Reuven Rubin
Pomegranates, 1942, Oil on canvas, 22.9 x 35.8 cm, The Jewish Museum, New York; Gift of Ambassador and Mrs. Benson E.L. Timmons III, 1981-20, ©️ Rubin Museum Foundation; Photo by Richard Goodbody, Inc. The Jewish Museum, New York / Art Resource, NY
An Emblem of Righteousness
Commentary by Adrianne Rubin
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! (Psalm 72:3)
Pomegranates are one of the seven species mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as being native to the Holy Land (Deuteronomy 8:8). They symbolize fertility and plenty, and they are traditionally and aspirationally eaten on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in hopes of prosperity and abundance in the year ahead.
Pomegranates also represent wisdom and righteousness, some of the key attributes most closely associated with King Solomon, and as such, they emblematize Psalm 72. It is worth noting that certain editions of the Bible interpret the latter part of verse 3 as ‘the fruit of righteousness’, lending further credence to this metaphor.
The association of pomegranates with righteousness may derive from the ancient, erroneous belief that each pomegranate contains 613 seeds, the same as the number of mitzvot (commandments)—or righteous deeds—described in the Hebrew Bible. As such, pomegranates have long been a symbol of ‘righteousness, knowledge, and wisdom’ (Stone 2017: 54). So essential is the virtue of righteousness to the author of Psalm 72 that he refers to it four times in the psalm; three of those mentions occur in the first three verses (Psalm 72:1, 2, 3, 7).
Romanian-born, Israeli painter Reuven Rubin featured pomegranates prominently in his extensive body of work. Fascinated by his adopted homeland, the artist felt a visceral connection to the Holy Land of biblical times and often depicted biblical landscapes, folklore, and parables. His 1942 composition Pomegranates evokes both physical and metaphorical aspects of the Holy Land. The vividness of the pomegranate halves and the plate upon which they lie is complemented by the background palette, which calls to mind the desert and the sea. The ambiguous sense of space and perspective combines elements of still life, interior scene, and landscape.
The subject matter and arrangement of Rubin’s Pomegranates can be understood to highlight the notion that the land and the attributes upon which it was built—in large part by King Solomon—are intrinsically bound together.
References
Stone, Damien. 2017. Pomegranate: A Global History (London: Reaktion Books)
