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Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven. Metropolitan Museum, New York. 26, 2016– January 8, 2017. Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb. Catalogue: Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb, eds., 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven. New York: Metropolitan Museum, 2016. 352 pp., 354 Illus. $75.

To the eternal question, “Is it good for the ?” only tion by Stefano Carboni on Venice and , this one answer—a resounding negative—can be given current international collaboration attempts to high- regarding the tumultuous period covered by this lav- light medieval exchanges in both peace and conflict.1 ish, highly conceptual museum exhibition dedicated to The catalogue dust jacket proclaims that “Medieval the hotly contested city of Jerusalem across the time Jerusalem was a vibrant international center, home to of the Crusades, (fig. 1). Following on from four other multiple cultures, faiths, and languages. Harmonious Metropolitan Museum medieval blockbusters, three and dissonant voices . . .” However, unlike the cosmo- of them organized by Helen Evans and dedicated to politanism and often open exchange celebrated in Byzantine art, the last a trans-Mediterranean exhibi- those earlier installations, this exhibition highlights parochialism. It celebrates individual religious tradi- tions largely in isolation, rather like those normal separate-but-equal art galleries of the Met’s permanent collections (recently so spectacularly enhanced by their re-installed pan-Islamic presentation). How could any exhibition on Jerusalem in almost any age—including the present—be any different? No piece of real estate has ever been the focus of such emotional energy and pious fervor. But never was the irreconcilable conflict of Jerusalem’s claimants more intense than in the era of the Crusades. Fully a quarter of the loans come from the divided city of Jerusalem itself: Franciscan, Orthodox, Arme- nian, Islamic, and Israeli possessors of sacred objects participated in mounting the displays. The organizers’ introduction makes the period ingathering sound more like a shared pilgrimage site than a duel to the over possession of everyone’s distinctive Holy City. Conquered in 1099 by European answering a papal recruitment call by Urban II in 1095, the city was later reconquered by (or “fell to,” depending on one’s viewpoint) Islamic forces from in 1187 under the command of the legendary general, Saladin/ ad- Din (even the choice of name indicates the orientation of the speaker), who founded the Ayyubid dynasty in the Levant and North Africa. Ruled thereafter from Egypt by Mamluk sovereigns, the city remained in Fig. 1. Lamp of Sultan Barquq, 1382–1399, Egypt or Syria, glass with gold and enamel, 133/4 × 101/2 in. (34.7 × 26.8 cm). possession of until the twentieth century. Victoria and Albert Museum, London (321–1900) Image: © Victoria Even today the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the and Albert Museum, London. major Christian pilgrimage site in the Old City, actually

1 “The Glory of Byzantium,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261–1557) (Metropolitan Museum York, March 11–July 6, 1997, Helen Evans and William Wixom, of Art: New York, 2004); “Byzantium and Islam, Age of Transition eds., The Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzan- (7th–9th Century),” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March tine Era, A.D. 843–1261 (Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 14–July 8, 2012, Helen Evans and Brandie Ratliff, eds., Byzantium 1997); “Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261–1557),” Metropolitan and Islam, Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 23–July 4, 2004, Helen Evans, ed., Museum of Art: New York, 2012); “Venice and the Islamic World

