The Prophet Elijah,

The Prophet Elijah has a pre-eminent place among the four Biblical mosaics at the heart of the Marc Chagall Biblical Message museum. The artist spent a considerable amount of energy in his effort to convey messages of peace and spirituality. The mosaic enhances and completes the Biblical Message cycle, bolstering the humanist intensity of his work.

In 1952, Chagall designed an ambitious project for the Calvary chapels in Vence, “a place of contemplation" for which he planned works based on the Bible with a spiritual, universal message. He was engrossed in the project for ten years from 1956 to 1966, but eventually abandoned it after petitions were signed to preserve a sculpted 18^th-century Way of the Cross in the chapel. Chagall and Minister of Culture André Malraux then agreed to give France the entire Biblical Message cycle with an eye to creating a museum. Two successive donations¹ of 560 works by Marc and Valentina Chagall in 1966 and 1972 are the collection’s historic core. The artist approved the location generously offered by the City of Nice on the Olivetto lot in the Cimiez district. Malraux asked architect and former Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier collaborator André Hermant to design the project. Chagall closely collaborated with the architect on designing and building the museum dedicated to his work. Designed as “a house of the arts for all²”, the museum opened on July 7, 1973, Chagall’s 86^th birthday. The creation of the first national museum devoted to a living artist was a major event covered by an enthusiastic press.

Chagall designed three monumental works to give the building an outstanding character. Mediterranean Landscape, a high-warp tapestry woven at the Gobelins factory in Paris in 1971, celebrates the dazzling light of the Riviera. This poetic work hangs in the museum’s entrance³. The three Creation of the World stained-glass windows, made by master stained-glass artist Charles Marq in Reims, accent the Genesis episodes featured in the Biblical Message paintings. They wrap the concert hall in a bluish light of rare intimacy. Swirling shapes depict the cosmic chaos from which Adam and Eve emerge accompanied by a host of animals, recurring subjects in Chagall's world. The Prophet Elijah mosaic is majestically mirrored in a reflecting pool.

In 1970⁴, Chagall made two models for this work. While the overall composition is similar, the details differ significantly. The first⁵ highlights Greco-Roman mythology, echoing Mediterranean landscapes and elements, like The Message of Ulysses, School of Law and Economics, Nice [Le Message d'Ulysse, Faculté de droit et de sciences économiques, Nice] (1967 - 1969), the mosaic made in 1967 and 1968 for the law school in Nice⁶. Biblical references are few. Only a Tree of Life and a dove in flight in the center can be interpreted as spiritual iconography. The signs of the zodiac are in a perfect circle surrounded by trees and small Provencal houses forming quaint hamlets. A semi-circular shape in the upper part suggests a distant star seen from the celestial vault formed by the signs of the zodiac. This is a way for Chagall to bring together the essential elements of the Universe: The Earth, represented by lush vegetation and villages, and the sky, symbolized by the zodiac, foster a poetic dialogue between the terrestrial world and the cosmos.

The second model is a faithful image of the mosaic's composition and colors. Many white gouache pentimenti suggest that the first model for The Prophet Elijah was an initial sketch, eventually abandoned in favor of a second study that shows him in a central position in warm orange tones. The originality of this accomplished version lies in Chagall's choice not to isolate the signs of the zodiac. Instead, he integrated them into a harmonious composition of Mediterranean plants and architecture resonating with a palette of bright blue, pink and green colors.

Like his previous mosaics, the work was transposed from paper to wall by Lino Melano. In the summer of 1970, Chagall told Hermant that the model was ready and he wanted the project to start soon. Melano submitted a first estimate⁷ of 1,800 francs per square meter: 54,000 francs for the entire mosaic, minus the scaffolding. The work began late, due in part to the fact that the initial budget did not include the mosaic’s funding. In early 1971, the Ministry of Culture, represented by inspector general Bernard Anthonioz, agreed to fund the mosaic and the stained-glass window. Melano submitted a lower estimate⁸ (23,500 francs, not including the scaffolding), signed the contract⁹ and began working in the second half of 1971. By April 1972, the mosaic was only half finished. Heidi Melano does not seem to have participated in the project. She is not in the photographs, and her husband turned to the expertise of Michel Tharin¹⁰, who had already worked with him on the façade of the Fernand-Léger Museum in Biot. In all, the project lasted nine non-consecutive months.

The mosaic at the Marc Chagall Biblical Message museum stands out for the poetic dialogue it creates between the biblical story of the prophet Elijah’s ascent into heaven and the celestial universe embodied by the Greco-Roman zodiac. On one hand, the artist depicted a crucial episode from the Book of Kings. Elijah grants Elisha the right to become his disciple and inherit his spiritual status, as long as the latter is present during his ascent into heaven. As they walk along together, a fiery chariot and horses separate them and carry Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. He leaves his mantle to Elisha, who then becomes the new prophet. Chagall dealt with this subject many times after the Second World War, when he was especially interested in biblical figures such as the patriarchs, kings and prophets. Elijah was a key figure in the fervent Hasidic world of Chagall’s childhood: "Open the door, the outer door, to let the prophet Ilya in at such a late hour? ... But where is Ilya and his white chariot? Perhaps he is still in the courtyard looking like a frail old man, a stooped beggar with a sack on his back and a cane in his hand. Will he enter the house?¹¹” Elijah appeared in a 1956 engraving of the Bible published by Tériade, then in many works in different media: painting, drawing, lithography sculpture and ceramics.

On the other hand, since Antiquity, the zodiac has stood for the circular, cyclical concept of time, symbolized by the stars’ uninterrupted movement in the celestial vault. Associated with a specific time of year, each sign illustrates the eternal cycle of the seasons and life. This representation transcends the linear nature of human time to evoke a cosmic temporality where past, present and future intertwine in universal harmony. In this Chagall saw a spiritual dimension consistent with his Biblical Message project. He emphasized the circularity of the forms, from the smallest, such as the chariot wheels, to the orb surrounding the central figure and the oval shape of the peripheral zodiac. This formal arrangement belongs to a little-known tradition of zodiac images in synagogues, such as the one in Beth Alfa near Haifa, Israel dating from the fifth century, where the zodiac surrounds Apollo on his chariot, and another, from the 18^th century, in the Gwozdziec synagogue in Hvizdetz, in the former kingdom of Poland-Lithuania (now Ukraine). In the museum mosaic, Chagall innovated compositionally by integrating the signs of the zodiac into a Provencal landscape where the eye glides from colors to celestial symbols. Swirling patches of blue, pink and green responding to each other emphasize these features. By combining a key biblical figure with the zodiac, Chagall revealed a syncretic vision of the various traditions of Mediterranean culture and the Hebrew Bible.

The mosaic at the Marc Chagall National Museum is incontestably one of the most important and successful in terms of its integration and dialogue with the building's architecture. Overlooking a reflecting pool, its magic is revealed by luminous vibrations created by variations in light on the stone and glass paste tesserae, day and night.