Image Details

Sacred images. In the centuries following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E. appear numerous depictions of objects associated with the Temple. Shown here is an early-fourth-century C.E. Roman gold glass (formed by laminating both sides of the base of a glass bowl with sheets of gold); on the glass are images of seven-branched menorahs, a lulav (palm branch), an etrog (citron) and a shofar (ram’s horn)—all ritual objects used in Temple services. In its upper register, the gold glass depicts not the Temple but an open Torah ark with its scrolls displayed.