Bronstein's Temple of Solomon delights at Waddesdon Manor
- timeless travels
- Aug 5
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 6
By Theresa Thompson, TT Arts Correspondent
Pablo Bronstein, Temple of Solomon (first version): Cross-section, 2024–2025, Acrylic on paper, artist’s frame
© Pablo Bronstein. Courtesy of the artist and Herald St, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards
Pablo Bronstein’s visionary artworks dwell in some unpindownable place between art and architecture and archaeology. Characteristically meticulous and erudite, Bronstein’s latest body of work reimagines two versions of the legendary Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem as described in the Old Testament, a building that exists as much in the imagination as it did in reality.
In his exhibition The Temple of Solomon and its Contents, on at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, Bronstein blends European and Middle Eastern styles, mediaeval and Gothic Revival, Baroque and Art Deco, whilst also playing with aspects of neoclassical country house architecture and Beaux-Arts style theatres, in a remarkable display of exquisitely detailed drawings and paintings that offer surprises at every turn.
The Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem is said to have been built by Solomon, the king of Israel (around 990-931 BCE) at the place where God created Adam, the first man. Standing for over 400 years, the Temple was built to house the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. It is described in the Bible in great detail, including instructions on layout, measurements, materials, and ornament. Yet, as Dr. Juliet Carey, Senior Curator at Waddesdon points out, if it did exist, no-one knows what it looked like, and so, over time it has been reimagined by artists and designers, archaeologists, theorists and ideologues.
In turn Bronstein reimagined it for this exhibition. He worked on the project exclusively over the last eight months or more; it was specifically created in response to Waddesdon’s Jewish country houses research project.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina - a city Bronstein describes as a “Beaux-Arts fantasy land” - and raised from the age of four in London, he has spent over three decades creating work centred around period styles and architectural character.
His works invite very close looking. From the cross-sections to aerial plans on show here – ‘plans’ by the way that aren’t plans as in architecture, but more like a building with its top cut off, Bronstein explains – from façades and friezes to features such as Solomonic columns in distinctive barley-twist form, to imagined temple contents like the Ark of the Covenant that Bronstein styles as a silver-gilt mediaeval reliquary casket, it is an intriguing and fantastical array.
Pablo Bronstein, Temple of Solomon (first version): Facade, 2024–2025, Acrylic on paper, artist’s frame
© Pablo Bronstein. Courtesy of the artist and Herald St, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards
The multi-layered drawings and paintings are backed by concerted study by Bronstein of relevant parts of the Bible. Peppered with visual references galore and plentiful touches of irony, the artworks span historical periods from the Egyptian, Greek, and Assyrian up to much more modern times. For example, if you look closely at the cross-section Temple of Solomon I, you notice that he has inserted painted plaques featuring images associated with the Creation and with God’s punishment and redemption of mankind, respectively Michelangelo’s Noah’s Ark and William Blake’s The Ancient of Days.
In the same cross section, the Holiest of Holies – all clad in gold – is guarded by a golden winged Mesopotamian deity with the head of a man and body of a lion. The curator notes in the wall text that these deities come in pairs, but only one is shown in the image because it’s a cross section, i.e. only one half of the building is showing.
Too much to go into detail here – you should read the detailed wall texts in the exhibition or bafflement may spoil the fun – it all results in a visual and intellectual whirlwind of a feast for the visitor.
Pablo Bronstein explains some of his thinking behind the exhibition, saying: “The reconstruction of ancient and biblical structures says more about the societies that reconstructed them than it does about any long-gone originals. The Temple of Solomon has had more than its fair share of attempts to imagine it in the style of the times. Attempts to fix an idea of its appearance play an intrinsic part in its appeal and it is those grandiose and often naïve acts of imagination that is the focus of my interest in this exhibition.
“My reconstruction of the Temple will explore idealising tendencies within architecture, across porous boundaries of styles prevalent during a defining era of archaeology – roughly the 18th to early 20th-centuries – precisely the time when nationalisms sought to tie themselves to particular architectural traditions and in which nascent professional archaeology informed our understanding of the past. These versions of the Temple of Solomon are in effect monumental and often grim projections of European fantasies. I’ve tried to inhabit the ambitious contestants for the Prix de Rome as they set about reconstructing the Temple entirely in their own image.”
Waddesdon Manor was built at the end of the 19th century by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the style of a French early 16th-century château with its vast collection of art and decorative objects amassed by the Rothschild family provides a perfect setting for Bronstein’s exhibition.
Waddesdon is known not only for its impressive ornate architecture and wonderful grounds, but also for its temporary exhibitions. Alongside Bronstein’s exhibition is a display of drawings and architectural books from Waddesdon’s historic collection, specially selected by the artist. It encompasses designs for altars and candelabra, furniture and panelling, rooms and religious ritual objects, it will be the first time they are presented at Waddesdon.
Pablo Bronstein
The Temple of Solomon and its Contents
Showing until: 2 November 2025
Above, left: Victor Hugo to Baron J. de Rothschild, 18 January [no year]. Accession No. 5829.12. Above right: Benjamin Franklin to Dr Ingenhousz, 2 September 1783. Accession No. 5831.1. Both images: © The Waddesdon Archive at Windmill Hill
And, not to be missed, there’s the Significant Signatures exhibition, a delightful selection of autographed letters and papers from the Waddesdon archive. Among the rarely displayed treasures to be enjoyed are letters signed by Elizabeth I, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Rubens, Lord Byron, and even a musical manuscript by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Significant Signatures
Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Showing until: 2 November 2025
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