Pindar Press - publishers of art history and archaeology

Medieval Western

Art & Ceremony
in Jewish Life

by Vivian B. Mann

24 x 17 cm
436 pp. 210 illus.
£150.00
Publication: 2005
ISBN 1 899828 96 6
ISBN-13 978 1 899828 96 8
Cloth Bound

Since turning to the field of Jewish art over twenty years ago, Vivian Mann has concentrated on investigating Jewish ceremonial art within the dual contexts of Jewish law, and the history of decorative arts in general, including the ceremonial art made for the Church and the Mosque.

The introduction to this volume considers classic rabbinic attitudes toward art and its relationship to spirituality. The remaining essays are divided into three groups: the first concerns medieval ceremonial art; the second, articles on the Jewish art of Muslim lands beginning with the early Middle Ages; and the third consists of essays on Judaica during the periods of the Renaissance and rococo.

Contents

Introduction
Art and Spirituality through the Rabbis' Eyes
The Art of the Middle Ages. Torah Ornaments before 1600
'New' Examples of Ceremonial Art from Medieval Ashkenaz
Sephardi Ceremonial Art
Toward an Iconography of Medieval Ashkenazi Synagogues
The Unknown Jewish Artists of the Middle Ages
A Fifteenth-Sixteenth Century Box in the Jewish Museum and its Transformation
A Jewish Patron in Twelfth-Century Cologne: the Samson/Hercules Tablemen
Jewish Art in Muslim Lands - The Middle Ages and Later. The Covered Gospels, The Torah Case and the Qur'an Box
Between Worshipper and Wall: the Place of Art in Liturgical Spaces
The Art of Convivencia in Spain and Morocco
Jewish-Muslim Acculturation in the Ottoman Empire: The Evidence of Ceremonial Art
Memory, Mimesis, Realia: Jews and Art in Morocco
Renaissance to Rococo. The Rediscovery of a Known Work
The Golden Age of Jewish Ceremonial Art in Frankfurt: Metalwork of the Eighteenth Century
Defining Jewish Art: The Case of Two Eighteenth-Century Book Covers
Forging Judaica: The Case of the Italian Majolica Seder Plates
Additional Notes
Index