-posent d’unc trcntainc de reproductions accom-pagnees d’un textc scicntifiquc. Elles sont expć-dićcs encadrćes et emballees dans des caisses specialcs. Nombre d’cntre elles circulent dans les ecoles, lycees, hópitaux, maisonsde vieillards, camps militaires et colonies agricolcs depuis de longues annćes. Certaines ont mćme ete cn-voyćcs a Pćtrangcr (fig. 7.?).

L/avenir du Musće Bezalel est trćs promet-tcur et lc moment n’cst pas eloigne ou les prin-cipalcs difficultćs auxquelles il s’est heurte jus-qu’a present disparaitront. Uallocation dc sommes importantes provcnant dc la ventc des livres americains en Israel selon PI MG (Infor-mational Media Guaranty Program) va per-mettre de construire un batiment modernę spćcialement conęu pour les besoins du musće. Les trćsors d'art caches dans les rescrves pour-ront enfin etre exposćs dans des salles elaires et vastcs ct, grace śt un personnel qualifie en nombre suffisant, les activites deja si bicn amor-cees prendront un nouvcl essor.

Kakl Katz.

The Bezalel National Museum,

JERUSALEM,ISRAEL

The Bczalel Museum is now entering upon its fifty-first year. Founded in 1906 by Professor Boris Schatz, it was named after the fabulous goldsmith and architcct Bezalel ben Uri ben Hur, who, according to the Book of Exodus, was emrusted by Moscs with the construction and adornment of the Ark of the Covenant. Schatz, a sculptor and art historian, had lived in Paris and other Europcan citics. He decided to establish in Palcstine a museum similar in spirit to those hc had admired in foreign capi-tals. While giving a prominent place to Jewish art, this museum was to inelude relies of the great civilizations of ancicnt times, and also to form a kind of outpost of Western culturc.

The first step towards the fulfilment of this ambitious project was the purchase of premises in the new city of Jerusalem. The former resi-dencc of a rich Turk was choscn, its highly picturesque appearance madę up for its lack of comfort. Herc arc housed the MuseutrPs col-lecdons, its exhibition rooms and other sec-tions, and its offices (fig. 70).

The first building, surroundcd by a crennel-latcd wali and standing amid lawns and tropical plants, is dcvoted chiefly to Jewish art and con-tains a display of religious objects of different periods and countries, selected for their rarity or bcauty. Herc, for instancc, we can tracę the devcIopmcnt of the famous seven-branched candlcstick (the menorab, which has bccome the symbol of the Jewish State) and of the Hanukkah lamp—beginning, in the latter case, with a hugc stone lamp found at Tiberias some forty years ago and dating from the znd century a.d., and procecding, by way of French Tjth-ccntury lamps shaped likc Gothic cathcdrals, and lamps of the ltalian Renaissancc, to filigrane and embossed silvcr lamps produced in Central Europę during the i8th and i9th ccnturies. The other rooms in this building display a selection of archaeological finds (pottery, textiles, glass and bronzc objects from civilizations as widely separated as those of Luristan, Egypt and pre-Columbian America) and cxamples of the pri-mitive arts of Africa and the South Pacific, of which the Museum possesses a remarkable coBcction (fig. 74).

An interior courtyard contains ossuaries, funerary busts and architectural fragments of Hellcnistic and Byzantine origin, found in the country.

The sccond building accommodates the tem-porary cxhibition galleries, one of which is very

Iargc. This is the scene of a rapid and varied succession of temporary cxhibitions. Whether it is showing the work of a foreign artist (who may be either celcbratcd or little known) or an Israeli artist, or a selection from its own col-lections, the Museum always strivcs to make these cxhibitions attractive and instructive. The catalogues, usually illustrated, are published in at least two languages.

Among the many cxhibitions held during the past year, the following (madę up entirely from

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the MuscunTs own collections) arc particularly worthy of mention: Ccraniic Art of Iran*—ovcr 300 items, ranging from the 15th century b.c. to the 15 th century a.d. ; folk Art of the Yemcn, giving an over-all view of the highly original work of the Jewish craftsmcn in that region; Drawings by Old Masters, in which the artists represented included Guardi, Procaccini, Luca Cambiaso, Gucrcino, Leoni, Lucas van Lcyden, Adriaen van Ostade, Eugćne Delacroix and Eugćnc Carrićre; and Works acąttired by. tbc. Museum from 11/46 to sp/6, which, to choose at random, included a finc nth-century icon. a i-|th-century triptych of the Sicnesc school, original engravings by Mantcgna, Diirer, Bcham, Rcmbrandt, Callot, Lorrain and Rouault, paintings by van Goyen, Tcniers, Benjamin Gerrits Cuyp, Magnasco, Courbet, Pissarro, Dcgas, Sisley, Cezannc, Rodin, Vlaminck, Dufy, Picasso, Dclaunay, Chagall, Pascin and many others; seulptures by Dcgas, Despiau, Epstein, Lipchitz and Germainc Richier; and some unique Hebrew manuscripts dating from the i4th and 15 tli centuries.

Thus in the course of fifty years, thanks to the tirclcss dcvotion of its directors—Professor

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