The Hidden and The Revealed: The Queen Esther Mosaics of Lilian Broca di Lilian

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A stunning art book, but far more. In addition to glittering reproductions, details and working drawings of the ten mammoth pieces in this award-winning series about Esther of the Bible, the book features the artist’s own story, illuminating her journey from war-torn Romania to Israel to Canada, what drew her to Esther and mosaics as a medium, and how she employed ancient techniques with a contemporary sensibility. An art historian provides a chapter comparing Broca’s interpretation of Esther to that of such past artists as Rembrandt and Artemisia Gentileschi. The book finishes with a provocative, lyrical prose-poem written in the imagined voice of Esther by a prominent rabbi and scholar. An appendix provides the full text of Esther in beautiful calligraphed Hebrew with an accompanying English translation.Seven years in the making, The Queen Esther Mosaics by Lilian Broca contribute to the vital historic task of what the biblical scholar Naomi Graetz called for in S / He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Tales:‘…to put woman’s voice back where it should have been in the first place.’