Judaic Art Essay

The form of the human body has been used throughout art’s history: beginning with the Greeks, whose use of the nude form has only been outshined by the Romans, the human body has been a fascination of artists. The lack of the human form in Judaic art is therefore striking against a background so rich in the dynamic presence of the past classical periods all the way to modern culture. The lack of this form will be discussed in this essay and its relevance to the Judaic culture. Judaic art can best be said to have started in the Byzantine era. The early Christian art in fact is a plethora of Judaic art. Religion is the dominating focus of this artistic style (as religion is the dominating focus of most of the art period’s focus). Thus, a proper look at the beginnings of Judaic art is needed in order to have a better understanding of Judaic art in modern times. Early Judaic art is found throughout the catacombs. The focus in these catacombs of the artists was religious symbolism; that is, faith was the main component because it was their faith that the polytheistic society was persecuting them for. Thus, while the human form was found in abundance in previous artistic periods, its presence in early Judaic art is not found because the human body was not the culture’s important faucet of delivering their beliefs. It was God that was the main focus in early Judaic art, either symbolically as a Shepard or even in the colors the artists used. In fact the human body was unimportant until it came to depicting God, and even then the focus was on the symbol of God and not the corporeal. This lack of a focus on the human form is further illustrated in Judaic art during the late 4th century when the presence of animals is seen throughout Judaic art as a symbol of faith (i. e. notice the use of sheep in Good Shepard. 425-50 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna). There is a consistency of the religious background being the main component of the Judaic artist’s work (i. e. the work of Maurycy Minkowski and Samuel Hirszenberg are great examples of this). Since it is religion that is the main focus of the artistic style the paintings and other art forms reveal a tradition of extolling the landscape of the religious home of Jews, the culture, and religious symbolism through each. This can be seen in Nahum Gutman’s Small Town in which the life and times of the early Jewish immigrant in the promised land can be seen. The scene which Gutman portrays in his painting is that of Tel Aviv a new Jewish town. This painting is aesthetical to the Jewish culture in which new towns were springing up everywhere in which the main religion was Judaism and it is considered a primitive realism which gives way to other Jewish artists such as Cezanne whose portrayal of landscapes in vibrant colors is world renowned. In the basic forms of life, from village portrayals to fruit, Judaic art is extolling God through each painting or sculpture: in these basic forms of land or villages there is an essence that encapsulates the beauty of creation that goes beyond the human form as seen in Roman art, and truly represents the greatness of Yaw-weh. Thus, the importance of the human form in art history can be seen in Greek and Roman periods but for Judaic art there is a higher calling. Works Cited Sporre, Dennis. (2008). The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. 8th edition. Prentice Hall.