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017 IMAGES DOI: 10.1163/18718000-12340067 Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 04:07:24PM via free access exhibition reviews 127 has a Muslim administrator, who referees the fiercely nos. 38–39) as well as Christian pilgrims, such as the contested interior spaces among Orthodox, Roman fifteenth-century visitors Felix Fabri and Bernhard von , Coptic, Armenian, and even Ethiopian and Breydenbach (whose vividly illustrated guidebook, Syriac claimants. Those groups get some individual which appeared in Mainz in 1486, also conveys the attention in this exhibition’s catalogue in essays on the experience of the region and its diverse inhabitants larger subject of patronage: Armenians (Helen Evans), in images; cat. no. 20; map of Jerusalem and greater (Xavier John Seubert), and Muslim women , fig. 2).2 The exhibition and catalogue stress (Yusuf Natsheh). Yet their conflicting interests produce this regional pluralism, highlighted in a joint essay by not pluralism but mutual antagonism. A (now almost the organizers (65–75). Many of the objects on display mythical) wooden ladder, left standing on the facade are religious souvenirs (essay by Avinoam Shalem, wall under Ottoman rule in the nineteenth century, 23–25), most far more substantial than the tchotchkes still cannot be moved or removed because of the bitter on sale in modern Jerusalem for contemporary pilgrims denominational disputes it could provoke. of all stripes. Of course, Jews still make their own declarations However downplayed as a central theme, the of allegiance to this city, proclaiming, “Next year in Crusades are not ignored entirely. Just as they do Jerusalem” at the conclusion of every Passover Seder throughout the catalogue, the organizers introduce (this line is shown in the exhibition via the Catalonian this section, near the mid-point of the exhibition, Barcelona Haggadah, ca. 1360–1370; cat. no. 139). with a joint essay, “Holy War and the Power of Art.” For far longer Jews have also recited the words of Apart from “pluralism,” their other topics are trade and Psalm 137:5, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem . . .” But tourism, sacred art, and patronage. Of course, any ex- these are mental concepts, not in most cases actual hibition focused on objects, especially objets d’art, can experiences of the city from the sites of Diaspora in scarcely summon contemporary medieval imagery of Europe. Even Karaite Jews appear in the population violence and cruelty, though weapons and depictions mix, especially from the period before the Christian of arms (such as the entire tomb figure of a knight, 211, conquest, so they are also included in a brief essay cat. no. 108) do figure in this display (194–223). But as by Meria Polliack (79–81, cat. nos. 30–34), who notes the organizers point out, the concept of a “holy war” that their largest community today is, indeed, back for Christians (essay by James Carroll, 203–205) and of in Israel. “” for Muslims crystallized around the momentous Yet increased travel during this contested period conflict of the Crusades in this very period. Their essay did permit visits by non-Muslims, even including even invokes on the subject of righteous Maimonides (essay by Kraemer, 82–83; cat. war, as he made a case for destruction of idolatry

Fig. 2. (cat. 20). Written by Bernhard von Breydenbach (1440?–1497?), designed by Erhard Reuwich (ca. 1455–ca. 1490), and published by Peter Schöffer the Elder (1425–1503), “View of Jerusalem,” in, Journey to the (Peregrinatio in Terram sanctam), 1486, woodcuts on paper. H. 125/8 in. (32 cm), W. 91/8 in. (23 cm), D. 13/8 in. (3.5 cm). Mainz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (19.49.3). (Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.)

828–1797,” Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, October 2 2006– 2 Elizabeth Ross, Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book: February 18, 2007, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March Breydenbach’s Peregrenatio from Venice to Jerusalem (University 27–July 8, 2007, Stefano Carboni, ed., Venice and the Islamic World Park: Penn State, 2014), 167–183. 828–1797 (Yale University Press: New Haven, 2007).

Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 04:07:24PM via free access 128 exhibition reviews in his Mishneh , as well as Nachmanides, who by way of his cousin Baldwin II, ruler of the Latin advocated divine sanction for Jewish communities in Kingdom.5 The importance of St. George as the ideal the Land of Israel (198–199). But this kind of artificial crusader warrior is vividly imaged by a refined of balance smacks of television news hours, seeking rep- the mounted with a young boy from Mytilene, resentatives of each side of a dispute, regardless of the whom he rescued from the Saracen foe (cat. no. 119; actual imbalance of their cases or any real true-false British Museum, London).6 issues of factuality. They even argue that haggadot But what is really essential for this exhibition is to pictures could show Jewish warrior figures, as in the show the surviving crusader presence in the Holy Land illustration of the Red Sea crossing in the Rylands in the form of architecture and its decoration, still one Haggadah (fig. 71; John Rylands University Library, of the most striking features of its historical legacy in Manchester). the modern Israeli landscape. There is little mention But this again looks like special pleading about the here of the mighty Acre/Akko fortress on the north Jews, especially in comparison to truly contemporary coast or even closer sections of the Judean setting, warfare depictions, such as those seen in the Morgan such as the Hospitallers’ Church in Abu Ghosh, the site Picture Bible from Paris (1244–1254; cat. 109; Morgan of the post- Emmaus encounter. But the Library, New York), a work most likely produced for Church of St. Anne (cat. fig. 78; made into a the French crusader, King Louis IX; ironically, in this with an inscription by Saladin, cat. fig. 79) on the Via case, extra Persian captions were added by subsequent Dolorosa near the Pool of Bethesda is singled out, at Muslim owners.3 Another image, the “Fall of Jerusa- least in the catalogue. Of course, Jerusalem is chiefly lem,” from the French-language History of Outremer by marked by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (essay William of Tyre (Paris, ca. 1350; cat. no. 115; see also cat. by Jaroslav Folda, 131–133) and its modifications from no. 46), a history of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, this period, acknowledged here in another joint essay, celebrates the original eleventh-century siege victory “Experiencing Sacred Art” by Holcomb and Boehm for a later audience. 116–121. Its major legacy, still extant (unfortunately That same crusader king, St. Louis, avidly acquired absent, but see figure 45 in the catalogue for the fig- Christian sacred relics of the Passion, not directly as a ural portion, showing events), is the result of war itself, but newly permitted by the recent original, two-part facade lintel (Rockefeller Museum, Christian conquest of Constantinople in the Fourth Jerusalem).7 Crusade of 1204. Such relics are vividly exemplified Crusader sculpture is very well represented by a by the golden Stavelot Triptych (ca. 1156–158; not sample of Nazareth fragments: five intricately figurated exhibited; Morgan Library, New York), devoted to limestone capitals from the Church of the Annun- the True Cross and decorated with colorful Mosan ciation (1170s; 186–193, cat no. 101a–e; figs. 3a, b), enamel roundels, which include an image of military possibly by a principal carver from Jerusalem but also conquest by Emperor Constantine, surrounded by close in form to contemporary Romanesque carvings older, mounted, central Byzantine enamels.4 This sec- from Burgundy. Marble sculptural fragments from the tion of the exhibition also includes an early stained Templar complex, ca. 1160–1180 (cat. nos. 80a–c) also glass roundel of mounted crusaders (ca. 1158; no. 112; demonstrate the refined carving of crusader sculptors. Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, PA) from St. Denis, the Few paintings survive, but the Church of the Nativity royal abbey of France. There is no mention, however, in Bethlehem was adorned with murals commissioned of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Louis IX’s treasure by Melisinde, the crusader queen (1169; 230–231, cat. house of his crusade relic spoils, most of them acquired figs. 84, 85; cf. mosaics, cat. no. 96), and her sumptuous indirectly from Byzantine rulers in Constantinople personal psalter is on view (cat. no. 121; British Library,

3 William Noel and Weiss, eds., The Book of Kings: Art, 5 Weiss, Art and Crusade, 16–77. War, and the Morgan Library’s Medieval Picture Bible, exh. cat. (Bal- 6 Evans, Glory of Byzantium, 395, no. 261. timore: Walters Gallery, 2002); see in this volume esp. Marianna 7 For much of this material a two-part monograph remains Shreve Simpson, “Shah ‘Abbas and His Picture Bible,” 120–141. foundational: Jaroslav Folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy 4 For the crusader king, Daniel Weiss, Art and Crusade in the Age Land, 1098–1187 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), of Saint Louis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), esp. esp. 226–227 for the lintels; Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, 4–7, 11–15; also, The Stavelot Triptych, Mosan Art, and the Legend from the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291 (Cambridge: of the True Cross (New York: Morgan Library, 1980).

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Fig. 3a. (cat. 101a). The and Apostle Capital, early Fig. 3b. (cat. 101e). The Saint Matthew Capital, early 1170s, lime- 1170s, limestone. 241/2× 28 3/8× 13 3/8in. (62 × 72 × 34 cm). stone. 165/8 × 21 1/4 × 181/2in., 355 lb. (42 × 54 × 47 cm, 161 kg). Terra Sancta Museum, Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth. Terra Sancta Museum, Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth. (Image: © Marie-Armelle Beaulieu /Custodia Terræ Sanctæ). (Image: © Marie-Armelle Beaulieu /Custodia Terræ Sanctæ).

