Marc Michael Epstein – författare

The Middle Ages provide us with one of the richest repositories of art in the West. Yet the rise in the production of art made for and by Jews—especially in the form of illuminated manuscripts—is often neglected in general surveys or viewed as a mere emulation of Christian art during this period.In People of the Image, Marc Michael Epstein demonstrates how medieval Jews transformed their visual art into a vital site of critical commentary. Through bold speculation and radical interpretation, Epstein considers how viewers might have empathized with depicted emotions, how they envisioned the relationship between the monstrous and the human, and how they could effectively perpetrate subversive acts merely by anticipating what might occur next in a given image were it to be set in motion. Examining these artworks and imagining the circumstances of their production and reception, Epstein uncovers otherwise inaccessible social, political, and theological perceptions among Europe’s major medieval minority. He goes on to illuminate the afterlives of medieval Jewish art in its reimaginings by postmodern Jews struggling to establish a conceptual as well as a political space for themselves as a minority in majority Christian society.Bringing together diverse currents from various fields and bodies of literature, People of the Image reveals how medieval Jews understood themselves, the world, and God. Provocative and engagingly written, the book will appeal to audiences across medieval studies, cultural studies, art history, and Jewish studies.

The love of books in the Jewish tradition extends back over many centuries, and the ways of interpreting those books are as myriad as the traditions themselves. Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers the first full survey of Jewish illuminated manuscripts, ranging from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present day. Featuring some of the most beautiful examples of Jewish art of all time--including hand-illustrated versions of the Bible, the Haggadah, the prayer book, marriage documents, and other beloved Jewish texts--the book introduces readers to the history of these manuscripts and their interpretation. Edited by Marc Michael Epstein with contributions from leading experts, this sumptuous volume features a lively and informative text, showing how Jewish aesthetic tastes and iconography overlapped with and diverged from those of Christianity, Islam, and other traditions. Featured manuscripts were commissioned by Jews and produced by Jews and non-Jews over many centuries, and represent Eastern and Western perspectives and the views of both pietistic and liberal communities across the Diaspora, including Europe, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa.Magnificently illustrated with pages from hundreds of manuscripts, many previously unpublished or rarely seen, Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers surprising new perspectives on Jewish life, presenting the books of the People of the Book as never before.