Jewish Art in Late Antiquity: The State of Research in Ancient Jewish Art
The present essay deals with Jewish art in late antiquity. The works discussed are from the Second Temple period up through the end of the sixth century CE. This survey relates to the way antique Jewish art visualized the Jewish idea that the essence of God is beyond the world of forms. We read in t...
| Published in: | Brill research perspectives in religion and the arts |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2021
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| In: |
Brill research perspectives in religion and the arts
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| Further subjects: | B
furnishings
B Ossuaries B Dura-Europos B Coins B Symbolic language B the Diaspora B ornamentation B the Sacred Realm B the seven-branch menorah B the Tabernacle B ancient synagogues B cosmological significance B Israel B defining Jewish art B Catacombs B burial architecture B funerary monuments B mosaic floors |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The present essay deals with Jewish art in late antiquity. The works discussed are from the Second Temple period up through the end of the sixth century CE. This survey relates to the way antique Jewish art visualized the Jewish idea that the essence of God is beyond the world of forms. We read in the Bible that the Israelites were commanded to build the desert Tabernacle as well as the First and Second Temples as sanctuaries without cult statues. Later, after the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 CE, the Jews had to create a new kind of divine worship using literary and visual aids to fill the void. In terms of time and place, the survey of the ‘state of the art’ of ancient Jewish art as reviewed in the pages that follow traces the visualizations of the Tabernacle/Temple implements, including the seven-branch menorah, the Torah ark, the shofar, and the four species as well as many other motifs associated with the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish calendar. All these motifs evolved into various iconographic symbols visualized in works of art found in a range of media, including coins, funerary art, and synagogue decorations in both Israel and the Diaspora. This essay highlights important discoveries as the third-century CE synagogue in Dura-Europos with its amazing frescoes, the mosaic floors and other adornments in many of the synagogues in the Galilee, the Golan Heights, and the south of Israel, and architectural and carved motifs that decorated burial places, which reflect a wish to immortalize the dead by alluding to the memory of the Temple and the eschatological hope of a Third Temple. |
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| ISSN: | 2468-8878 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Brill research perspectives in religion and the arts
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/24688878-12340013 |