Jewish Art

Containing nearly eight hundred illustrations, including 272 in full color, a lavish survey traces the history of Jewish art from its origins two millennia before Christ up to the twentieth century, covering the fine arts, textiles, and decorative objects."

In this gorgeously illustrated volume, Sed-Rajna and her team of historians, archaeologists, and art and architecture experts guide readers through nearly 4,000 years of Jewish culture and art, reaping the harvest of recent archaeological finds and new, insightful scholarship. Perpetually persecuted and on the move, Jews built synagogues wherever they settled, incorporating the aesthetics of Hellenistic and oriental culture into their wood and stone carvings, mosaics, and frescoes. Prohibited from practicing many crafts, including gold-and silversmithing, in medieval Europe, Jewish artists channeled their creative and spiritual energies into portable treasures, particularly handwritten and illustrated books; but when European Jewish communities were stable, Jewish artists and artisans created glorious ceremonial objects, paintings, and sculpture, and, naturally, built magnificent synagogues. As Sed-Rajna and company proceed through the centuries, moving from the astonishingly fresh paintings of the Dura-Europos synagogue, built on the bank of the Euphrates in the third century, to modern and contemporary artists, the vitality and resiliency of the Jewish tradition flowers beneath our rapt gaze. Donna Seaman

The Asian sources of Jewish art, its historical development through the emergence of rabbinic Judaism, Jewish art in the West, and Jewish artists are among the topics covered in this examination of the development of Jewish art by Sed-Rajna, honorary director of research at France's National Council for Social Research. The section "Books: The Community Recounted," for instance, looks at the development of books, particularly illustrated ones, within distinct socioeconomic environments. Thus, one sees Jewish art as part of the larger culture. The writing is clear and concise, the generous and beautifully reproduced illustrations are carefully labeled, the glossary is helpful, and the bibliography is complete. An important contribution to the subject, this volume complements Grace Cohen Grossman's Jewish Art (LJ 1/96), which examined aspects of art, e.g., manuscripts, the Sabbath, and holidays. An important contribution for all art libraries.?Martin Chasin, Adult Inst., Bridgeport, Conn.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.