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Mordecai Ardon is one of the great painters of Israel. During mare than five decades he has produced a great number of paintings of a very specific style.
The themes of the stained glass windows which Ardon created for the National and University Library at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem are taken from Isaiah 2, 2-4: 'and many people shall go and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord".
The Windows can be seen as the masterpiece of this outstanding painter, as shown both in the idea itself and in its artistic content. The close connection between the subject of the Windows - Jerusalem - and their position in the library, the Hall of the eternal spirit of Jewishness and Humanism, is obvious. It was the artist himself who chose this place for his creation and it was the place itself which gave him inspiration.
In the left part of the Windows, one can see the roads on which the people of the world go up to Jerusalem. On each one of these roads is written the above quotation in different languages and letters. In the centre one can see Jerusalem, the Holy City with the city wall as mentioned in the Isaiah scroll, which was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Above this wall is a piece of parchment and on it another quotation from the Book of Isaiah: "... and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares". Next to this there are blue circles intertwined with lines - the Cabbalistic "Tree of Spheres". Ta its left is another set at figures, a circle within a circle, this too, from the "Book of Zohar".
In the right part of the Windows, one can see an illustration at Isaiah's prophecy - broken guns and ammunition beaten into plough-shares, hovering above.
The Windows measure 16 x 6 meters and are among the largest stained glass windows known. The artist started work on them at the end of 1980. The assembling was carried out by the master-crattsman Charles Marc at the "Atelier Simon" in Rheims, France. The Windows were unveiled on April 1st, 1984, Mr. Ardan dedicating them to the memory of his late wife Miryam. The dedication appears in the lower left hand corner at the windows. Ardon's works are exhibited in the important museums of the world and in many private collections. The creation and installation of the Ardan Windows were made possible through the initiative, generosity and unstinting efforts of Zefira and Ephraim Ilin.