London), bound in its spectacular ivory cover (fig. 4). which flourished then in the region from Syria to Egypt, Christian manuscripts of the various denominations sometimes even utilizing Christian iconographic motifs (cat. nos. 17, 27, 29, 31–32, 34, 48–49, 72–74, 76–77, (e.g., cat. no. 55).9 Enameled glass with figures also 100, 103, 134, 140, 144–145; cat. figs. 65, 76, 88, 93) and sometimes included Christian scenes (and thus pos- enamels (cat. nos. 25a–f, 122, 130–131, 141–143, 147; cat. sibly made for the occupying crusaders? the catalogue figs. 74, 75) form an ongoing highlight of the exhibition, does not say. cat. nos. 24a–c). Other glass, decorated distributed throughout its different sections. with refined calligraphy (often with selected In similar fashion, Islamic architecture on the surahs from the Qur’an about divine light; 114, 135a–e, Temple Mount/ al-Sharif is discussed (121–126) cat. fig. 72; fig. 5.), was another Islamic period innova- through the two major buildings, originally dating back tion. Additionally Islamic textiles (cat. nos. 9a–d; 28, to the late seventh-century conquest and the rule of 53, 86–87), ceramics (cat. nos. 13a–e, 33), and elaborate Caliph Abd al-Malik: the Dome of the Rock (essay by calligraphic manuscript texts (cat. nos. 41, 43–44, 54 Robert Hillenbrand, 134–135) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque; [Four in Arabic], 57, 84, 90, 94–95, 104, 128, a fragment and a historic photo show the fine wooden 133, 148–149; cat. figs. 32, 87, 95, 101) enriched a long inlay work of the pulpit (minbar) of Nur ad-Din in the tradition. A final magnificent Islamic image of the End Al-Aqsa Mosque (1169–1174; cat nos. 93a, b; cat. fig. 42; Days (ca. 1400; cat. 148; used for the exhibition poster, essay by Sylvia Auld, 136–137).8 These historic build- fig. 6) shows the blowing his trumpet ings, however, were less modified during this period, to signal the ultimate message. though the Al-Aqsa Mosque’s recycled Byzantine col- Where does all this leave the Jews of 1100–1400? umn capitals, inserted as spolia, are represented by a One wonders whether a similarly broad exhibition historic drawing (1909; cat. no. 88). of medieval Jewish art could even be mounted in Period-specific is chiefly represented today’s attendance-driven museum culture, and with through numerous smaller objects of dazzling crafts- today’s American public education focusing on diver- manship. Particularly notable is the brass repoussé and sity through attempts to remove stigmas from Islam inlaid metalwork (cat. nos. 19, 40, 56, 83, 91, 129a–f), rather than on combatting rising anti-Semitism. Thus

Cambridge University Press, 2005). For the nonfigural lintel por- 8 Oleg Grabar, The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem tion, see L.Y. Rahmani, “The Eastern Lintel of the Holy Sepulchre,” (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996); Grabar, The Dome Israel Exploration Journal 26 (1976): 120–129. of the Rock (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006). 9 Ward, Islamic Metalwork (London: Thames & Hudson, 1993).

