Jewish Art in Its Late Antique Context
- Submitting institution
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School of Oriental and African Studies
- Unit of assessment
- 31 - Theology and Religious Studies
- Output identifier
- 22376
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Mohr Siebeck
- ISBN
- 9783161543883
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
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https://www.mohr.de/en/book/jewish-art-in-its-late-antique-context-9783161543883
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This is the first interdisciplinary study of the emergence and development of ancient Jewish art. The 381pp book is based on a joint British-Israeli conference initiated and organised by C. Hezser, who chose the contributors and general topics, edited and structured the book. Hezser wrote a substantial “Introduction” (pp. 1-23; her co-author contributed the 2-page section on "Archaeological Evidence"). This introductory chapter discusses state-of-the-art methodological issues in the study of ancient Jewish art. Building on art-historical scholarship on Roman art, Hezser suggests a reception-historical approach that focuses on the variant educational, cultural, and religious backgrounds of the ancient viewers and takes multiple perspectives into account. This constitutes a new approach to ancient Jewish art, moving away from mono-causal tradition-historical explanations that have been proposed in the past. Also important is the late antique context in which Jewish figural art developed. Interdisciplinary approaches that combine art-historical, historical, archaeological, tradition-historical, and comparative approaches can provide new contextualised insights into ancient Jewish art. Hezser has applied such a multi-focal approach in her chapter, "'For the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield'” (pp. 213-36), in which she analyses the literary and iconographic representation of the sun in Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman cultural contexts. From this multi-focal perspective, she argues that sun symbolism was part of the visual lingua franca of late Roman and early Byzantine times. Rather than being seen as a "pagan" motif, adopted by Jews and Christians, Jews and Christians used a shared visual language to express their specific and distinct theological views. Hezser has also edited each of the other chapters, suggesting reformulations and changes in content and methodology. She has therefore had a major impact on the volume as a whole.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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