ALEXANDROS PRESS
Dobbedreef 25, NL-2331 SW Leiden, The Netherlands
Tel. +
31 71 576 11 18 Fax: + 31 71 572 75 17
e-mail: alexandrospress@planet.nl http://www.alexandrospress.com
VAT number NL209186367B02 Dutch Chamber of Commerce registration
number: 28088681
ING Bank,
Amsterdam, Acc. no. 5219443 BIC / Swift code: INGBNL2A IBAN: NL89INGB0005219443
Visual Representation of the Afterlife
Six
Roman and Early Byzantine Painted Tombs in Israel
by
The material
published here greatly contributes to the knowledge of the scarcely preserved
painted tombs in Israel and elsewhere. The wish to attain “life after death” is
expressed in the visual representations depicted in these monuments. The question that always arises is that of whether various pictures are
intended to represent the imagined actual dwelling place of the deceased in
their afterlife, or whether they pertain to a mythical, idealized and
unattainable place. It is plausible that the most desirable aspects and objects
that had comprised ordinary life would be translated to the eternal abode.
However, the author believes that the various represented elements and objects
gained additional meanings, suggesting the deceased’s hope or belief in an even
better world. The widespread appearance of these motifs
suggests, that it was the ancient written sources that might have provided the
intellectual basis for the general concepts as well as the overall program of
each individual tomb.
Each tomb is here described and analysed
separately, providing a comprehensive study of the respective motifs, and their
association into a coherent iconographic program. In an attempt to establish
the specific religious affiliation of the deceased and the accurate dating of
the tombs, the ancient written sources are related to, and in addition to a
comparative iconographic analysis of funerary monuments in different media –
such as sarcophagi, mosaics and painted tombs – discovered around the
Mediterranean basin and elsewhere in the late Antique and early Byzantine
worlds.
More than 250 illustrations in colour and
several drawings illustrate the tombs in Israel and the comparative material
CONTENTS:
Foreword, Introduction, A. The reading of the pagan tombs in context: I. An
early Roman tomb in Caesarea Maritima. II. The tomb of the Nymphs in Ashkelon.
B. Sepulchral imagery and perception in transition: I. A tomb with birds within
vines (the bird’s cave) in Jerusalem. II. A tomb with imagines clipeatae
(Or ha-Ner) in the Northern Negev. C. The Christian programs as reflecting
tradition and innovation; I. A tomb with two busts in Beit Guvrin
(Eleutheropolis) II. A tomb with a biblical scene (Lohamaey ha-Getaoth) in the
Western Galilee. Conclusion, Literary sources, Bibliography, Index, List of
Illustrations.
Bound,
24 x 17 cm., 368 pp. (224 pp. text,
plus more than 250
illustrations in full colour and c. 100 in black and white)
2009 ISBN: 978-94-90387-01-3
Price: EUR 250
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
The
patron of the tomb, Tomb of imagines clipeatae (Or ha-Ner), N. Negev |
A
wreath, Tomb with a biblical scene
(Lohamaey ha-Getaoth) in the W. Galilee |
Bust of a woman, Tomb of the Nymphs, Ashkelon |
||
