Ancient Israelite Art Sparse in Impressive Show at Met

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“Treasures of the Holy Land,” the Israel Museum’s exhibition of nearly 200 outstanding pieces, is being shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 4, 1987. The exhibit is the largest and most important display of ancient art from Israel ever to travel abroad. Many of these world-famous artifacts have never before been seen in this country. Paradoxically, hardly a piece in this impressive and often stunning collection can positively be identified as Israelite art! This show is subtitled “Ancient Art from the Israel Museum,” and the pieces 065come from the Land of Israel—Eretz Israel. But the art is not Israelite.

Many of the most impressive artifacts pre-date the Israelites. The oldest object in the show is an animal head carved from bone about 12,000 years ago. The Israelites—or Hebrews—did not arrive on the scene until about 3,500 years ago.

From seventh-millennium Jericho comes a delicately carved, almost lifesize head of a statue; its staring eyes veil feelings and thoughts as they gaze at us across the millennia.

With the Chalcolithic period (approximately the fourth millennium B.C.), we begin to approach historical periods. The artifacts from this period are extraordinary. They include artistically carved ivory figurines from Beer-Sheva.^a(“Ancient Ivory—The Story of Wealth, Decadence and Beauty,” BAR 11:05) and a small shrine in the shape of a house, designed for secondary burial of human bones. These ossuaries often have facades in the form of stylized human faces worthy of any 20th-century, semi-abstract sculptor.

The stars of the Chalcolithic period, however, are clearly the unique copper artifacts recovered from the so-called Cave of the Treasure in the Judean wilderness (“How Iron Technology Changed the Ancient World And Gave the Philistines a Military Edge,” BAR 08:06). Of the 416 copper objects in this extraordinary find, the exhibit displays the finest: mace heads, maces, standards, scepters and crowns. The workmanship demonstrates that the Chalcolithic artisans who created these ceremonial objects had fully mastered the most complex casting and finishing techniques.

The Early Bronze Age (approximately the third millennium B.C.) marks the first period of substantial urbanization in Palestine. From the end of the Early Bronze Age (some scholars prefer to consider the end of the Early Bronze Age as an intermediate period or the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age) comes the silver Ein Samiya goblet with mythical scenes executed in repoussé and incision.

The Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are at best misty figures on history’s stage. If they can be placed anywhere in a chronological framework, it is most probably in the Middle Bronze Age (approximately first half of the second millennium B.C.). The artifacts from this period are elegant and varied—a haunting human-faced vase from Jericho; two sheet-gold female figurines, one nude and one gowned, from Gezer (“News from the Field: Gold Hoard Found at Capernaum,” BAR 09:04); a graceful crouching lion orthostat from Hazor that served as a doorjamb in a major temple, reflecting Hittite influence from Anatolia. But none of this can be even remotely identified with the Hebrew patriarchs. Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Anatolian, Syrian, Mittanian, Cypriot and Canaanite influences can be traced in these artifacts, but not Hebrew or Israelite.

The Israelites as a people emerged at the end of the Late Bronze Age, usually dated from 1550 B.C. to 1200 B.C. The Israelite bondage in Egypt is assigned to this period; and the Exodus, to the very end of this period. Delicately carved ivories; a gold plaque portraying a nude goddess standing on a horse; gold, silver and possibly even electrum jewelry that the exhibit catalog describes as “an aesthetic and technological marvel” all come from the Late Bronze Age. But none of this can be associated with the Israelites, nor can it be said in any way to reflect Israelite influence. Life-size anthropoid coffins from this period, some with naturalistic faces and some with grotesque faces (“What We Know About The Philistines,” BAR 08:04), reflect a kind of Egyptianized proto-Philistine culture, but nothing analogous or comparable can be found with respect to Israelite culture.

According to the exhibition catalog, the Iron Age (1200 B.C.–586 B.C.) is the “Israelite Period.” Divided into two sub-periods, the earlier (designated Iron I) covers the first two centuries of the Iron Age, when Israel took possession of 066the land; the later (Iron II), 1000 B.C.586 B.C., covers the Israelite and Judahite monarchies.

An ivory hoard from Megiddo, “the largest and most important collection of late-second-millennium ivories discovered in Canaan” (“Ancient Ivory—The Story of Wealth, Decadence and Beauty,” BAR 11:05), incorporates “local Canaanite and Egyptianizing elements [that were] found together with pieces that are Mycenaean or Hittite in style,” the catalog informs us—but not Israelite or Hebrew.

A small bull statuette from the early 12th century B.C. (“Bronze Bull Found in Israelite “High Place” From the Time of the Judges,” BAR 09:05) which, we are told, was “executed in the Late Canaanite stylistic tradition” just might have come from an early Israelite cult site, although this possibility is not mentioned in the catalog.

The Israelites’ early rivals, the Philistines, produced a distinctive style of pottery that archaeologists immediately recognize and that easily enables them to make the ethnic connection. One particularly interesting example included in this show is known as the Orpheus vase because of its depiction of a man playing a lyre with various animals marching in procession (“Ancient Musical Instruments,” BAR 08:01).

Decorated cult stands—one portraying musicians circling its base (“The Finds That Could Not Be,” BAR 08:01) and the other decorated with lions, sphinxes, winged griffins and a nude woman—are identified as Philistine and Canaanite, respectively.

With the 9th–8th-century B.C. ivory hoard from Samaria, we get closer to Israelite artifacts. At this time, Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Bible tells us of the “ivory palace” Ahab, king of Israel, built in Samaria (1 Kings 22:39). The prophet Amos decried the “ivory beds” that symbolized the corrupt society of the Samarian aristocracy. Although the Samaria ivories may have decorated the Israelite royal palace or wealthy Israelite homes—all the ivory pieces were found in rubbish pits so they cannot be assigned to any particular building—the ivories were all carved in the “Phoenician” style, a style, we are told by the catalog, that is marked by a preference for Egyptian motifs (“Ancient Ivory—The Story of Wealth, Decadence and Beauty,” BAR 11:05). The catalog speculates that these ivories may reflect the pagan cult of Phoenicia introduced into Israelite society by Ahab’s famous Phoenician wife Jezebel.

It is only when we come to the inscriptions that we can locate ourselves firmly within Israelite culture. As the catalog recognizes, these inscriptions are “of little aesthetic appeal,” although some of the inscribed seals reflect considerable artistic merit. Most Hebrew seals, however, are aniconic, without images or decoration, and consist only of the name of the owner, together with his title or the name of his father. Titles include “royal steward,” “scribe” and “servant of the king.”

The “Treasures of the Holy Land” exhibit includes five decorated Hebrew seals, including one belonging to the daughter of a king of Judah (“The Finds That Could Not Be,” BAR 08:01). Unfortunately, the name of this king does not appear in the inscription. The seal is decorated with a lovely lyre—perhaps as close as we can come to truly Israelite art.

The show also includes a letter written in ancient Hebrew script shortly before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. to the commander of the Judahite fortress at Arad from his superior in Jerusalem (“Letter from a Hebrew King?” BAR 06:01). Soon after this letter was written the Judahite monarchy came to an end. Ancient Israel was no more.

I do not mean to suggest that the ancient Israelites had no high art. Nor should the absence of ancient Israelite art be taken as a criticism of the items in this wide-ranging, superbly chosen show. But the fact is that prior to the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C., there was precious little Israelite art, especially as compared to other cultures of the ancient Near East.

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Moreover, what little she had was derivative—characterized by motifs and repertoires borrowed from other cultures.

Ancient Israel’s cultural contribution lay elsewhere. Her unique insights are to be found in the realm of the spirit, in her perception of the divine, in the demands of her moral prescriptions and ultimately in the poetry, literary narratives and exhortations in which these insights were expressed.

These ancient Israelite perceptions have been transmitted not in artistic artifacts but in the lowly letters of the alphabet.

Is it a coincidence that the alphabet, a method of transmitting words that has been invented only once—every alphabet in the world is ultimately derived from the original Semitic alphabet—was created in this same little dot of land at about the same time that the Hebrew patriarchs, by their acts, were writing the earliest chapters of Israelite history? Only a bare handful of these earliest Semitic letters (from about 1700 B.C.1600 B.C.) have survived. The failure to include in this exhibit any of these rare examples of early Semitic writing has resulted in the exhibit’s one serious lacuna. The show would surely have been enriched by a small collection of alphabetic inscriptions reflecting the evolution and development of alphabetic writing. Despite the fact that this exhibit is subtitled “Ancient Art From the Israel Museum,” it does include an artistically unpretentious ostracon (writing on a broken piece of pottery) and a Dead Sea Scroll fragment of startling historical significance, but little artistic value. Perhaps the omission from the exhibit of early alphabetic writing can be corrected before the show travels to Los Angeles and Houston.

This is not in the least to denigrate the magnificent artistic treasures that form the core of this exhibit and that enable ancient history and culture to speak to us so directly, dramatically and movingly. Through these works of art we can begin to understand and appreciate with new eyes ancient Israelite culture—not by example, however, but by contrast.

After the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the Judahites began their exile, but were allowed to return to their land about 50 years later by Cyrus, king of Persia, who had fallen heir to the Babylonian hegemony.

The exhibit contains objects from the Persian period (586 B.C.–332 B.C.) and thereafter, from what the catalog refers to as the “Late Second Temple Period and the Period of the Mishna and the Talmud (332 B.C.–A.D. 640),” which includes the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The show concludes with an exhibit of Dead Sea Scroll materials.

