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Conventional wisdom holds that Judaism is indifferent or even suspiciously hostile to the visual arts due to the Second Commandment's prohibition on creating "graven images," the dictates of monotheism, and historical happenstance. This intellectual history of medieval and modern Jewish attitudes toward art and representation overturns the modern assumption of Jewish iconophobia that denies to Jewish culture a visual dimension. Kalman Bland synthesizes evidence from medieval Jewish philosophy, mysticism, poetry, biblical commentaries, travelogues, and law, concluding that premodern Jewish intellectuals held a positive, liberal understanding of the Second Commandment and did, in fact, articulate a certain Jewish aesthetic. He draws on this insight to consider modern ideas of Jewish art, revealing how they are inextricably linked to diverse notions about modern Jewish identity that are themselves entwined with arguments over Zionism, integration, and anti-Semitism. Through its use of the past to illuminate the present and its analysis of how the present informs our readings of the past, this book establishes a new assessment of Jewish aesthetic theory rooted in historical analysis. Authoritative and original in its identification of authentic Jewish traditions of painting, sculpture, and architecture, this volume will ripple the waters of several disciplines, including Jewish studies, art history, medieval and modern history, and philosophy.

Jewish aesthetics. --- Jewish art. --- Jews -- Intellectual life. --- Judaism and art -- History of doctrines. --- Ten commandments -- Images. --- Judaism and art --- Jewish art --- Jewish aesthetics --- Jews --- Religion --- Philosophy & Religion --- Judaism --- Hebrews --- Israelites --- Jewish people --- Jewry --- Judaic people --- Judaists --- Ethnology --- Religious adherents --- Semites --- Aesthetics, Jewish --- Art, Jewish --- Hebrew art --- Art --- Art and Judaism --- History of doctrines --- Intellectual life --- Intellectual life. --- History of doctrines.

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Dreaming of Michelangelo is the first book-length study to explore the intellectual and cultural affinities between modern Judaism and the life and work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. It argues that Jewish intellectuals found themselves in the image of Michelangelo as an "unrequited lover" whose work expressed loneliness and a longing for humanity's response. The modern Jewish imagination thus became consciously idolatrous. Writers brought to life—literally—Michelangelo's sculptures, seeing in them their own worldly and emotional struggles. The Moses statue in particular became an archetype of Jewish liberation politics as well as a central focus of Jewish aesthetics. And such affinities extended beyond sculpture: Jewish visitors to the Sistine Chapel reinterpreted the ceiling as a manifesto of prophetic socialism, devoid of its Christian elements. According to Biemann, the phenomenon of Jewish self-recognition in Michelangelo's work offered an alternative to the failed promises of the German enlightenment. Through this unexpected discovery, he rethinks German Jewish history and its connections to Italy, the Mediterranean, and the art of the Renaissance.

Jewish aesthetics --- Jews --- Hebrews --- Israelites --- Jewish people --- Jewry --- Judaic people --- Judaists --- Ethnology --- Religious adherents --- Semites --- Judaism --- Aesthetics, Jewish --- History --- Intellectual life --- Michelangelo Buonarroti, --- Michelangelo --- Michelangelo Buonarroti --- Buonarroti, Michelangelo --- Mikelandzhelo Buonarroti --- Mikelʹ-Andzhelo --- Michael Angelo --- Miguel Angel --- Mīkilānjilū --- Michelangiolo --- Michel-Ange --- Michał Anioł --- Buonarroti, Michel Angelo --- Miguel Angelo --- Michelagniolo Buonarroti --- Buonarroti, Michelagniolo --- Michelangiolo Buonarroti --- Michaelangelo --- Michelagnolo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni --- di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Michelangelo --- Микеланджело Буонарроти --- מיכאל־אנג׳לו בואונארוטי, --- Appreciation