An aspect of Jewish art

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 17

An aspect of Jewish art

Hebrew Manuscript Painting. By Joseph ,“!.T ann - Chatto and Windus, 1979. 119 pp. $16.55 (paperback). (Reviewed by William Shepard) This book succeeds admirably in the most important of its " stated objectives, to demonstrate that in spite pt the prohibition of the making of ’mages in the Second Commandment, Jews have often been able to appreciate and make effective use of visual art. As the author aptlv points out in the introduction, “the''Second ommandmeni’ is not an unchanging monolithic concept in a static Jewish culture . . Indeed, what we confront ,s a dynamic Judaism which, in the course of its three-thousand-year history, has given rise to many diverse types of life-style and expression, each with a different view of the biblical prohibition.” How some took to heart the advice of the fifteenth century Jewish -scholar. Duran. that “the contemplation and study of pleasing forms, beautiful images, and drawings stimulates the mind and strengthens its faculties’’ the reader may discover with pleasure as he or she studies the 40 colour plates and 19 black-and-white illustrations drawn from the illuminations and miniature illustrations of manuscripts dating from the ninth to fifteenth centuries, and coming from places as diverse as Iran, Yemen, Germany, and Italy.

This diversity is reflected in the material and illustrates another point made in the introduction, that of the close involvement of the Jewish artistic tradition with that of the surrounding culture and the absence of a unique Jewish style. For example, there is an end-page to a manuscript of the Torah (Pentateuch) that the non-expert could hardly distinguish from an Arabic-Muslim work, an illustration of the story of Esther that seems straight out of the Persian Book of Kings, and much that is reminiscent of late Medieval and early Renaissance Western art. The general reader will probably find the introduction a little too technical and the same is true ta some extent of the commentaries to the specific plates, although these do often give background on the stories or activities depicted and translations of the most prominent Hebrew wards which are quite helpful. The main value of a book such as this, however, is in the illustrations and these are excellent in both choice and quality of reproduction. The colours in the colour plates are p articularly striking. This book demands some prior acquaintance with the Jewish tradition for full appreciation, but given that, the reader will find that it enhances both his knowledge and his appreciation of that tradition. It did so, at least, for this reviewer.