Jade cong with combined patterns of human and animal face, made by the Liangzhu culture. Painted pottery, made by the Liangzhu culture. Pottery symbols of the Banpo culture. Eagle-shaped ceramic vase, made by the Yangshao culture. Female figure from Mehrgarh , circa BCE, made of terracotta, 9. Her hair was probably painted black; brown ochre would have covered the body, and her necklace was probably yellow. Her seated posture, with arms crossed under the breasts, is common throughout the region, as is her extravagant hairstyle.
The last prehistoric phase is the Metal Age or Three-age system , during which the use of copper , bronze and iron transformed ancient societies. When humans could smelt metal and forge metal implements could make new tools, weapons, and art. In the Chalcolithic Copper Age megaliths emerged. Examples include the dolmen and menhir and the English cromlech , as can be seen in the complexes at Newgrange and Stonehenge. In the Balearic Islands notable megalithic cultures developed, with different types of monuments: The first was developed between the 7th and 5th century BCE by the necropoleis with tumular tombs and a wooden burial chamber in the form of a house, often accompanied by a four-wheeled cart.
The pottery was polychromic , with geometric decorations and applications of metallic ornaments. La Tene was developed between the 5th and 4th century BCE, and is more popularly known as early Celtic art. It produced many iron objects such as swords and spears , which have not survived well to the s due to rust. The Bronze Age refers to the period when bronze was the best material available. Bronze was used for highly decorated shields , fibulas , and other objects, with different stages of evolution of the style. Decoration was influenced by Greek , Etruscan and Scythian art.
Solar cart of Trundholm , from Denmark. In the first period of recorded history, art coincided with writing. The great civilizations of the Near East: Egypt and Mesopotamia arose. Globally, during this period the first great cities appeared near major rivers: One of the great advances of this period was writing, which was developed from the tradition of communication using pictures. The first form of writing were the Jiahu symbols from neolithic China, but the first true writing was cuneiform script , which emerged in Mesopotamia c.
It was based on pictographic and ideographic elements, while later Sumerians developed syllables for writing, reflecting the phonology and syntax of the Sumerian language. Mesopotamian art was developed in the area between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern day Syria and Iraq , where since the 4th millennium BCE many different cultures existed such as Sumer , Akkad , Amorite and Chaldea. Mesopotamian architecture was characterized by the use of bricks , lintels , and cone mosaic. Notable are the ziggurats , large temples in the form of step pyramids.
The tomb was a chamber covered with a false dome , as in some examples found at Ur. There were also palaces walled with a terrace in the form of a ziggurat, where gardens were an important feature. Relief sculpture was developed in wood and stone. Sculpture depicted religious, military, and hunting scenes, including both human and animal figures. In the Sumerian period, small statues of people were produced.
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These statues had an angular form and were produced from colored stone. The figures typically had bald head with hands folded on the chest. In the Akkadian period, statues depicted figures with long hair and beards, such as the stele of Naram-Sin. In the Amorite period or Neosumerian , statues represented kings from Gudea of Lagash , with their mantle and a turban on their heads and their hands on their chests.
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During Babylonian rule, the stele of Hammurabi was important, as it depicted the great king Hammurabi above a written copy of the laws that he introduced. Assyrian sculpture is notable for its anthropomorphism of cattle and the winged genie , which is depicted flying in many reliefs depicting war and hunting scenes, such as in the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.
Standing male worshiper from the Tell Asmar Hoard. Ram in a Thicket , British Museum London. Royal Game of Ur , British Museum. The lavish jewels feature precious stones from Ur's varied trading partners. The clay cones were painted in red, black and white and were inserted in such a way that they created geometrical designs on the surface of the columns. The columns are on permanent display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin Germany. Sumerian male worshiper, circa BCE, calcite - alabaster , height: The shaven head, a sign of ritual purity, may identify this figure as a priest.
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A partially preserved inscription on one shoulder states that he prays to Ninshubur , the goddess associated with the planet Mercury. The cuneiform inscriptions on this pair of earrings state that these earrings were a gift from king Shulgi. Cuneiform inscriptions on metal or on stone are very rare. This finely worked sculpture produced using the lost-wax technique, had traditionally been identified with Sargon , founder of the Akkadian Empire , but is more likely to represent his grandson Naram-Sin.
The eyes were gouged out in antiquity, apparently in an attempt to disfigure the image of the king. Naram-Sin was remembered in a later Mesopotamian legend as an impious ruler whose sacrilegious removal of treasures from the temple of Enlil at Nippur doomed his kingdom. Detail from a stele of the Code of Hammurabi. Ceramic head, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lamassu , Metropolitan Museum of Art.
An ivory plaque which depicts a lion devouring a human, from Nimrud in the British Museum. The plaque still has much of its original gold leaf and paint. Young woman spinning and servant holding a fan. Fragment of a relief known as "The spinner". Cylinder seal and modern impression- worshiper before a seated ruler or deity; seated female under a grape arbor, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Clay panels found at Susa by french archeologist Roland de Mecquenem , during his excavations of the Apadana tell, below the achaemenian level, Louvre. Achaemenid griffin capital at Persepolis. One of a pair of armlets from the Oxus Treasure which has lost its inlays of precious stones or enamel. Similar armlets in the "Apadana" reliefs at Persepolis , also bowls and amphorae with griffin handles are given as tribute. Bas-relief in Persepolis—a symbol in Zoroastrian for Nowruz — eternally fighting bull personifying the moon , and a lion personifying the Sun representing the Spring.
One of the first great civilizations arose in Egypt , which had elaborate and complex works of art produced by professional artists and craftspeople. Egypt's art was religious and symbolic. Given that the culture had a highly centralized power structure and hierarchy, a great deal of art was created to honour the pharaoh , including great monuments. Egyptian art and culture emphasized the religious concept of immortality. Later Egyptian art includes Coptic and Byzantine art. The architecture is characterized by monumental structures, built with large stone blocks, lintels, and solid columns.
Funerary monuments included mastaba , tombs of rectangular form; pyramids , which included step pyramids Saqqarah or smooth-sided pyramids Giza ; and the hypogeum , underground tombs Valley of the Kings. Other great buildings were the temple , which tended to be monumental complexes preceded by an avenue of sphinxes and obelisks. Temples used pylons and trapezoid walls with hypaethros and hypostyle halls and shrines.
The temples of Karnak , Luxor , Philae and Edfu are good examples. Another type of temple is the rock temple , in the form of a hypogeum , found in Abu Simbel and Deir el-Bahari. Painting of the Egyptian era used a juxtaposition of overlapping planes. The images were represented hierarchically, i. Egyptians painted the outline of the head and limbs in profile, while the torso, hands, and eyes were painted from the front. Applied arts were developed in Egypt, in particular woodwork and metalwork.
There are superb examples such as cedar furniture inlaid with ebony and ivory which can be seen in the tombs at the Egyptian Museum. Other examples include the pieces found in Tutankhamun 's tomb, which are of great artistic value. Four naqada combs, decorated with a wildebeest, c. Vessel painted with landscape, circa , pottery with red painted decoration, h. Pottery vessels with bold, simple decoration of this type may not at first appear particularly pharaonic. New Kingdom Eighteenth — Twentieth Dynasties.
Great Sphinx of Giza. This detail scene, from the Papyrus of Hunefer , the Book of the Dead , c. William the Faience Hippopotamus. A "house altar" depicting Akhenaten, Nefertiti and three of their daughters; limestone; New Kingdom, Amarna period , 18th dynasty; c. A jewelled falcon of Tutankhamun holding the ankh or sign for life in Ancient Egypt.
Late Period Twenty-sixth — Thirty-first Dynasties. Greek and Etruscan artists built on the artistic foundations of Egypt, further developing the arts of sculpture, painting, architecture, and ceramics. Greek art started as smaller and simpler than Egyptian art, and the influence of Egyptian art on the Greeks started in the Cycladic islands between — BCE. Cycladic statues were simple, lacking facial features except for the nose.
