The Artless Jew
Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual
Introduction
There is no test that so surely reveals the one-sidedness of a
philosophy as its treatment of art and
aesthetic experience. (John Dewey, Art as Experience)
THE ARTLESS JEW studies an idea. It investigates the social origins,
intellectual moorings, and cultural implications of Jewish aniconism.
Aniconism refers to the ambiguous "historiographic myth that certain
cultures, usually monotheistic or primitively pure cultures, have no
images at all, or no figurative imagery, or no images of the deity."
Jewish aniconism implies that Jews are a People of the Book rather than
a People of the Image. Proponents of Jewish aniconism deny the existence
of authentic Jewish traditions in painting, sculpture, and architecture.
They concede that Jews imitate, in production and reception, the foreign
art of their host or neighboring cultures. They claim that Jewish
attitudes toward visuality and the visual arts range from indifference
to suspicion and hostility.
The grand themes of Jewis ... read full excerpt from The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual ebook
