Jerusalem, Tombs of the Prophets

 

Max Pollak

  1886 - 1970 (biography)

c. 1930  

color etching & aquatint 

12 5/16 x 16 1/2" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

11 of 100  

titled in pencil, lower left 

 

cream Van Gelder Zonen laid with two watermarks: one is the words VAN GELDER ZONEN and the other is an elaborate crown with the letters VGZ Z 

Published 

artist 

DASL130 

$1,400.00 

The Tombs of the Prophets refers to an area in Jerusalem that hosts three of the oldest tombs in the Kidron Valley, carved into the Mount of Olives (or Mount Olivet). They include the Tomb of Zechariah (right), a monolith carved from the hillside that does not contain an actual tomb and is sometimes considered a nefesh (a representation of the soul) to accompany the adjacent catacombs; the Tomb of Benei Hezir (center), whose three entrances lead to a burial complex within the hillside; and the Tomb of Absalom, whose conical roof can be seen at left.

The Mount of Olives has been used as a burial ground for over 3,000 years and contains around 150,000 tombs on its slopes, as seen in this image. The temple structures are often compared to those of Petra, Jordan.

It's unclear when exactly Max Pollak would have created his images of Jerusalem. He had been living in the United States for a handful of years by the early 1930s, but, stylistically, his color aquatint images of Israel are similar to many works he created of New York, Cincinnati, Louisiana, and the San Francisco Bay Area, the majority of which were created between the late 1930s and the 1950s.