Greek art eventually included life-sized statues, such as Kouros figures. From this early stage, the art of Greece moved into the Archaic Period. Sculpture from this time period includes the characteristic Archaic smile. This distinctive smile may have conveyed that the subject of the sculpture had been alive or that the subject had been blessed by the gods and was well. Marble female figure, Cyclades, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cycladic sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
This figurine from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens depicts a standing a man playing an aulos or a double flute. This monumental female is the largest known example of a folded-arm figurine 1. Its size suggests it may have served as a cult figure. Cycladic kernos with geometric patterns, Louvre. A "frying pan", named for their similarity to the modern frying pans, there being no evidence to suggest these vessels were used for cooking, in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Cycladic pyxis decorated with spirals, from Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Palace of Knossos , near Heraklion in Crete , Greece. A long time ago, it's walls were full of Minoian frescos, most well-known being the " Prince of the Lilies ". On Crete , the earlier Bronze Age is characterized by the presence of monumental, court-centred complexes at sites such as Knossos , Malia , Phaistos and Petras.
Imagined as a monumental, long-haired male waring a kilt and codpiece, a crown f feathers and lilies and a lily necklace. Fresco of the Ladies in Blue. A largely restored fragment from a fresco which adorned the large ante-chamber of the Throne Room in the eastern wing of the Palace of Knossos. Ladies of the court, dressed with great elegance according to the fashion of the day, engage in conversation. The restoration is based on similar scenes found elsewhere. Part of a five-panel composition, the iconic Bull-Leaping Fresco depicts an acrobat at the back of a charging bull.
A second figure prepares to leap, while a third waits with arms outstretched. The event may have resembled the Course landaise of modern southwest France. Bulls feature centrally in Knossian iconography and may have acted as a symbol of Knossian power. The central court may have served as an arena for bull-sports, although it was barely large enough.
A group of faience Minoan snake goddess figurines like the ome from the picture were found in fragments among a collection of objects at Knossos that appear to represent the paraphernalia of an Minoan religion reserved for the palatial elite. Wearing religious dress and an elaborate hat with a feline perched atop, the goddess has been reconstructed holding aloft a pair of snakes. The goddess may represent one incarnation of the 'Mistress of Animals' Potnia referred to in Linear B.
The deity is normally associated with nature and fertility, although the snakes suggest a chthonic component. This is the most impressive of a small number of bull rhyta known from the Aegean. The presence of this and other examples at Knossos reflect the prominence of the bull in the political propaganda of the palace. The face and ears are made of steatite , bordered with jasper , and the muzzle is inlaid with tridacna clam shell from the Red Sea.
The horns have been restored in gilt wood. A small graffito on the back of the neck suggests that they may originally have been sawn, perhaps following a practice observed during bull sacrifice. The pendant depicts opposing bees supporting a drop of honey or perhaps a pollen ball elaborated with pendant discs at the wings and strings, and a filigree care with a small gold sphere of unknown meaning above their heads. Kamares ware takes its name from the Kamares cave on the southern slope of Mount Ida from Crete , one of the most important Minoan rural sanctuaries and the site at which the style was first recognized in Kamares ware appeared on Crete as the palace centeres emerged, and it developed alongside them over the course of the Middle Bronze Age.
A collection of bronze objects weighing more than 18 Turkish okas Among the incredible array of votive objects recovered since are some thirty gold double axes, or labrys, a religious symbol in the same manner as the Christian cross. The enigmatic Phaistos Disc has no prallel. It is thought by some to be a religious text, but both the language and meaning of the disc remain unknown. Its two faces preserve a total of symbols representing 45 different pictographic signs, running from the edge to the center within an incised spiral band.
Further incisions define individual groups of signs, perhaps representing single words. Incredibly, these signs were impressed usingindividual metal stamps, as in modern typography. Such stamps would probably have been used repeatedly, raising the possibility that other discs remain to be discovered. The large female figurines representing the Minoan goddess come chiefly from the sanctuaries at Gazi , Gortys , Prinias , Knossos and Gournia. The largest and most typical group is that from Cazi one of these is in the picture.
