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RICHARD CALLNER: 50 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE |
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Essay by Jessica Kornheisl, Albany Institute Education Intern |
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Lilith was Adam’s first wife, created from the same dust as he. They lived in happiness until Adam attempted to assert authority over Lilith. She rebelled, claiming equality due to their identical origins. Pronouncing the Ineffable Name (i.e. the magic name of God), she flew off into the air. God, at Adam’s request, sent three angels to search for her, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof. Finding her at the Red Sea, they threatened that if she did not return to Adam, one hundred of her offspring, born from her union with Adam or the Devil (depending on the textual source), would die each day. She still refused, and in revenge began harming and killing newborn infants. She promised, however, that she would spare any child who wore an amulet bearing the names or images of the three angels.
Much of Lilith’s reputation derives from Jewish folklore, and, indeed, Lilith is never mentioned in the Bible. Her name derives from a class of Mesopotamian demons and she has, historically, been considered a malevolent spirit that causes illness and death in infants and small children, such as SIDS and pneumonia, as well as death to women during childbirth. She was also associated, in patriarchal Jewish societies, with the representation of all negative aspects of female sexuality, including the sexual power women can hold over men, lust, and licentiousness. Her children were seen as diabolic and came to be the ancestors of all evil people.
This negative imagery was varied and incomplete until around 1200 A.D., when the writings of the Zohar, an explanatory text written by a Spanish rabbi interpreting and elucidating scriptures from the Torah, solidified the multiple views into one malevolent figure. Lilith’s infamy and esoteric reputation among the Jewish community continued until the nineteenth century, when the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and John Keats brought her character into “mainstream” literature. In 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of artists who wished to create naturalistic, non-academic style works, emerged. Influenced by these modern texts, they developed an interest in Lilith. The group’s widespread recognition led to her adoption by many writers and artists, even after the Brotherhood had ceased to exist. One especially influential member was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose writings transformed Lilith into the eternal femme fatale, whose beauty was as, if not more, important than her vices, and who could be viewed as the world’s first virago (the term for a late-nineteenth century feminist). As a strong and independent female figure, Lilith was now open to feminist interpretation.
In modern times, we have especially come to perceive Lilith as a positive symbol for female strength and independence, as well as female sexual liberation. Both genders have adopted her temperament as an emblem of spirit and free will in general. There is an independent Jewish women’s magazine with a proclaimed feminist focus bearing her name for their title, as well as an annual musical festival called the Lilith Fair featuring all female bands and performers. Many have manipulated and distorted her myth to meet their own agendas, ignoring or twisting her bad qualities to fit their purposes, while others have argued that it was the male-dominated societies of the past that transformed her image, degrading her for her strength as a woman.
Callner’s works reflect this optimistic view, using color and form to express the fleeting, free nature of her character. His view of the myth skews Adam as demanding and oppressive, and her emancipation from this was rightful and courageous. She embodied qualities that would permeate Callner’s new style- intuition, sensuality, vitality. The artist has also taken an interesting view on Lilith’s children, feeling that they were not the ancestors of evil, but rather that they came to be “the most interesting people in the world- the artists, writers, and inventors.” He, therefore, credits Lilith as being the source for the origins of art and creativity. She certainly was a source of artistic inspiration for Callner. |
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