Chapter Eight: PHd in History of art
Goddesses and Gods, dramas and mosaics; a woman with three degrees
Art and color had always attracted Sonia. When the family lived in Oeiras (near Lisbon), she would go out once a week to paint, accompanied by a teacher, who taught her the various techniques, carbon drawing and oil painting. She would drive out and paint landscapes of rocky spots and high sea waves. Her paintings hang nowadays in the family dining room. Simultaneously she heard lectures on Art History at the Academy of Arts (‘Academia das Belas Artes’) in Lisbon. When she came to live in Israel, Sonia decided that she would not have time for all of this, and also that she would never be a well-known painter, so she left her painting materials behind.
Gradually and slowly, she came back to her love for art, but she never imagined that her hobby would one day become a career. A woman nearly 40 years old, the mother of 4 children, who had not studied formally in an academic institution, whose mother-tongue was not Hebrew – nevertheless had the courage and achieved the unbelievable and became Dr. Sonia Mucznik, teacher of Classical History of Art at Tel Aviv University. Her research works are known in the Academic world.
“At the beginning I wanted to study in an easy way, without any obligations, so that I would not neglect the children and the house. I started as a ‘free’ student, without an official status in the Department of Art, which had just been approved as an independent department in Tel Aviv University. I then enrolled as a student and took more classes. Every morning I woke up very early, hours before everybody else, so as to prepare lunch for the children and do other house chores. I prepared lunch for the children so that – on their return from school they had only to heat it in the oven, ready with a preset menu. I had help with the housework once a week, and the children also helped according to each one’s turn. I did as few chores as possible, so as to have enough time to study. At that time, when there was no internet, I had to spend many hours in the library. Almost all the students studying with me were younger than I — very few were my age. I found a friend studying in the same department – Carla Gomez da Silva. She had come to Israel when she was young and was a very interesting person. After she completed her military service, she worked as a tourist guide and had a very wide knowledge of Israel. We studied and also prepared for exams together; wrote articles together and took part in trips organized by the Department to Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, as well as to Italy and Sicily, and Greece. Carla became a part of our family.
“I loved very much to study Greek and Roman art history. At first, I thought I would major in Medieval art, because I enjoyed the lectures of Prof. Nurit Cnaan, who was then the Head of our Department. But after I concluded my BA, one of our teachers, Prof. Asher Ovadiah, whose lecturers I enjoyed very much, asked me if I would be interested in giving an ‘exercise lesson’ in Greek art. This was a great compliment for me, but I was also afraid and I told him that I didn’t know enough of the subject to teach it. He answered: ‘so you will learn’. I decided to give it a try. Two friends, who taught Greek art, helped me to get prepared – Ricky Gersht, who taught the Introduction to Greek Art, and Yudith Turnheim, who was a teacher of Greek and Roman art. I began my career as a teacher of the Department of Art History at Tel Aviv University. I enjoyed teaching, but didn’t like preparing or checking exams.
Simultaneously, I studied for the MA course in Greek and Roman History of Art. These studies attracted me very much because I saw them as the roots from which flowered the art of later periods, but frequently these studies were neglected. For example, so as to understand Cezanne’s art properly, one has to know the earlier, Classical art. In my lectures I always tried to mention the fact that it was important to know from where everything sprang.
Another milestone in her career took place when she wrote a paper for a seminar of Prof. Ovadiah, on Orpheus, a mythological figure, who when he played his harp, charmed the animals which listened hypnotized to his music this image was depicted on many works of art, mainly mosaics in all parts of the world, one of them in a chapel in Jerusalem, which was removed during the Ottoman Turkish government and is now exhibited in the Istanbul Museum of Antiquities. When Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife died, he was told that he could bring her back from Hades if he didn’t look back at her when bringing her up to Earth. He fetched her and brought her back up without looking at her; but at the last moment, when they were almost on Earth, he looked back to see his wife— she then fell back into Hades (Hell). Later, Herakles brought Eurydice back from Hades and she remained on earth as a shade or a soul.