The figurines, which are larger than any previously produced on Minoan Crete, are rendered in an extremely stylized manner in accordance with the artistic spirit of the period: All the figures have raised hands; hence the name usually given to this type of figurine: On the heads of the figures there are various symbols, such as horns of consecration, bird and the seeds of opium poppies. This sarcophagus, known as the Hagia Triada sarcophagus , offers a unique narrative depiction of funerary ritual that incorporates both Minoan and Mycenaean elements, perhaps to convey a political message at a time when Crete may have fallen under Mycenaean control.
Side A depicts a daytime scene with females pouring libations beneath a pair of double axes accompanied by a male lyre player, and a night scene showing men moving towards a figure who may represent the deceased. Side B depicts a pair of women sacrificing a bull, accompanied by a male flautist. On the terminal ends are female divinities an Mycenaean chariots drawn by griffin and others drawn by wild goats. Mycenaean palace amphora with an octopus on it, found in the Argolid , in the Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Mask of Agamemnon , a gold funeral mask, dated — BCE. The Dendra panoply or Dendra armour is an example of Mycenaean-era panoply full-body armor made of bronze plates uncovered in the village of Dendra in the Argolid Greece , Archaeological Museum of Nafplion. Water jar with Herakles and the Hydra , c. Etruscan dancer in the Tomb of the Augurs , Tarquinia, Italy. Etruscan sarcophagus , 3rd century BCE. Dacian art is the art associated with the peoples known as Dacians or North Thracians ; The Dacians created an art style in which the influences of Scythians and the Greeks can be seen.
They were highly skilled in gold and silver working and in pottery making. Pottery was white with red decorations in flolral, geometric, and stylized animal motifs. Similar decorations were worked in metal, especially the figure of a horse, which was common on Dacian coins. Pre-Roman Iberian art refers to the styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze age up to the Roman conquest.
For this reason it is sometimes described as "Iberian art". Almost all extant works of Iberian sculpture visibly reflect Greek and Phoenician influences, and Assyrian , Hittite and Egyptian influences from which those derived; yet they have their own unique character. Within this complex stylistic heritage, individual works can be placed within a spectrum of influences- some of more obvious Phoenician derivation, and some so similar to Greek works that they could have been directly imported from that region.
Overall the degree of influence is correlated to the work's region of origin, and hence they are classified into groups on that basis. The Lady of Elche , an iconic sculpture for the pre-Roman Iberian art. Hittite art was produced by the Hittite civilization in ancient Anatolia , in modern-day Turkey , and also stretching into Syria during the second millennium BCE from the nineteenth century up until the twelfth century BCE. This period falls under the Anatolian Bronze Age.
It is characterized by a long tradition of canonized images and motifs rearranged, while still being recognizable, by artists to convey meaning to a largely illiterate population. Many of these recurring images revolve around the depiction of Hittite deities and ritual practices. There is also a prevalence of hunting scenes in Hittite relief and representational animal forms. Scholars do have difficulty dating a large portion of Hittite art, citing the fact that there is a lack of inscription and much of the found material, especially from burial sites, was moved from their original locations and distributed among museums during the nineteenth century.
Luwian hieroglyphs surround a figure in royal dress. The inscription, repeated in cuneiform around the rim, gives the seal owner's name: Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi [ citation needed ]. They include an Elamite-type cylinder seal and a Harappan seal stamped with an elephant and Indus script found at Gonur-depe. Among the finds there were two Harappan seals and ivory objects. The Harappan settlement of Shortugai in Northern Afghanistan on the banks of the Amu Darya probably served as a trading station.
Dressed in a voluminous garment made of tufts of wool , this woman has a majestic bearing and an enigmatic smile. Statuette of a kaunakes-wearing woman, known as "The Bactrian princess", between 3 millennium BCE and 2 millennium BCE, made of chlorite mineral group, limestone, height: Female statuette bearing the kaunakes "crinoline" dress. Seated female statue made of steatite the head and chlorite the dress in circa late 3rd—early 2nd millennium BCE, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bird-Headed Man with Snakes, bronze. Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts ; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period. It also refers to the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic languages. The Wandsworth Shield-boss , in the "plastic" style. The Strettweg Cult Wagon. Roman art is sometimes viewed as derived from Greek precedents, but also has its own distinguishing features.
