scholarly journals Sceny męczeństwa i ocalenia w późnoantycznej sztuce synagogalnej

Vox Patrum ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 381-396
Author(s):  
Paweł Szkołut
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Jewish Art ◽  
The Sacrifice

The aim the article „The Scenes of Martyrdom and Salvation in Late Antique Synagogue Art" is presentation of all iconographical examples of these scenes appearing in Jewish art of late Antiquity. There are two types of them: one is showing the sacrifice of Abraham and another the prophet Daniel in lions' den. These imaginations belong to a broader range of so called „salvations scenes", which decorated mosaics, relieves and paintings of many synagogues, as well as churches and Christian catacombs.

scholarly journals Review of English-Language Research on Iconography of Late Antique Judaism (20th – 21st centuries)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-59
Author(s):  
A. K. Grigoreva
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
English Language ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Jewish Art ◽  
Cultural Paradigm ◽  
The Subject

The iconography of late antique Judaism became a research area in the second quarter of the 20th century. Before this time there was no such a large number of murals, mosaic pavements and other artworks available for examination. When scholars started considering monuments from late antique synagogues, they seek to find a relevant approach to studying the phenomenon of Jewish art in this period, its emergence and development. In the course of different periods in historiography of the subject various topics came to the forefront of research and became more important than the others. In the West this scientific area went through several stages in its development, while issues of iconography of late antique Judaism have not been on the agenda of the Russian-speaking scientific community till the present moment. This review of English-language major research seeks to compensate for the lack of a systematic view of the problem in Russian-language science, which is also touched upon in the present work. The subject of the present survey is historiography of Judaism iconography in the late antique period. The most cited English-language works on this subject are systematized in accordance with the periods of historiography and of the dominant direction of research. The review demonstrates three periods of historiography: early period with the stress on description; the second period with the question about existence and affiliation of Jewish art in late antiquity; and the latest period, observed in the present moment, that concentrates on systematic examination of art in general and some objects in particular. There are two main vectors of the study of the subject, which were formed by the end of the 20th century. The first is aimed at exploring symbols within the Jewish cultural paradigm without affecting the surrounding cultures. The second considers the symbols of Jewish iconography as included in the general cultural context of the regions of the Roman Empire, where worldviews were in constant interaction, and sometimes in opposition. Scientists have been developing both of these areas of research until present days. In the 21st century Jewish late antique iconography is an important area of research for Western science, which not only continues the development of problems indicated in the 20th century, but also formulates new ones, corresponding to modern trends in religious studies. The work shall attract the attention of readers to a significant number of little-known and highly specialized texts on the problem of the iconography of late antique Judaism.

scholarly journals Art and Identity in Late Antique Synagogues of the Roman-Byzantine Diaspora

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Noa Yuval-Hacham
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Jewish Art ◽  
Jewish Diaspora ◽  
Diasporic Identity ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
The One

Late antiquity witnessed the increased construction of synagogues in the Jewish diaspora of the Roman-Byzantine world. Although not large in number, these synagogues were impressive and magnificent structures that were certainly conspicuous in the urban landscape, especially when constructed within a central location. This paper focuses on mosaic carpets discovered at these synagogues, to discern their distinguishing features through a comparative perspective. Two focal points are examined: on the one hand, local Roman-Byzantine mosaics in civic and religious buildings, and on the other hand, Jewish mosaics carpets in Palestinian synagogues. This comparison reveals several clear distinctions between the Jewish diasporic mosaic carpets and the other two groups of mosaics, that broaden our understanding of the unique nature of Jewish art in the Roman-Byzantine diaspora in particular, and of Jewish diasporic identity in late antiquity in general.

“The Redeemer to Arise from the House of Dan”: Samson, Apocalypticism, and Messianic Hopes in Late Antique Galilee

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 553-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Grey
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
Jewish Art ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
The Future ◽  
Liturgical Texts ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Late Roman

Abstract In the last five years, two mosaics depicting Samson’s biblical exploits have been discovered in Lower Eastern Galilee. Both mosaics were found in synagogues that date to the Late Roman/Byzantine period and are located in close proximity to Tiberias. Because of the rarity of Samson in ancient Jewish art and Samson’s lack of historical ties to the region, the significance of these mosaics requires explanation. This article explores this significance by considering the socio-religious context of the region in which the mosaics were discovered. Sources indicate that apocalyptic thought and messianic expectations flourished in Jewish Galilee throughout late antiquity, particularly in the vicinity of Tiberias. In addition, liturgical texts show that some Jews in this period viewed Samson as a biblical type of the future messiah—a redeemer of the past who foreshadowed Israel’s eschatological redemption. This confluence of evidence suggests that the Samson mosaics can be viewed as apocalyptic images reflecting messianic hopes that were popular in late antique Galilee.

