Ars Judaica ― The Bar-Ilan Journal of Jewish Art

Ars Judaica is an annual publication of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. The book showcases the Jewish contribution to the visual arts and architecture, from antiquity to the present, from a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography, semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. As such, it is a valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all those interested in the visual arts. In this ninth volume, Avraham Faust considers a unique phenomenon in the material culture of ancient Israel during the biblical period: pottery without painted decoration. Moshe Idel, an expert on Jewish mysticism, sheds new light on the figure of Helios in the Hammath Tiberias synagogue mosaic, comparing it to descriptions of angel 'Anafi'el in the Heikhalot literature and medieval Kabbalistic texts. Rahel Fronda attributes a group of medieval Ashkenazi Bible manuscripts containing similar micrographic ornaments to the same scribal workshop, possibly near Wurzburg. Alexander Mishory reveals a Scroll of Esther, illuminated by one of the first Bezalel artists, Shmuel Ben-David, and focuses on his use of fowl and fox imagery deriving from an Arab fable. Artur Tanikowski discusses social awareness and humanist values in the late works of two Polish modernists of Jewish origin: the legendary Maurycy Gottlieb, and a teacher at the Bezalel School of Arts, Leopold Gottlieb. The Special Item by Nurit Sirkis Bank is dedicated to Hasidic wedding rings. A silver ring, square on the outside, round within, and engraved with the Hebrew letter he is understood as a symbol of unity and harmony between man and woman, the human and the Divine, nature and culture, and even good and evil.