Roth Cecil (Ed.). Jewish Art: An Illustrated history

McGraw-Hill, 1961. — 522 p.For the first time, a complete history of
Jewish art is presented in a many-sided
account ranging from the second millennium
before the Christian era to the present
day. Jewish Art, in refuting the
widespread impression that traditional
religious restrictions prevented the Jews
from developing a representational art of
their own, shows how the situation varied
from period to period and from area to
area, changing from absolute prohibition
to the free use of human figures even in
objects associated with divine worship.
Indeed, a theory in one of the twenty-one
essays presented here suggests the possibility
(based on recently discovered
fourth-century synagogue frescoes) that
early Christian religious art, from which
ultimately so much of European art
evolved, may have developed from synagogue
art.
Beginning long before the time of King
Solomon, the account moves from the
Jewish contribution to Palestinian art
before the destruction of Jerusalem down
to contemporary painting, sculpture, and
architecture. It discusses the distinctly
Jewish contribution in relation to the art