Our Fight Has Just Begun
This week's review examines generations of racial violence against the Navajo, unpacking the persistence of systemic racism and hidden stories of Indigenous activism.
Posted on in Review of the Week
Luminous Art
Happy Hanukkah! This week's review highlights hundreds of historical menorahs from all over the world
Posted on December 14, 2020 in Review of the Week
Luminous art: Hanukkah menorahs of the Jewish Museum
Braunstein, Susan L. Jewish Museum/Yale, 2004
244p, 0300103875 $50.00
New York’s Jewish Museum possesses more than 1,000 Hanukkah menorahs, the lamps that are lit in Jewish households to mark the eight-day festival commemorating the victory in 164 BCE of Judah Maccabee over Seleucid King Antiochus IV and the cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple that the latter had desecrated. To celebrate its centennial in 2004, the museum published a comprehensive inventory of these objects, consisting of two volumes, available separately. The first, Luminous Art contains an introduction and a selection of 114 highlights of the collection, ranging from the 17th century to the present; the second, a more extensive catalogue raisonné (to be published later), will feature descriptions of another 543 lamps, the remainder being variants and duplicates of secondary interest. Luminous Art is a very handsome publication, whose opening pages (p. 6-38) outline the historical background of the Hanukkah festival, its evolution over the centuries, the variety of forms that the lamps may take, and some of the men and women who pioneered in the collection of this material. This is followed by detailed descriptions of the lamps (p. 41-221), each of which is illustrated by color photographs of high quality.
Summing Up: Essential. All levels.
Reviewer: W. Cahn, Yale University
Subject: Humanities – Art & Architecture
Choice Issue: May 2005
Related Posts
-
-
Soccer in American Culture
Watching the World Cup this Thanksgiving? To celebrate, this week's review examines the origins and growing popularity of soccer in the US.
Posted on in Review of the Week
-
The Writer’s Crusade
This week's review examines Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, providing a literary critique of the novel through the lens of Vonnegut's PTSD as a combat-veteran
Posted on in Review of the Week
-
As Long as the Earth Endures
To commemorate Native American Heritage Month, this week's review provides a rich linguistic history of the Myaamia people through its examination of original texts in the Algonquian language Miami-Illinois
Posted on in Review of the Week