Roman sculpture is often less idealized than the Greek precedents, being very realistic. Roman architecture often used concrete , and features such as the round arch and dome were invented. Roman artwork was influenced by the nation-state's interaction with other people's, such as ancient Judea. A major monument is the Arch of Titus, which was erected by the Emperor Titus. Scenes of Romans looting the Jewish temple in Jerusalem are depicted in low-relief sculptures around the arch's perimeter. Ancient Roman pottery was not a luxury product, but a vast production of "fine wares" in terra sigillata were decorated with reliefs that reflected the latest taste, and provided a large group in society with stylish objects at what was evidently an affordable price.
Roman coins were an important means of propaganda, and have survived in enormous numbers. A Roman naval bireme depicted in a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste Palastrina , [24] which was built c. The Patrician Torlonia bust, believed to be of Cato the Elder. The cameo gem known as the " Great Cameo of France ", c.
Bust of Emperor Claudius , c. The so-called " Venus in a bikini ", from the House of Julia Felix , Pompeii , Italy actually depicts her Greek conterpart Aphrodite as she is about to untie her sandal , with a small Eros squatting beneath her left arm. Marcus Aurelius receiving the submission of vanquished foes from the Marcomannic Wars , a relief from his now destroyed triumphal arch in Rome, Capitoline Museums , CE. Mosaic of Diana bathing, from As-Suwayda Syria. With the decline of the Roman Empire , the Medieval era began, lasting for a millennium. Early Christian art begins the period, followed by Byzantine art , Anglo-Saxon art , Viking art , Ottonian art , Romanesque art and Gothic art , with Islamic art dominating the eastern Mediterranean.
In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages , the dominance of the church resulted in a large amount of religious art. There was extensive use of gold in paintings, which presented figures in simplified forms. Similar plaques of whale bone carved with confronted monster heads are found frequently in the graves of wealthy Viking women in Norway. The monster heads, similar to the figureheads attached to Viking ship prows, are typical of Viking decoration. Byzantine monumental Church mosaics are one of the great achievements of medieval art. These are from Monreale in Sicily from the late 12th century.
The Renaissance is the return to a valuation of the material world, and this paradigm shift is reflected in art forms, which show the corporeality of the human body, and the three-dimensional reality of landscapes. Art historians often periodize Renaissance art by century, especially with Italian art. Italian Renaissance and Baroque art is traditionally referred to by centuries: Leonardo da Vinci , Mona Lisa , c. Michelangelo , The Last Judgment Michelangelo , —, fresco, The 18th and 19th centuries included Neoclassicism , Romanticism , and Realism in art.
The art of Pre-Islamic Arabia is related to that of neighbouring cultures. Pre-Islamic Yemen produced stylized alabaster heads of great aesthetic and historic charm. Most of the pre-Islamic sculptures are made of alabaster. Archaeology has revealed some early settled civilizations in Saudi Arabia: The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas. It seems probable that before around BCE the Arabian climate was somewhat wetter that today, benefitting from a monsoon system that has since moved south [ citation needed ].
During the late fourth millennium BCE permanent settlements began to appear, and inhabitants adjusted to the emerging dryer conditions. In south-west Arabia modern Yemen a moister climate supported several kingdoms during the second and first millennia BCE. The most famos of these is Sheba , the kingdom of the biblical Queen of Sheba. These societies used a combination of trade in spices and the natural resources of the region, including aromatics such as frankincense and myrrh, to build wealthy kingdoms. The area was never a part of the Assyrian or Persian empires , and even Babylonian control of north-west Arabia seems to have been relatively short-lived.
Later Roman attempts to control the region's lucrative trade foundered. Over the centuries, Jews have been poorly represented among land-holding classes, but far better represented in academia, professions, finance, commerce and many scientific fields. The early Jewish activity in science can be found in the Hebrew bible where some of the books contain descriptions of the physical world. Biblical cosmology provides sporadic glimpses that may be stitched together to form a Biblical impression of the physical universe.
There have been comparisons between the Bible, with passages such as from the Genesis creation narrative , and the astronomy of classical antiquity more generally. One suggested ritual, for example, deals with the proper procedure for cleansing a leper Leviticus It is a fairly elaborate process, which is to be performed after a leper was already healed of leprosy Leviticus The Torah proscribes Intercropping Lev.
