Images of Cosmology in Jewish and Byzantine Art - (Jewish and Christian Perspectives) by Shulamit Laderman (Hardcover)

About the Book

The book presents new figurative models of interchange between Judaism and Christianity. It demonstrates the nexus connecting the account of Creation and the Tabernacle using Jewish and Christian texts and artistic images from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages.

Book Synopsis

Does the design of the Tabernacle in the wilderness correspond to God's blueprint of Creation? The Christian Topography, a sixth-century Byzantine Christian work, presents such a cosmology. Its theory is based on the "pattern" revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai when he was told to build the Tabernacle and its implements "after their pattern, which is being shown thee on the Mount." (Exod. 25: 40). The book demonstrates, through texts and images, the motifs that link the Tabernacle and Creation. It traces the long chain of transmission that connects the Jewish and Christian traditions from Syria and ancient Israel to France and Spain from the first through the fourteenth century, revealing new models of interaction between Judaism and Christianity.

About the Author

Shulamit Laderman, Ph.D. (2000) in Art History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a Lecturer in Jewish and General Art at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies . She has published extensively on Jewish and Christian mutual influences on visual illustration of the Bible.