Tag Archives: Jewish art

(Gods, Godesses, and God) Aniconic Politics in Ancient Israel (Othmar Keel and Christoph Uehlinger)

Posted on June 16, 2015 by zjb

I’m prepared to walk back anything in this post with sufficient critical pushback from experts in a field upon which I’m making such gross trespass. But I wanted to write about God, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel, which has … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Marc Michael Epstein- Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts

Posted on June 7, 2015 by zjb
Posted in uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

No Graven Image? West Semitic Aniconic (Reading T.N.D. Mettinger)

Posted on May 5, 2015 by zjb

Apparently, everything we thought is wrong, especially all highfalutin talk about icons, aniconism, and “representation.” I’ll say so on the authority of Tryggve N.D. Mettinger., whose  No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context I just recently … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Jewish Art Jewish History (Visual Judaism in Late Antiquity, Lee Levine)

Posted on June 11, 2013 by zjb

I just recently finished Lee Levine’s Visual Judaism in Late Antiquity. It’s a big book, and definitive. Its author’s historical judgments strike me as impeccable. These would concern 2nd Temple Period aniconism and the emergence of Jewish figurative art in … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Egg Song of Songs (Folk Art)

Posted on June 7, 2013 by zjb

So this is what the Song of Songs looks like written on an egg. Why do people do these kinds of things? I think because they can. I found this photograph at Tumblr and wanted to post it here. It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Jewish Art (Numinous Objecthood) (~ Social Identity)

Posted on April 3, 2013 by zjb

It might be that Jewish art, of necessity, is dominated by “Jews,” namely by pictures of Jews, Jews, and Jews. But the social turn in modern Jewish Studies creates or constructs what often seems to be an almost automatic reduction … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Little Grotesque (Redemption) (Washington Haggadah)

Posted on March 30, 2013 by zjb

I really like the appearance of these two little grotesque figures. They appear in profile in the Washington Haggadah. I also like David Stern’s comment about them. “[T]he grotesques sometimes appear, almost partially hidden, inside the large colored panels that … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Redemption (Brutal) (Brother Haggadah)

Posted on March 28, 2013 by zjb

This is one brutal Haggadah. I ran into it in Marc Epstein’s new book on the medieval Haggadah. It is the so-called “Brother Haggadah” to the more famous Rylands Haggadah. It’s presumed to be 14th C. Catalonian. The figures in … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Women Matter More (The Golden Haggadah)

Posted on March 25, 2013 by zjb

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much illumination of the Hebrew Bible or so many women in any other Hebrew manuscript; about this, there seems to be no inhibition.  Once more, Marc Epstein is my guide to the illuminated … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Angelic Animal Jews (Birds’ Head Haggadah)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by zjb

I never knew what to make of the figures in the Birds’ Head Haggadah until I read Marc Michael Epstein’s recently published The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. First of all, and perhaps most obviously, the birds are … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment