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Dec. 27, 2013
A pre-modern vantage point
Prof. Eva Baboula discusses a new course on Jewish art at UVic.
OLGA LIVSHIN
The history-in-art department of the faculty of fine arts at the University of Victoria is offering a new course on Jewish art, starting in January 2014. The Independent spoke to the instructor of the course, art historian and assistant professor Eva Baboula, about it, and what students can expect to get from the syllabus.
Jewish Independent: Can you tell readers a little bit about the new course?
Eva Baboula: The course is called Ancient and Medieval Jewish Art. It is the first of its kind in Canada. What is new is that it concentrates on ancient to medieval art and architecture, i.e. the pre-modern material. If there have been any such courses in the past (and I am not sure there have), they are certainly not common in North American or European universities. There will undoubtedly have been courses on modern Jewish art in Canada, but we will be focusing on the pre-modern artistic production of Jewish communities, as well as the representation of Jews within more dominant cultural contexts – an “inside” and an “outside” look.
JI: Could you share some of the specifics?
EB: This class will introduce students to a wide range of visual art and architecture that starts from ancient times and the first Temple period. We will look at the significant remains of synagogues and art of the Roman-to-early-medieval period in the east Mediterranean, examine the illustrations of medieval Hebrew books, and see how medieval Jews exchanged information about the things they owned and sold. I will include discussions of how Jews in more recent periods lived their lives in some of the communities that we have evidence of, such as in areas of Morocco and Greece. Another aspect of the course will be how Jews were seen in the art of other, more dominant communities, in particular whether the illustration of biblical stories in Christian cathedrals had anything to do with how medieval societies saw Jews. I hope this is an exciting project for interested students and that it will enrich the way that they access the medieval world.
JI: What are some of the distinct characteristics of Jewish art?
EB: Some of the most salient features of pre-modern Jewish art come down to the ways that Jewish groups used to borrow architectural and artistic features from the world around them. For example, the synagogues of Spain borrowed a lot from mosque architecture. This receptivity, combined with the many connections that Jewish communities had across the Mediterranean (and further, Europe and as far as the Indian Ocean) actually makes the art of Jewish communities into a perfect case study of the medieval world. On the other hand, especially in religious art, there are unmistakable signs of cultural identity: symbols such as the menorah are frequent, and scenes of Jewish ritual gatherings can be seen in manuscripts. The art is very much the product of a minority, which lived within larger states, whether of a Christian or Muslim character. It was through the trades that Jews were often involved in, such as textile making, that their products reached wider audiences.
JI: Many ethnically Jewish artists contributed significantly to European and American art in the last couple of centuries. Does it count as Jewish art?
EB: There are many experts who would be better qualified to tackle this question since it has to do with what one thinks of Jewish identity. The sure thing is, judging very much as an outsider, that modern and contemporary art would not be the same without the contributions of the likes of Chagall or Modigliani.
JI: There were times and places where everything Jewish was destroyed. What are the places in the world where Jewish art survived?
EB: There are several episodes in which the property of Jews was damaged or completely destroyed, not to mention the human loss. The First Crusade at the end of the 11th century and the Black Death in the 14th century come to mind, when Jewish communities were either attacked en masse or proved an easy scapegoat for plagues that people could not explain. The rise of antisemitism in the end of the 19th and [into the] 20th century, of course, did not help, to say the least, the preservation of earlier material culture. But much has been preserved, especially in the region that I am mostly interested in. So here are some examples: the synagogues of the Roman world (in Italy, Greece, Syria and Israel); the synagogues and illustrated manuscripts of Islamic Spain and the Jewish quarter in Fez, Morocco; Cairo has preserved the extremely rich genizah of a local synagogue with many thousands of documents that help decipher the private, religious and professional life of the Jews of Cairo through many centuries. There are also some lovely early modern synagogues and surviving cemeteries in Greece, where I come from.
JI: Please tell readers a little bit about yourself.
EB: I come from Greece and I grew up in Athens. Eva is short for Evanthia. My last name is unusual and means ‘the bogeyman,’ but I am really not scary! I did my post-graduate studies in Oxford. My particular interest was in ancient metalwork and the way that people were buried with metal objects in prehistoric Crete. I came to British Columbia with my husband, who got a job as a professor as I was finishing my PhD. I had never heard of Victoria before. Now I think we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
JI: You’re not Jewish. Why teach a class on Jewish art?
EB: No, I am not Jewish. I just love learning. Something that did intrigue me, apart from preparing specifically for this course, however, was the history of the Jews of Greece. Up to the Second World War, Greece had very significant ancient Romaniote Jewish communities, as well as Sephardim who had originated in the Iberian Peninsula. The country witnessed an unprecedented loss of its Jewish communities in relation to its general population (about 80 percent were lost in the Holocaust). Often this kind of history, as well as the material remnants of the history of many centuries, is not really known or very visible. I think it is the history of all of us and it has to be preserved.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
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