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Symbols and Forms in Jewish Art

130,00 $

Default Title
ISBN: 978-83-89831-35-4
Description: hardback, 210 pp. (26x20cm), ills.
Condition: new
Weight: 845g.

 

Rachel Wischnitzer-Bernstein, Symbols and Forms in Jewish Art, Irsa, Krakow 2022



This is an English translation of a classic study on the iconography of Jewish art by Rachel Wischnitzer-Bernstein (1885–1989), originally published in Berlin in 1935 as Symbole und Gestalten der jüdischen Kunst. The outbreak of the Second World War prevented the book from spreading, and its uncirculated print-run was almost entirely destroyed by the Nazis. The few surviving copies of the book that circulated among specialists, gained this highly innovative work on Jewish iconography a position of a classic study. The present English edition will make the legendary book by Rachel Wischnitzer-Bernstein available to wider audiences of international readers for the first time.

“Against all odds, two years after the Nazi party and Hitler rose to power, Symbole und Gestalten der jüdischen Kunst appeared in Berlin in the mid-1930s. Presenting the visual art of the Jewish people as a sophisticated humanistic achievement, this handsome, beautifully produced volume illustrates the deep meanings and the powerful symbols of the Jewish people over the ages. Moreover, the book’s thesis and the materials gathered in it are underlined by an implied aspiration: to strengthen Jewish identity and make the Jews of the time conscious and proud of their rich heritage. The author of this courageous book […], Rachel Wischnitzer (1885–1989), a modest woman, small in size, […] contributed more than any other scholar of the first half of the twentieth century to the establishment and development of a new field of academic study – the history of Jewish art.”
Shalom Sabar
(from the biographical essay)

Introduction
I. Divine Revelation
II. Kingdom
III. Doctrine
IV. Priesthood
V. Judaism
VI. Festivals and Customs
VII. Messianic Hope
VIII. Time and the Universe
Shalom Sabar  Rachel Wischnitzer: Life and Work