Prof. Ovadiah and Sonia wrote an article which presented Orpheus as a symbol for life after death. The article was published in the journal of their Department, of which they were also the editors. Their joint work continues until today. Over the years they wrote a book on the deities and worship in Eretz Israel in Roman and Early Byzantine art and their remainders. They wrote and are still writing about the gods and goddesses of the cities of the Decapolis (the ten important cities of the Roman Empire of the East). “To work together is a challenge. Each of us writes his own version, then we have a conversation, where each offers her/his arguments to what he presents, and we draw up a conjoint text – a synthesis of what each one wrote.”
Sonia and her companions at the Department visited several countries: Turkey, Greece, Egypt and Tunisia. They were the first group to visit Egypt after the peace pact was signed. Sonia returned to Egypt several times, together with her friend Carla because of their shared work with Prof. Ovadiah on the works of art in a distant monastery; at that time he was the Director of the Israeli-Egypt Cultural Institute in Cairo.
After several years teaching the Exercise of the lecture of Introduction, Sonia began teaching as an external teacher and she taught a lecture on Imperial Roman women – presenting what was known about their lives and their images in Roman art. “In another lecture, I compared what was known about women in drama, Greek and Roman – Euripides, Sophocles and Roman dramatists, such as Seneca – and their representations in art, mainly in wall paintings and mosaics. It was a great challenge to create a lecture in the pre-internet period. It was difficult to find in the Department’s Slide collection the slides necessary for the lectures, and frequently I had to search in books of the Library and make slides myself. I prepared my lecture in Hebrew, so sometimes I wrote some words in English above the Hebrew, so it would help me remember something. Some years after I had retired, I would sometimes meet one of my students, who remembered me and told me how much they had enjoyed my lessons. This of course, gave me a very good feeling.”
“I enjoyed studying as well as teaching very much. At the time my life was very full. Nathan was very busy and didn’t like to go out at night, and got pleasure in reading a good book and hearing music, so I could dedicate time to my world. I love mythology and its works of art. My family encouraged me and whenever the ceremony of receiving a degree took place, they would all come. Nathan complained that I was too busy and couldn’t give him enough attention, although he was very proud and also stirred each time I received a degree.”
As if she had not done enough, she decided to enroll for the third degree — doctorate.
“Prof. Ovadiah asked me once why I needed a doctorate. I told him I wanted to complete my studies properly. That I believed that things should be completed to the end and that one had to work as long as necessary to attain one’s aim.”
She wrote her doctorate on Alcestis and Phaedra, who were two Greek queens and the heroines of two dramas of Euripides. They were the opposite of one another. Alcestis was ready to sacrifice her life so that her husband, Admetos, could live; thus, I regarded her as the symbol of faithfulness. Phaedra, who killed herself when the son of her husband rejected her love – she became the symbol of unfaithfulness. Sonia received a special authorization to write in English and on a computer, which at the time was very rare. She received 90, ‘cum laude’ and later her doctorate was published as a book: “Faith and Unfaithfulness: Alcestis and Phaedra in Roman Art.”
“I taught for 15 years, until I retired in 1998. I didn’t obtain the degree of professor, because I had started to study late and slowly. Even the title ‘Dr’ came somewhat late. Lately, I added it to my name in the Gmail address.
“As I look backwards, I understand that I should be proud of myself for my achievements, because I accomplished it all through a lot of hard work. Only at rare moments, did I have breaking points. Once I didn’t want to go to an exam, because I felt that I had a ‘black-out’. Nathan encouraged me to go and have a try, and in fact, I passed the exam. The lowest grade that I ever received was 85, because the teacher did not allow me to write the answers in English, saying that we live in Israel, so we have to write in Hebrew. I believe that everyone can succeed in what is important enough for her or him. The proof is that I succeeded.”
