![]() ![]() Some literary evidence of Torah scrolls adorned with gold letters may indicate their existence in antiquity. Another adverse element might have been the periodic triumph among the Jews of anti-iconic principles. Jewish wanderings, coupled with the wholesale destruction of Hebrew books, may be responsible for the disappearance of the entire body of evidence. Christian artists, however, may have obtained their models from Jewish illuminated paraphrased Bibles, since lost. *Gutmann in 1966 opposed the hypothesis of the existence of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in antiquity by stressing that none survived and by pointing out the fact that the *Church Fathers were conversant with midrashic literature and used Jewish legends in their writings. The paraphrase may have been in Greek, Aramaic, or Latin, and not necessarily in Hebrew, somewhat like *Josephus' Jewish Antiquities. It is probable that they illustrated a narrative paraphrase, including many legends, of some books of the Bible, like the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Kings. The Hellenistic Jewish biblical illustrations need not have been attached to a complete Hebrew Bible. Indeed, the Codex Amiatinus shows not an Evangelist but Ezra the scribe, apparently wearing the Jewish phylactery, a feature hardly imaginable in a Christian archetype. There are indications that the conventional figure of the Evangelist and the beginning of early Latin and Greek texts of the Gospels may also have a Jewish antecedent. The outstanding example of this is the conventional representation of the sanctuary and its vessels, which are represented also in the seventh-century Latin Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Ms. Jewish legends appear as early as the third century, on the walls of the Dura-Europos Synagogue.įurthermore, there are certain motifs in the illuminated medieval Hebrew Bibles – a tradition going back to the 10 thor 11 th century – which seem to carry on the artistic tradition of antiquity, reflected both in the early Jewish monuments of the classical period on the one hand, and in Christian illuminated codices on the other. 6) shows Adam and Eve dressed in animal skins, standing under a booth which, according to the Jewish Midrash, had been built for them by God. An illustration in the seventh-century Latin Ashburnham Pentateuch (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Nouv. Christian illuminated Bible manuscripts in the Middle Ages often elaborate the plain narrative with materials reflecting rabbinic legend and it is not known whether this resulted from an antecedent Jewish art or from the common store of medieval religious folklore. It is significant too that the favorite topics for early Christian religious art, in churches and catacombs, and on sarcophagi and small objects, were based on Old rather than New Testament subjects (the sacrifice of Isaac, the story of Jonah, and so on) again perhaps suggesting Jewish prototypes, and it is noteworthy that precisely these subjects reemerge (rather than emerge) as favorite topics in the Jewish manuscript and religious art of the Middle Ages. The earliest extant Christian illuminated manuscripts of the Bible, such as the so-called Vienna Genesis, are of Old Testament books, and are conjectured by some scholars to have been based on Jewish prototypes. According to some, the Dura-Europos paintings were based on images that adorned manuscript texts of the Bible. In the third-century synagogue at *Dura-Europos wall paintings depicted many scenes from the Bible. It may well be, in fact, that the illumination of Hebrew manuscripts goes back even as far as the Hellenistic period, although no specimens have survived.Īrchaeological discoveries have revealed that in the Roman period, synagogues in the Land of Israel were adorned with mosaic floors that incorporated not only decorative elements and animal figures, but also representations of biblical scenes and personalities. The oldest extant specimens are from the Muslim world of the tenth century, but it is possible that the practice commenced in an earlier period. It is impossible to state with any degree of certainty when the tradition of the illuminated Hebrew manuscripts began. This entry is arranged according to the following outline: Hebrew Illumination in Hellenistic Times Character of Hebrew Manuscript Illumination Materials and Techniques Oriental School Spanish Illumination French School German School Italian School 13th-century schools of rome and central italy 14th-century schools 15th-century schools Post-Medieval Illumination Hebrew Illumination in Hellenistic Times ![]()
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