The artifacts displayed from these periods include Jewish coins from the First (66 A.D.–70 A.D.) and Second (132 A.D.–135 A.D.) Jewish Revolts against Rome; Jewish and Christian oil lamps; a fragment of a fresco from a Jewish mansion in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, and mosaics from the Byzantine period.

For the most part, the show is beautifully mounted and displayed. Especially impressive is the lighting on the inscriptions and reliefs. The incised letters on stone backgrounds jump out wonderfully on inscriptions of immense historical importance, including the only contemporaneous reference to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who authorized the execution of Jesus, found on a dedicatory inscription at Caesarea; the “trumpeting” inscription from the pinnacle of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where the priests announced the onset of the Sabbath with a blast of the horn (“When the Priests Trumpeted the Onset of the Sabbath,” in this issue); the inscription from the ossuary in which the bones of the eighth-century Judahite king Uzziah were reburied near the turn of the era.

Carefully composed lighting also casts dramatic shadows on a 14th-century B.C. relief carved on a black basalt slab found at Beth-Shean, picturing, in two 068registers, a lion and lioness in playful (or deadly?) struggle.

Perhaps the most striking lighting is on the 13th-century B.C. plaque of sheet gold, mentioned above, portraying a nude goddess standing on a horse and holding a stalk of lotus blossoms in each hand. The plaque, from David Ussishkin’s excavations at Lachish, was unearthed in a considerably crumpled condition. It was extremely difficult to make out the scene depicted. Even after the plaque was originally straightened, the picture was not easily seen. Most readers will have trouble detecting the details of this plaque in the catalog’s color photograph (No. 50). After this photograph was taken, the Israel Museum remounted the plaque, but, before doing so, managed to straighten every centimeter of the background so that the repoussé and engraving by a master Canaanite artist now stands out with dramatic clarity, accentuated by carefully directed lighting.

A number of pieces in the exhibit have been specially prepared by the Israel Museum laboratories. The large 9-by-14-foot mosaic from the 6th-century A.D. synagogue floor at Beth-Shean has been tastefully restored with softly painted plaster in the areas that did not survive. Compare the ugly white blotches in the catalog photograph of this mosaic (No. 148) taken before the restoration.

While most of the pieces are well displayed, some are not. Inexplicably, we are shown only the back of a rare obsidian mirror from about 1450 B.C. Obsidian is the extremely hard, brittle volcanic glass from which the ancients chipped knife-edged implements. The back of this obsidian mirror has a carved and intentionally roughened surface of great beauty. We are denied a view, however, of the highly polished front of the mirror. It would have been easy to set it on its side so both surfaces would be visible.

Several objects would have been better displayed in the round. For example, the Chalcolithic ivory figurines from Beer-Sheva mentioned above have very interesting reverse views. Poke your nose behind the showcase (No. 13 and No. 14) and you will see that each of the figurines appears to have two sets of buttocks, one above the other. In fact, in this stylistic convention, the backs are flat, the buttocks are prominent, the thighs recede and the calves bulge, looking like a second set of buttocks.

You are liable to dislocate your back attempting to look from the proper angle at the Ein Samiya silver goblet mentioned above. The 16th-century B.C. sheet-gold female figurines from Gezer (no. 39), also mentioned above, are far more effective when you bend down and look up at them than when you look down on them.

But the worst display is clearly the Hebrew seals. They simply cannot be seen. Even the photograph in the catalog is poor. (BAR did not use an exhibit-supplied photograph of the lyre seal.) The seal exhibit should have included seal impressions and drawings of the seals, and magnifying glasses over these tiny artifacts. They should be seen at eye level, not stomach level. This display should be improved even before the show leaves New York.

After leaving the Metropolitan on January 4, “Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art From the Israel Museum” will be on display at the County Museum of Art in Los Angeles from April 9 to July 5, 1987, and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from October 30, 1987 to January 17, 1988.

The illustrated catalog with historical introductions as well as detailed descriptions of the artifacts has been prepared by the curators of the Israel Museum^b and published by the Metropolitan Museum. The catalog stands on its own quite apart from the show and is well worth owning—and reading. Any visit to the exhibit will be greatly enhanced by perusing this catalog beforehand.

A final note of caution: This is a very popular exhibit so don’t just drop in. Check on the availability of advance reservation tickets.

“Treasures of the Holy Land,” the Israel Museum’s exhibition of nearly 200 outstanding pieces, is being shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 4, 1987. The exhibit is the largest and most important display of ancient art from Israel ever to travel abroad. Many of these world-famous artifacts have never before been seen in this country. Paradoxically, hardly a piece in this impressive and often stunning collection can positively be identified as Israelite art! This show is subtitled “Ancient Art from the Israel Museum,” and the pieces 065come from the Land of Israel—Eretz Israel. But the […]