During Medieval era astronomy was a primary field among Jewish scholars and was widely studied and practiced. The lunar crater Zagut is named after Zacuto's name. Bar Hiyya proved by geometro-mechanical method of indivisibles the following equation for any circle: He was the first European to describe Asiatic tropical diseases, notably cholera; he performed an autopsy on a cholera victim, the first recorded autopsy in India.
Bonet de Lattes known chiefly as the inventor of an astronomical ring-dial by means of which solar and stellar altitudes can be measured and the time determined with great precision by night as well as by day. Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist and is considered as one of the most prominent scientists in history, often regarded as the "father of modern physics". His revolutionary work on the relativity theory transformed theoretical physics and astronomy during the 20th century. When first published, relativity superseded a year-old theory of mechanics created primarily by Isaac Newton.
With relativity, cosmology and astrophysics predicted extraordinary astronomical phenomena such as neutron stars , black holes , and gravitational waves. The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II and many Jewish scientists had a significant role in the project. The mathematician and physicist Alexander Friedmann pioneered the theory that universe was expanding governed by a set of equations he developed now known as the Friedmann equations.
Arno Allan Penzias , the physicist and radio astronomer co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which helped establish the Big Bang theory, the scientists Robert Herman and Ralph Alpher had also worked on that field. In quantum mechanics Jewish role was significant as well and many of most influential figures and pioneers of the theory were Jewish: Sigmund Freud , known as the father of psychoanalysis , is one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.
In creating psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst, [44] Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference , establishing its central role in the analytic process. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the mechanisms of repression as well as for elaboration of his theory of the unconscious as an agency disruptive of conscious states of mind. John von Neumann , a mathematician and physicist, made major contributions to a number of fields, [49] including foundations of mathematics , functional analysis , ergodic theory , geometry , topology , numerical analysis , quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics and game theory.
Emmy Noether was an influential mathematician known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Described by many prominent scientists as the most important woman in the history of mathematics, [51] [52] [ incomplete short citation ] she revolutionized the theories of rings , fields , and algebras. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the fundamental connection between symmetry and conservation laws.
Beside Scientific discoveries and researches, Jews have created significant and influential innovations in a large variety of fields such as the listed samples: Siegfried Marcus - automobile pioneer, inventor of the first car ; Emile Berliner - developer of the disc record phonograph ; Mikhail Gurevich - co-inventor of the MIG aircraft ; Theodore Maiman - inventor of the laser ; Robert Adler - inventor of the wireless remote control for televisions; Edwin H.
Baer , "The Father of Video Games". In some places where there have been relatively high concentrations of Jews, distinct secular Jewish subcultures have arisen. For example, ethnic Jews formed an enormous proportion of the literary and artistic life of Vienna , Austria at the end of the 19th century, or of New York City 50 years later and Los Angeles in the mid-late 20th century. Many of these creative Jews were not particularly religious people. In general, Jewish artistic culture in various periods reflected the culture in which they lived.
Literary and theatrical expressions of secular Jewish culture may be in specifically Jewish languages such as Hebrew , Yiddish or Ladino , or it may be in the language of the surrounding cultures, such as English or German. Secular literature and theater in Yiddish largely began in the 19th century and was in decline by the middle of the 20th century.
The revival of Hebrew beyond its use in the liturgy is largely an early 20th-century phenomenon, and is closely associated with Zionism. Apart from the use of Hebrew in Israel, whether a Jewish community will speak a Jewish or non-Jewish language as its main vehicle of discourse is generally dependent on how isolated or assimilated that community is. Jewish authors have both created a unique Jewish literature and contributed to the national literature of many of the countries in which they live.
Though not strictly secular, the Yiddish works of authors like Sholem Aleichem whose collected works amounted to 28 volumes and Isaac Bashevis Singer winner of the Nobel Prize , form their own canon, focusing on the Jewish experience in both Eastern Europe, and in America. In the United States, Jewish writers like Philip Roth , Saul Bellow , and many others are considered among the greatest American authors, and incorporate a distinctly secular Jewish view into many of their works.
