Aniconism in Judaism


Aniconism in Judaism refers to the idea that Judaism forbids the creation of "graven images," commonly understood to mean the prohibition of idolatry and idol worship. While Judaism is a logocentric religion, Jews were not under a blanket ban on visual art, despite common assumptions to the contrary, and throughout Jewish history and the history of Jewish art, created architectural designs and decorations of synagogues, decorative funerary monuments, illuminated manuscripts, embroidery and other decorative or artistic religious items.
In a refutation of the belief in an aniconic Judaism, and more generally in the underestimation of Jewish visual arts, modern secular historians believe that the phenomenon is a modern construction, and that "Jewish aniconism crystallized simultaneously with the construction of modern Jewish identities". According to current scholarship, the notion of a total prohibition of figural representation in the Biblical and Hellenistic-Roman periods is untenable.
Until the 20th century, Judaism was commonly believed to have been aniconic. The view was probably first challenged by David Kaufmann, who marshalled a large and comprehensive corpus of data in order to prove it untenable. He was the first to popularize the term "Jewish art" in an article published in 1878, and is regarded as the founder of the scholarly discipline of Jewish art history. His disciple Dr. Samuel Krauss wrote in 1901:

Prohibition in the Torah

A number of verses in the Torah/Tanakh refer to prohibitions against the creation of various forms of images, invariably linked directly with idolatry. The strongest source is based on what Judaism counts as the second of the Ten Commandments:
Leviticus 26:1 reads:
Similar injunctions appear in Numbers 33:52, Deuteronomy 4:16, and 27:15. In all cases, the creation of the image is associated with idolatry, and indeed, the words commonly translated as 'image' or some variant thereof are generally used interchangeably with words typically translated as 'idol'.

In traditional Orthodox ''Halakha''

Despite the semantic association with idols, halakha as taught by the Shulkhan Aruch interprets the verses as prohibiting the creation of certain types of graven images of people, angels, or astronomical bodies, whether or not they are actually used as idols. The Shulkhan Aruch states: "It is forbidden to make complete solid or raised images of people or angels, or any images of heavenly bodies except for purposes of study".
A breakdown can be found in the Shulkhan Aruch, section Yoreh De'ah, which takes the literal meaning of פסל as "graven image" The prohibition is therefore seen as applying specifically to certain forms of sculpture and depictions of the human face.

In historical periods

Art historians believe that there was a tradition in antiquity of illuminated manuscript scrolls of books from the Tanakh among Hellenized Jews that influenced Christian works of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods whose iconography is thought to derive from works in this tradition. Examples of the later works include the Joshua Roll and, more controversially, the Utrecht Psalter.
The 3rd century CE Dura-Europos synagogue in Syria has large areas of wall paintings with figures of the prophets and others, and narrative scenes. There are several representations of the Hand of God, suggesting that this motif reached Christian art from Judaism. A virtually unique Christian mosaic depiction of the Ark of the Covenant at Germigny-des-Prés, which includes the hand, is believed also to be derived from Jewish iconography; the Ark also appears at Dura-Europos. Several ancient synagogues in the land of Israel have also been excavated, revealing large floor-mosaics with figurative elements, especially animals and representations of the Zodiac. Another hypothesis is that this iconography reflects a third branch of Judaism, Synagogal Judaism, with some stylistic elements intermediate between that of ancient Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish Christianity.
Some of these, notably at Naaran in the West Bank, have had the living figures removed, leaving inanimate symbols such as the Temple menorah intact. It has been proposed that this was done by the Jewish community in the 6th or early 7th century, as part of a controversy within Judaism over images that paralleled that within Christianity leading to the Byzantine iconoclasm, leading to a stricter attitude towards images, at least in synagogues. There is also evidence that from about 570 new synagogue mosaics were aniconic. An alternative explanation for the removals is that they were done after the Muslim conquest, and related to the decree of Caliph Yazid II in 721. The decoration of cave walls and sarcophagi at the Beit She'arim necropolis also uses images, some drawn from Hellenistic pagan mythology, in the 2nd to 4th centuries CE.
Some illustrations from the Middle Ages feature fantastic creatures—usually animal-headed humanoids, even when the depictions are quite clearly meant to be those of historical or mythological humans, known as zoocephalic figures. A well-known example is the Birds' Head Haggadah. Although it is theorized that zoocephalic art is to circumvent this prohibition, the fact that some manuscripts also include human faces casts doubt on this assumption. The reasons for this illustration style are not fully understood.
The Ambrosian Bible or Ambrosian Tanakh of 1236 by Jacob ben Samuel and Joseph ben Kalonymus is one of the earliest Ashkenazic illuminated manuscripts and biblical codices. It contains figural representation and depictions of biblical figures such as Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Joseph, Moses, Solomon, David and others. Some of the figures appear with faces obscured or zoocephalic. It was made for a patron probably from Ulm.
The Leipzig Mahzor also employs a zoocephalic method to depict humans.

Illuminated manuscripts

A number of Jewish illuminated manuscripts include representational art and illustrations, with many containing religious or biblical undertones, while others focus on law, philosophy, science, or society-based ideas. These manuscripts spanned a wide geographical array, including Europe, Northern Africa, and the East.
Figures such as Joel ben Simeon became known for their work.
Archival records from medieval Iberia confirm that Jews were painters and practitioners of the fine arts. A number of works survive.
Haggadahs