Jewish Art: Moses to Modernity

Catalog description

The earliest known written description of the Jewish people is a visual record on an ancient victory monument. Dated from the 13th century BCE, a carved stele dedicated to Pharaoh Merneptah presents a hieroglyphic relief inauspiciously boasting: "Israel is laid waste; his seed is no more." Tracing 4000 years of Jewish art, culture, and ritual, this course is a panoramic overview of visual expression of a people wandering through six continents, innumerable styles and artistic identities. How did the ineffable theophany at Sinai spark the complexity of Judaism's struggle with Greco-Roman pagan idolatry versus attempts at capturing the "spirit of God with wisdom and discernment and the knowledge of workmanship to design designs" [Exodus 35] transforming spirituality into a living art?