The poetry of Allen Ginsberg often touches on Jewish themes notably the early autobiographical works such as Howl and Kaddish. Secular Jewish culture embraces literary works that have stood the test of time as sources of aesthetic pleasure and ideas shared by Jews and non-Jews, works that live on beyond the immediate socio-cultural context within which they were created. Yehoshua , and David Grossman. Stine Goosebumps series ; J.
Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Another aspect of Jewish literature is the ethical, called Musar literature. Hebrew poetry is expressed by various of poets in different eras of Jewish history. Biblical poetry is related to the poetry in biblical times as it expressed in the Hebrew bible and Jewish sacred texts. Modern Hebrew poetry is mostly related to the era of and after the revival of the Hebrew language , pioneered by Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in the Haskalah era and succeeded by poets such as Hayim Nahman Bialik , Nathan Alterman and Shaul Tchernichovsky.
The next year, his troupe achieved enormous success in Bucharest. Between and , over a dozen Yiddish theatre groups existed in New York City alone, in the Yiddish Theater District , performing original plays , musicals , and Yiddish translations of theatrical works and opera. Perhaps the most famous of Yiddish-language plays is The Dybbuk by S. Yiddish theater in New York in the early 20th century rivalled English-language theater in quantity and often surpassed it in quality.
A New York Times article remarks, "…Yiddish theater… is now a stable American institution and no longer dependent on immigration from Eastern Europe. People who can neither speak nor write Yiddish attend Yiddish stage performances and pay Broadway prices on Second Avenue. In fact, however, the next generation of American Jews spoke mainly English to the exclusion of Yiddish; they brought the artistic energy of Yiddish theater into the American theatrical mainstream, but usually in a less specifically Jewish form.
Yiddish theater, most notably Moscow State Jewish Theater directed by Solomon Mikhoels , also played a prominent role in the arts scene of the Soviet Union until Stalin's reversal in government policy toward the Jews. See Rootless cosmopolitan , Night of the Murdered Poets. Montreal's Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre continues to thrive after 50 years of performance. From their Emancipation to World War II, Jews were very active and sometimes even dominant in certain forms of European theatre, and after the Holocaust many Jews continued to that cultural form.
Both MacDonald and Jewish Tribal Review would generally be counted as anti-Semitic sources, but reasonably careful in their factual claims. Jewish audiences patronized innovative theater, regardless of whether they approved of what they saw. The area where Jewish influence was strongest was the theatre, especially in Berlin. But it was certainly not revolutionary, and it was cosmopolitan rather than Jewish. Jews also made similar, if not as massive, contributions to theatre and drama in Austria, Britain, France, and Russia in the national languages of those countries.
Jews in Vienna, Paris and German cities found cabaret both a popular and effective means of expression, as German cabaret in the Weimar Republic "was mostly a Jewish art form". In the early 20th century the traditions of New York's vibrant Yiddish Theatre District both rivaled and fed into Broadway.
History of art - Wikipedia
Jewish immigrants were instrumental in the creation and development of the genre of musical theatre and earlier forms of theatrical entertainment in America, and would innovate the new, distinctly American, art form, the Broadway musical. Whitfield has commented that "More so than behind the screen, the talent behind the stage was for over half a century virtually the monopoly of one ethnic group. This vibrant landscape reflects the life, times and creative output of the Jewish-American artist. During the period when Broadway was monopolized by revues and similar entertainments, Jewish producer Florenz Ziegfeld dominated the theatrical scene with his Follies.
By Jews the vast majority of them immigrants from Eastern Europe already composed a quarter of the population of New York City, and almost immediately Jewish artists and intellectuals began to show their influence on the cultural life of that city, and through time, the country as a whole. Likewise, while the modern musical can best be described as a fusion of operetta, earlier American entertainment and African-American culture and music, as well as Jewish culture and music, the actual authors of the first "book musicals" were the Jewish Jerome Kern , Oscar Hammerstein II , George and Ira Gershwin , George S.
Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. From that time until the s a vast majority of successful musical theatre composers, lyricists, and book-writers were Jewish a notable exception is the Protestant Cole Porter , who acknowledged that the reason he was so successful on Broadway was that he wrote what he called "Jewish music".
One explanation of the affinity of Jewish composers and playwrights to the musical is that "traditional Jewish religious music was most often led by a single singer, a cantor while Christians emphasize choral singing. Towards the end of Golden Age, writers also began to openly and overtly tackle Jewish subjects and issues, such as Fiddler on the Roof and Rags ; Bart's Blitz!
Jewish playwrights have also contributed to non-musical drama and theatre, both Broadway and regional. The Association for Jewish Theater is a contemporary organization that includes both American and international theaters that focus on theater with Jewish content.
It has also expanded to include Jewish playwrights. The earliest known Hebrew language drama was written around by a Jewish-Italian writer from Mantua. Modern Hebrew theatre and drama, however, began with the development of Modern Hebrew in Europe the first Hebrew theatrical professional performance was in Moscow in [78] and was "closely linked with the Jewish national renaissance movement of the twentieth century.
The historical awareness and the sense of primacy which accompanied the Hebrew theatre in its early years dictated the course of its artistic and aesthetic development". Yehoshua have written Hebrew-language plays. Themes that are obviously common in these works are the Holocaust , the Arab—Israeli conflict , the meaning of Jewishness, and contemporary secular-religious tensions within Jewish Israel.
The most well-known Hebrew theatre company and Israel's national theatre is the Habima meaning "the stage" in Hebrew , which was formed in in Lithuania , and re-established in in Russia; another prominent Israeli theatre company is the Cameri Theatre , which is "Israel's first and leading repertory theatre". In the era when Yiddish theatre was still a major force in the world of theatre, over films were made in Yiddish. Many are now lost. The roster of Jewish entrepreneurs in the English-language American film industry is legendary: Samuel Goldwyn , Louis B.
Mayer , the Warner Brothers , David O. However, few of these brought a specifically Jewish sensibility either to the art of film or, with the sometime exception of Spielberg, to their choice of subject matter. The historian Eric Hobsbawm described the situation as follows: These Jewish innovators were also among the first producers of televisions, both black-and-white and color. Although there is little specifically Jewish television in the United States National Jewish Television , largely religious, broadcasts only three hours a week , Jews have been involved in American television from its earliest days.
In the analysis of Paul Johnson, "The Broadway musical, radio and TV were all examples of a fundamental principle in Jewish diaspora history: Jews opening up a completely new field in business and culture, a tabula rasa on which to set their mark, before other interests had a chance to take possession, erect guild or professional fortifications and deny them entry. One of the first televised situation comedies , The Goldbergs was set in a specifically Jewish milieu in the Bronx. While the overt Jewish milieu of The Goldbergs was unusual for an American television series, there were a few other examples, such as Brooklyn Bridge — and Bridget Loves Bernie.
Jews have also played an enormous role among the creators and writers of television comedies: More recently, American Jews have been instrumental to "novelistic" television series such as The Wire and The Sopranos. This app can help point you in the right direction. Basically, it turns existing images into pixelated, glitched-out works of art, which -- with a little practice -- you can manipulate on your own.
You can make GIFs. Yoko wants your smiles. And we know you want to give them to her. We gave you a sketching app. We gave you a painting app. This is your catch-all art app , which gives you access to oil paints, pastels, crayons, colored pencils, and more, all on your mobile device. The graphics alone are gorgeous, and the accessible format will do nothing but motivate you to bring color to digital canvas. Sometimes you just want to peruse years worth of design. This app is like an illustrated encyclopedia of everything from chairs to tableware to cars to toys, all at your fingertips.
Garage Magazine is, in itself, a good source for contemporary art news.
But now there's an added bonus for the month of September: Jeff Koons' first virtual sculpture. If you, like many of us, can't stand taking notes on a touchscreen keyboard, this app is for you. It lets you take notes in your digital handwriting, while attempting to mimic the feel of ink and paper as much as possible. After tinkering with all of these apps, you might want to see some art up close. Go forth and explore, techies. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you.
Behold, 18 apps every creative and artist type should download now: