Jewish Art – A Brief History
The Bible details the work of Jewish hands in the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem under the direction of King Solomon. It is an overlaid with gold and decorated with cherubim (I Kings 6). The Talmud describes the beauty of the Herod’s Second Temple, declaring, “He who has not seen the Temple in its full construction has never seen a glorious building in his life” (Tractate Succot 51b).
In spite of the damage of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. and the beginning of a 2,000-year Jewish exile, Jewish art flourished in the early post-exilic period, inside and outside the land of Israel, including the Dura Europos and Beit Alpha synagogues. In Syria’s Dura Europos, an ancient city along the Euphrates, contains well-preserved frescoes from the third century that portray human figures in biblical scenes.
Talmudic texts also acknowledge the existence and tolerance of graven images. Synagogues like those at Beit Alpha and Dura Europos show that images were not just tolerated but utilized by the Jewish communities.The sixth-century mosaic of Israel’s Beit Alpha synagogue depicts human figures in a scene from the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22), as well as signs of the Zodiac.
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The Middle Ages & the Renaissance
Under Islamic rule, during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, much of the evidence of Jewish art is restricted to the construction of synagogues and the illustration of manuscripts. It is not greatly influenced by the understanding of the second commandment as by the reality of the Jewish community in those eras. Countries with strong Muslim influences, including Spain, featured much less physical representation of human forms in art than the Northern European communities, because Muslims shun such literal renderings of human forms.
As the Encyclopedia Judaica states, “For the Jews, with their high degree of literacy due to their almost universal system of education and their familiarity with the scripture story, this was superfluous.” Another factor influencing the ostensibly smaller scope of Jewish art lies in the nature of Jewish education. The Jewish communities were familiar with Biblical stories that made it unnecessary to portray them in the way that the Christian world was doing for the illiterate masses.
The same Torah that details the ornate beauty of the Tabernacle did not inspire ornate synagogue architecture in this period. While some synagogues in the medieval, Middle Ages, and Renaissance contained stained glass, it was unremarkable. Reasons for this could include the political and economic weakness of Jewish communities tied to church controls and the Jewish communities’ own desires not to draw attention to themselves. The early 14th century Sarajevo Haggadah, also illuminated, was brought to Sarajevo from Spain after the Spanish expulsion and Inquisition Works of Jewish art from this period include illuminated manuscripts like the 15th century Kennicott Bible, with illustrations of King David, Jonah, and Balaam.. There are also illuminated Bibles from Yemen from the same period, but they do not contain the portrayal of human figures.
In Western Europe, with the coming of the Enlightenment, a greater acceptance of Jews in the world at large meant that Jewish artists could practice more freely. The late 19th and early 20th century led rise to familiar figures of not just the Jewish art world but the art world at large, including Camille Pissarro, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, and Marc Chagall.
More remarkable, however, were the Jewish ritual objects that originated in this time period and continue to be created to this day, all in the name of hiddur mitzvah–the idea of adorning a commandment and the objects used to perform it with beauty. Examples include Torah crowns and finials, Havdalah spice boxes, and kiddush cups.
Western Europe
Camille Pissarro was a principal impressionist painter who struggled financially to remain true to the impressionist style. Modigliani, the Italian Jewish painter, settled in Paris and had a painting style that included elongated faces representative of African masks. His contemporary, Chaim Soutine, was born in Russia, but also painted in Paris and was friends with Modigliani, who painted his portrait in 1917.
But Marc Chagall, more than these others, incorporated his Jewish upbringing and immigrant experience into his work. Many of Chagall’s most well known paintings are populated with figures of his childhood in Belorussia.
In the Land of Israel
The settling and establishment of the State of Israel in the 20th century provided another dimension to Jewish art. Many young, often European, Jews came to the Land of Israel in the pre-state period as pioneers (halutzim), and their connection to the land accentuated their art. Artists like Reuben Rubin, who made aliyah (immigration to Israel) in 1912 and studied at the newly established (1906) Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem, painted in a way that showed love for the land, with romanticized visions of ancient and modern Israel. The work of Anna Ticho, who had studied in Vienna, portrays finely detailed pencil and charcoal renderings of the Judean hills, soft water colors of the flora and fauna around her, and beautiful portraits of the patients, Arab and Jew, who came to her husband’s ophthalmology clinic in their home, where she often worked.
The recent immigrant experience is reflected in the works of Mikhail Gorman whose native Russian is used as text in his paintings, while Israeli-born artist Yaakov Agam has created recognizable three-dimensional pieces significant both for their place in the larger Op-Art movement, as well as their interesting usage of Kabbalah and mystical texts as inspiration.
Modern Memory
The experience or memory of the modern Jewish artist has included the shared reality of pogroms, wars, persecution, and a modern-day version of Biblical wanderings. Jewish artists’ work intertwined with the reality of the time, as with Felix Nussbaum, the Polish painter who later moved to Berlin and eventually died in Auschwitz with his wife, also an artist. His work reflects wide-eyed fear, as in his 1943, “Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card.”
And thousands of years after the wanderings of the Jewish people in the desert, some critics understand Mark Rothko’s large canvases with blocks of color as a modern day tabernacle. In this way, Rothko, as with many Jewish artists, was both creating a sanctuary serving as a place of worship and also a mobile place, reflecting the enduring reality of wandering in the history of the Jewish people.
Beautiful Religious Arts and Crafts
Religious arts & crafts
Crafts provide a way for the faithful to proudly acknowledge their beliefs, and profess their love for their god or gods. Religious arts & crafts allow artisans and crafters showcase the symbols of their faith, and the chance to craft an phrase into tangible form.
to express belief
Religious arts & crafts are normally thought of in western society, is concerned first and foremost with Christianity. the common symbols– the cross, fish and loaves, angels, Jesus Christ, etc. Jewish tradition Jewish arts & crafts typically focus on the most widespread symbols of Judaism, and include the Star of David, menorahs, and other icons of the belief.
Ideas for religious arts & crafts
They serve as decoration, office, vehicle, or church. Religious features are showcased in virtually any type of arts & crafts:
1. Beaded Crafts: The potential for these crafts are continuous, with a set of beads and string, pipe cleaners or safety pins, the devotee can create cute, creative religious arts & crafts. Virtually any religious symbol is possible with this versatile craft idea, from the Star of David to the Shroud of Turin.
2. Paint Your Own: Special ceramic paints are great to use for painting, decorating, and personalizing ceramic crosses, angels, and even scenes from the Bible.
3. Cross Stitch & Embroidery: Religious needlework is especially noteworthy as it can combine both graphical images of crosses, angels, doves, and Bible scenes, as well as scripture, Bible verses, and other words of inspiration. Popular options for religious arts & crafts using cross stitch and embroidery include religious pillows and Bible covers.
4. Stained Glass Arts & Suncatchers: Stained glass art is popular usually associated with churches and places of worship.
5. Ornaments & Window Hangers: Ornaments may be designed specifically for the Christmas season, or may be year-round crafts that can be hung anywhere, even from your rearview mirror
6. Handmade Jewelry: Brooches, necklaces, and bracelets are also very popular, and while they are generally designed for women, men are becoming increasingly comfortable wearing fine handmade crucifix necklaces.
Looking for resources for making religious arts & crafts
Look for ideas for religious arts & crafts, head to your local Christian bookstore or specialty shop. These stores normally have arts & crafts ready for purchase and gift giving go to a hobby and arts & crafts store and convert a secular hobby kit into a testament of your faith.
Ancient Jewish Art
Leo Steinberg’s “Bible Age Relics and Jewish Art” are astounding conclusions about the art of the ancient Jews. Judgments based on exhibition are unproductive, imitative, untalented, naive, and inept—are not, careful archeological work, but reflect the new state.
Except to discharge the art of person, who created the spiritual structures as imitative and puerile, on the basis of a hastily unearthed collection of art crafts, does scant justice to scholarship and even less to this ancient people. They could only express in words and not in art symbols the theory that their feelings of awe and majesty of the human and divine.
There is sufficient evidence to the divergent. The chapters of Kings and Chronicles in the Bible are rich in description of the magnificence of the art products created by Jewish artists. These are not fanciful tales. Book Ages in Chaos by I. Velikovsky is described the Temple of Deir el Bahari near Thebes, which has the pictures of the gifts given by Solomon to Queen Hatshepsut (Queen of Sheba). He describes the bas-reliefs on the walls of the Karnak Temple in Egypt, in which are pictured the treasures brought by Thutmose III after sacking the Temple of Jerusalem.
For the ancient times, Bible disapproval has tended to derogate the role of the ancient Hebrews as an incomprehensible group. Whose memories and influence are survived for the reason, that of their passionate devotion to a religious and spiritual idea. The time is here when serious art criticism should address itself to correcting another of which the memory of people influence was great in its own day in all phases of the human spirit.
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