CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Tóth, Lili Rebeka |
|---|---|
| Title | Painted Textile from Riggisberg - An Old Testament Cycle in the Context of Hellenistic Jewish and Christian Art |
| Summary | The thesis focuses on how classical art influenced the evolution of both Hellenistic Jewish and Early Christian art in the Late Antique Roman World by taking a textile as a case study. The Textile was created in the fourth century Egypt and is one of the oldest preserved Old Testament narrative in the world. Its original cultural background is still disputed; therefore, its typological and iconographical choices give the possibility to consider a putative Jewish and Christian origin. While the Textile’s Old Testament narrative speaks for exegetical function, the lack of direct religious indicators such as menorah or cross as well as the narrative’s failed Biblical chronology make one uncertain about the Textile’s original function. The most deviating visual solution concerns the scene of Creation of Man on the Textile, where a mythological figure, Psyche, is represented as the materialized form of the soul. The thesis analyzes these iconographical choices made by Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity under the influence of the classical art in the Roman Empire. Through this exercise one can learn about how Jewish and Christian art grew out from Hellenism and was rendered to transmit its own religion’s exegetical and theological messages in Late Antiquity. |
| Supervisor | Gereby, Gyorgy Laszlo; Szakacs, Bela Zsolt |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/toth_lili.pdf |
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