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First of all, pilgrimage by Jews to Jerusalem is one of the authors’ main interests. They focus on both Mai- monides and Nachmanides. Both of them praised the virtue of living in the Holy Land. The former, as noted above, actually visited Jerusalem in 1165 but only for a few days before resettling in Egypt, though his letter attests that he possibly sought out either the Western Wall or the Temple precinct for prayer. Nachmanides resettled permanently in Jerusalem in 1267 (under Muslim rule, well after the crusaders were expelled in 1187), and he established both a and a school there (74). Other visitors, including from Ashkenaz, also visited thirteenth-century Palestine. However, as noted, the experience of Jerusalem by medieval European Jews was chiefly conceptual, couched in future dreams and hopes of the . One marker of their aspirations in the city’s very walls, shared by Christians and Muslims alike, was “The Closed Gate” (essay by Melanie Holcomb, 129–130), also known as the Golden Gate. The cur- rent double-arched, walled-up structure dates to the sixteenth-century Ottoman wall restorations by Sultan Süleyman, but early accounts associated the closed gateway with King , the sultan’s namesake. Rashi claimed that it was an impregnable barrier to enemies. Its final, miraculous opening was to be the harbinger of the final redemption. Fig. 4. (cat. 121). Scriptorium of the Holy Sepulchre, Upper What this catalogue does show to suggest the con- cover of The Psalter of Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, ca. 1135, cept of the Closed Gate for medieval Jews are images Ivory with semiprecious stones and silk-embroidered spine from illuminated prayer books that depict the heavenly 81/2 × 51/2in. (21.6 × 14cm). Jerusalem, British Library, London. (Images: © The British Library Board). Gates of Mercy, referred to in the Yom Kippur liturgy. In the books, these gates appear as arched openings on columns; one of them (Moskowitz Rhine Mahzor, this exhibition might be the best that Jews can hope 1340s; National Library, Jerusalem) features a Gothic for now about investigating their own medieval visual building facade, flanked by towers (suggesting a kinship culture.10 As suggested above, most of the Jewish objects with the contemporary emerging household tradition included here have only an adventitious connection to of the towered spice box—a topic deserving of further Jerusalem itself, a condition freely acknowledged by the research). Those holiday prayer books, all mahzorim organizers in their discussion of Jewish architecture as (cat. nos. 58, 61a, b), originated in Ashkenaz and date “The Absent Temple” (126–128). As a matter of basic prior to the persecutions of the region’s Jews in associa- fact, all the Jewish items in this exhibition stem from tion with the Black Death plague after 1348.11 Europe, whether Sepharad or Ashkenaz. Thus readers The other principal imagery in Jewish book illus- of this journal will perhaps want a fuller accounting of tration imagines the Temple, past but also future. A these artifacts and how they are utilized in relation to magnificent volume of Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah, Jerusalem in the period of their creation. recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of

10 Just as Jewish synagogue buildings and objects of the Early 11 Recently for mahzorim, see Katrin Kogman-Appel, A Mahzor Christian period were appended to the exhibition, Jeffrey Spier, ed., from Worms: Art and Religion in a Medieval Jewish Community Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art, exh. cat. (Fort Worth: (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012), esp. 19–35. Kimbell Art Museum, 2008), with notable essays by Steven Fine and Herbert Kessler and a mere four pages on Jewish symbols.

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Fig. 5. (cat. 24c). Bottle with Christian Scenes. Ayyubid period, mid-13th century, glass, gold, and enamel. H. 111/8 in. (28.2 cm), Diam. 7 in. (17.8 cm). Syria, Furusi- yya Art Foundation (R-3012). (Image: © IMA, photograph by Philippe Maillard).

Art in conjunction with The Israel Museum, comes Temple implements adorn two other facing folios, from Renaissance Italy (ca. 1457; cat. no. 64). It shows again with gold and costly color, from the Catalan (fol. 41v; fig. 7) worship at the Temple as if it was still Foa Bible, (ca. 1370–1380; cat. no. 69), again domi- being practiced, in the once-and-future Temple.12 nated by the menorah on the right; verses in gold on Moreover, mingles with biblical tradition the frames offer biblical passages about in other imagery that represents the Temple imple- of these implements.14 Marking the end of an Italian ments. From the Regensburg Pentateuch (ca. 1300; Bible from the late thirteenth century (cat. no. 66; cat. no. 63; Israel Museum, Jerusalem), two adjoining British Library, London) a full-page, richly colored, and folios illustrate the Sanctuary’s ritual objects in gold ornamented menorah ends the Pentateuch section; its on a blue ground (the two most expensive pigments), symmetrical, shofar-blowing, fantasy animals suggest and show , dressed in his priestly robes, reaching a messianic vision.15 In the final section, “Seeking the across the pages to light the Temple menorah.13 More Eternal Jerusalem,” (essay by Abby Kornfeld, 270–277,

12 Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts (Jerusalem: (Leiden, 2004), 150–151; a depiction of the Ark itself again echoes Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1969), 160–161. the pointed arches of Gothic churches. 13 Ibid., 98–99. 15 For the ancient and enduring symbol of the menorah, Yael 14 Katrin Kogman-Appel, Jewish Book Art between Islam and Israeli, ed., In the Light of the Menorah: Story of a Symbol, exh. cat. Christianity: The Decoration of Hebrew Bibles in Medieval Spain (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1998); also Steven Fine, The Menorah:

