Ketubah (Marriage Contract) 

Conegliano, Italy, 1728
Watercolor and ink on parchment, h. 29 x w. 21 ¼ in.
Cincinnati Skirball Museum, formerly S. Kirschstein collection, 34.45 

The ketubah, or marriage contract, is traditionally written in Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language related to Hebrew, Syriac, and Phoenician. The document stipulates the mutual marital pledges of husband and wife. Marriage is a sacred act in Jewish life. Since the first century B.C.E., writing an illuminated contract has been a significant custom, and its decoration has developed over the centuries into a fine art. A wide variety of themes, from family names and histories to stories of creation and floral designs, are found in these richly illuminated manuscripts. Central to the marriage ceremony is the reading aloud of the ketubah as prescribed in the book of Jeremiah: “The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride” (33:11).  

The parchment of this ketubah is shaped along the upper border. The text in the lower section is framed by an arch supported by a pair of twisted columns reminiscent of the columns of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Centered above the text, in monumental square characters heavily painted in gold, is the initial word “on Friday.” Around the border colorful tendrils are entwined with the signs of the zodiac, beginning with Aries, the sign of the first Hebrew month. In the four corners are gold roundels inscribed with a popular poem beginning with the words “the virtuous groom and his bride.” The initial Hebrew words in the upper segment are be-simana tova, meaning “with a good sign.” At the top, an empty crowned shield (apparently for the family’s coat of arms) is the centerpiece for an inscribed ribbon that bears the words from Proverbs: “a capable wife is a crown for her husband” (12:4). In the horizontal band below are birds, flowers, vases, and a knotted ribbon of myrrh, a reference to the Song and Solomon: “My beloved to me is a bundle of myrrh” (1:13). The popular text of Ruth 4:11 appears along the outermost edge: “Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” 

Publications:
Artistic Expressions of Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. Abby S. Schwartz, 1997, p. 11.