scholarly journals INTERPRETATION OF THE PLOT OF THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC IN THE VISUAL ARTS OF JUDAISM OF LATE ANTIQUITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 128-135
Author(s):  
ALEKSANDRA K. GRIGOREVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Artistic Interpretation ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Sacrifice ◽  
Artistic Tradition ◽  
Sacrifice Of Isaac

This article deals with the disclosure of the meaning of the plot of Akeda, which it acquired in the artistic tradition of Judaism in late antiquity. When the Temple was destroyed a new worldview begins to form among the Jews of both the Holy Land and the Diaspora and the synagogue becomes the center of the study of the Scriptures. Synagogues of late antiquity are decorated with frescoes and mosaics on religious themes, and among the plots used in decoration, the plot of Akeda stands out - it is found in direct connection with Aron Kodesh, the repository of the Torah scrolls. Moreover, in artistic interpretations, Akeda’s plot begins to acquire new details, which form a certain part of the symbolic picture of Jewish late antique iconography. In the course of the article, three images of the sacrifice of Isaac in late antique synagogues are described, the features of each image are noted, and then, some features of the artistic interpretation are highlighted on the basis of the literary tradition, as well as concepts in which the artistic and literary interpretations differ...

Late Antique Letter Collections

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Social ◽  
Letter Writer ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Letter Collection ◽  
Latin Letter

This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.

Liturgical Poetry in the Late Antique Near East

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ophir Münz-Manor
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Biblical Poetry ◽  
Contemporary View ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The One

The article presents a contemporary view of the study of piyyut, demonstrating that Jewish poetry of late antiquity (in Hebrew and Aramaic) was closely related to Christian liturgical poetry (both Syriac and Greek) and Samaritan liturgy. These relations were expressed primarily by common poetic and prosodic characteristics, derived on the one hand from ancient Semitic poetry (mainly biblical poetry), and on the other from innovations of the period. The significant connections of content between the different genres of poetry reveal the importance of comparative study. Thus the poetry composed in late antiquity provides additional evidence for the lively cultural dialogue that took place at that time.

Unearthing Houses in Porphyreon and Chhim. Structure, Spatial Development, and Decoration of Domestic Spaces in Late Antique Phoenicia

2020 ◽  
pp. 173-195
Author(s):  
Tomasz Waliszewski ◽  
Julia Burdajewicz
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Research Team ◽  
Wall Painting ◽  
Domestic Architecture ◽  
Functional Study ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Domestic Spaces ◽  
Residential Architecture

Porphyreon (Jiyeh/Nebi Younis) and Chhim were large rural settlements situated on the coast of modernday Lebanon, north of the Phoenician city of Sidon. As attested by the remains of residential architecture, they were thriving during the Roman Period and late Antiquity (1st–7th centuries AD). This article presents the preliminary observations on the domestic architecture uncovered at both sites, their spatial and social structure, as well as their furnishing and decoration, based on the fieldwork carried out in recent years by the joint PolishLebanese research team. The focus will be put on the wall painting fragments found in considerable numbers in Porphyreon. The iconographical and functional study of the paintings betrays to what extent the inhabitants of rural settlements in the coastal zone of the Levant were inclined to imitate the decoration of the urban houses known to them from the nearby towns, such as Berytus, but also from religious contexts represented by churches.

Ildar Garipzanov, Caroline Goodson, and Henry Maguire, ed., Graphic Signs of Identity, Faith, and Power in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Cursor Mundi, 27, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, xviii, 392 p., 141 ill.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 377-379
Author(s):  
Kriszta Kotsis
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cursor Mundi ◽  
Definition Of

Late antique and early medieval graphic signs have traditionally been studied by narrowly focused specialists leading to the fragmentation and decontextualization of this important body of material. Therefore, the volume aims “to deepen interdisciplinary research on graphic signs” (7) of the third through tenth centuries, with contributions from archaeologists, historians, art historians, a philologist, and a paleographer. Ildar Garipzanov’s introduction defines the central terms (sign, symbol, graphicacy), calls for supplanting the text-image binary with “the concept of the visual-written continuum” (15), and argues that graphicacy was central to visual communication in this period. He emphasizes the agency of graphic signs and notes that their study can amplify our understanding of the definition of personal and group identity, the articulation of power, authority, and religious affiliation, and communication with the supernatural sphere.

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
The Relationship

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti’s visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

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