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Fig. 6. (cat. 48). The Archangel Israfil (detail), from The Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence (‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat) by al-Qazwini (1202–1283), late 14th–early 15th century, opaque watercolor and ink on paper. 153/8 × 95/8 in. (38.9 × 24.6 cm). Egypt or Syria, British Museum, London (1963,0420,0.1). (Image: © The Trustees of the British Museum). esp. 271–273 for Jewish concepts), these Temple ritual are shown with animal heads, seemingly derived from implements are explicitly associated with eschatology Christian models, especially symbols for Evangelists in four different manuscripts from Jewish Catalonia (eagle, lion, ox, and ass), all derived from the vision of (dates ranging from 1280 to the mid-14th century; cat. (1:4–28). Such avoidance of showing humans nos. 137 a–d; fig. 8).16 In the words of the daily prayer, marked a distinctive trait of south German Jewish book “May it be your will that the Temple be speedily rebuilt illumination (cf. the Birds’ Head Haggadah). Above the in our days so that our eyes may see it and our hearts diners, a panel shows three mythical beasts: the giant rejoice.”17 curled Leviathan, a red ox for Behemoth, and a A more visionary image of the final redemption ap- griffin-like winged beast, identified by the catalogue as pears near the end of the exhibition in the Ambrosian Ziz; all, respectively, are apocalyptic giants, which, ac- Bible’s final full-page miniature (Ulm? Germany, mid- cording to Jewish legend, will be subdued at the End of 13th century; cat. no. 138; Ambrosian Library, Milan, Days. Thus this image, again from medieval Ashkenaz, fol. 136).18 Unconnected to the text, this image depicts no longer depicts hopes for a return to Jerusalem in the righteous, dining at table with in , any physical sense (as in the Seder conclusion) or an Eden-like garden. They are wearing gold crowns but even as an imagined site of the future Temple (as

From the Bible to Modern Israel (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- implements in these books, Kogman-Appel, Hebrew Bibles in Me- versity Press, 2016). dieval Spain, esp. 85–88, 134–140, 142–144, 156–168. 16 The last of these, the Catalan Mahzor (National Library, Jeru- 17 Also echoed in the Passover song, Adir Hu (“G-d is mighty”) salem) shows the implements without color and in micrography; and the Birkat HaMazon, “And rebuild Jerusalem the holy city Dalia-Ruth Halperin, Illuminating in Micrography: The Catalan speedily in our days.” Micrography Mahzor (Leiden: Brill, 2013). In general, for the 18 Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts, 90–91.

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Fig. 7. (cat. 64). Master of the Barbo Missal Scribe (attr.): Nehemiah for Moshe Anau be Yitzchak, illumina- tion (detail) from The Book of Divine Service from the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, ca. 1457, tempera, gold leaf and ink on parchment. 346 folios Folio: 9 × 71/4 in. (22.7 × 18.4 cm). Northern Italy, Jointly owned by the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Purchased for the Israel Museum through the generosity of an anonymous donor; Rene and Susanne Braginsky, Zurich; Renee and Lester Crown, Chicago; Schusterman Foundation, Israel; and Judy and Steinhardt, New York. Purchased for The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Director’s Funds and Judy and Michael Steinhardt Gift (2013.495) Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

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Fig. 8. (cat. 137b) , first quarter of the 14th century Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment. 500 folios, 151/2 × 111/2 in. (39.4 × 29.2 cm). Catalonia. (Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein, Columbus). in the representation of ritual implements); rather, This exhibition’s attempt to balance rival religions in Jerusalem exists here only as the imagined hopes of an era of unparalleled violent crusade conflict (usually medieval European Jews for their ultimate redemption with Jews as victims, not as equals) further falsifies the beyond space and time in Paradise. Its relevance to this premise of pluralism suggested by this lavish assembly exhibition seems tenuous at best, though essential to of magnificent objects but works ultimately placed in Jewish cultural history in an era of crusade-sponsored empty exhibition. pogroms on European communities. These images, indeed, offer concepts steeped in Jew- Larry Silver ish culture, but no longer tied to a physical Jerusalem. University of Pennsylvania

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