Jewish Art - Not What You Would Anticipate1386834
Many think that the extremely term "Jewish Art" is contradictory to itself - How can art be Jewish? They wonder. This perception derives from the awareness to the explicit prohibition mentioned in the Ten Commandments: "Thou shall not make for your self a carved image--any likeness of something that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water below the earth.'.
Jewish Art- forbidden? Nevertheless, seeing this forbiddance as block that necessarily prevents art from being produced is incorrect - not only that the commandment can be interpreted in many methods (for instance, the prohibition may concern the obligation not to bow before any image, sculpture, idol or figure and not relate to the actual forming of a sculpture or image) but even when it was understood in its more radical sense, the Jewish people did produce many kinds of Jewish art and even placed their creations in between the synagogue's walls and on their sacred books. Flexibility and tolerance towards man or animal shaped figures (on stamp rings, public baths and coins) is witnessed in many places in the Talmud and it is known that there had been Rabbis who permitted synagogue paintings, even though there had been some who had been against it, with each other with the Christian opposites, who had been also objecting to any kind of images or to utilizing man or animal shaped objects.
Jewish art all through history Due to the variation in approaches, Jewish Art has progressed throughout the years, spreading in synagogues, sacred books, tombstones and people's homes. Jewish artists kept reviving the biblical stories, creating drawings and relief works devoted to significant historical or mythical events such as God's revelation to Samuel, the creation of the world, Ezekiel's vision of dry bones etc. Even before the Jewish emancipation and the bloom of the Enlightenment movement (Haskalah) Jewish artists specialized in drawing portraits, while it is recognized that one Jewish tutor from the 17th century advised each man to carry a portrait of their mother as a protection from the evil nature's temptations.
How to define Jewish art? It was in the middle of the 19th Century that acclaimed Jewish artists like Pissarro, Israels and Liberman broke into the wide world's recognition. Because then and due to the common art's influence on Jewish artists, culture scholars try to define what is Jewish art exactly: Is Jewish art made by anybody who is Jewish or perhaps art that deals with Jewish themes. Whether you relate much more to the first or second definition, you are likely to uncover in both a vast world of talent, craftsmanship and inspiration, all nursing from the Jewish foundations rooted 3000 years deep into human history.
