Pnina Arad - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Book by Pnina Arad
This book offers a way of reading maps of the Holy Land as visual imagery with religious connotat... more This book offers a way of reading maps of the Holy Land as visual imagery with religious connotations. Through a corpus of representative examples created between the sixth and the nineteenth centuries, it studies the maps as iconic imagery of an iconic landscape and analyses their strategies to manifest the spiritual quality of the biblical topography, to support religious tenets, and to construct and preserve cultural memory.
Maps of the Holy Land have thus far been studied with methodologies such as cartography and historical geography, while the main question addressed was the reliability of the maps as cartographic documents. Through another perspective and using the methodology of visual studies, this book reveals that maps of the Holy Land constructed religious messages and were significant instruments through which different Christian cultures (Byzantine, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox) shaped their religious identities. It does not seek to ascertain how the maps delivered geographical information, but rather how they utilized the geographical information in formulating religious and cultural values.
Through its examination of maps of the Holy Land, this book thus explores both Christian visual culture and Christian spirituality throughout the centuries.
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503585260-1
The Medieval Review (TMR), 2022
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/33977/37441
Journal of British Studies, 2023
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Crusade historian Reinhold Röhricht published a... more In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Crusade historian Reinhold Röhricht published a series of studies on maps and plans of the Holy Land (or, as he termed it, Palästinakunde) from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries, thereby establishing a corpus of materials for future scholars. Yet despite their apparent centrality for medieval studies, it has taken some time for Christian maps of the Holy Land to come into focus as the object of close scrutiny. Now, however, the topic is gaining some momentum: Patrick Gautier Dalché's important article, "Cartes de Terre Sainte, cartes de pèlerins" (in Tra Roma e Gerusalemme nel Medio Evo: paesaggi umani ed ambientali del pellegrinaggio meridionale, ed.
Articles/ chapters by Pnina Arad
The Art Bulletin, 2018
Proskynetaria - Ottoman-era paintings of the Holy Land on textiles, made in Jerusalem for Christi... more Proskynetaria - Ottoman-era paintings of the Holy Land on textiles, made in Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims - are studied as icons of iconic landscape. The paintings and the biblical land are considered as a chain of topographical media that mediated between the faithful and the absent divinity, and fortified faith. The stimulating nature of the biblical landscape is my point of departure in examining the paintings as a means of concretizing religious values, as substitutes for the biblical land in remote places, and as cultural instruments for constructing individual and collective identities.
Keywords: visual conceptualization of a holy landscape, Christian Hajj, pilgrimage souvenirs from the Holy Land, Eastern Christianity
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2023
It has recently been claimed that the Madaba map illustrates notions of law and ownership, and th... more It has recently been claimed that the Madaba map illustrates notions of law and ownership, and that it was displayed in a hall with secular functions. The present article rejects this claim, asserting that while we have insufficient evidence for determining the building’s context, the map speaks in religious language. I argue that the Madaba map conveyed the very same message communicated by both early Christian typological imagery and Palestinian pilgrimage art, suggesting that apart from conceptualizing the topography of Palestine in religious terms and as a sacred space, the map gave expression to the theological notion of Fulfilment.
Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief , 2022
Three installations of the “Stations of the Cross,” established as stational urban exhibitions ac... more Three installations of the “Stations of the Cross,” established as stational urban exhibitions across London, Washington, D.C., and New York in 2016, 2017, and 2018 (respectively), are the focus of this article, which examines the significance of the Via Dolorosa in Western culture and the role that visual media embodying this sacred topography have played in pre-modern and contemporary Western societies. It studies the contemporary installations in relation to sixteenth-century trend of superimposing the Via Dolorosa upon Western towns, and shows that the contemporary installations used the paradigm of the fourteen stations to contextualize themes that are entirely unrelated to Jerusalem or the Gospels but are highly significant within twenty-first-century Western cultural discourse. It discusses the way in which these installations bridged the gap between religious and secular worldviews in a post-secular age, studying them as a form of post-secular art.
Viator, 2022
This article reconstructs the Holy Land installation that Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, estab... more This article reconstructs the Holy Land installation that Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, established in the All-Saints’ Church in Wittenberg at the beginning of the 16th century. It relates this display of relics and pilgrimage imagery to the contemporary European cult of the Holy Land, and argues that this installation played a role in Frederick’s attainment of cultural hegemony in his land. In 1517, while Frederick, using relics and indulgences, encouraged Catholic worship at All-Saints’ to a record level, Luther nailed his Theses on the doors of that church and initiated the Reformation. This article explores the different fates of Holy Land objects following the Reformation – destruction, survival or adaptation into the new Protestant iconography – and argues that they played a part in the cultural transition that held in Wittenberg. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of the Holy Land in constructing cultural values and identities for both Catholics and Protestants. Keywords: Frederick III the “Wise,” Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, Holy Land relics and book of relics, Holy Land imagery, map of the Holy Land, pilgrimage, indulgences, Reformation, cultural hegemony.
Imago Mundi, 2017
The article explores the Jewish approach towards the biblical land as this was reflected in Jewis... more The article explores the Jewish approach towards the biblical land as this was reflected in Jewish maps of that land, and points to the formation of the visual motif of Messianic Jerusalem in Jewish art.
KEYWORDS: maps of the Promised Land /the Holy Land, a Jewish map made in Mantua in 1560s, a map in the Amsterdam Haggadah (1695), Erhard Reuwich, Rashi, Exodus, Borders of Canaan, Tribes of Israel, Messianic Jerusalem, 'East Gate', Menorah, Feast of Tabernacle, cultural memory.
Viator, 2012
The article offers a reconstruction of a chapel, set up in England in the 1470s to commemorate a ... more The article offers a reconstruction of a chapel, set up in England in the 1470s to commemorate a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The reconstruction follows information drawn from the founder’s will. Made up of architectural components, paintings, wooden models, stones, maps, and a manuscript narrative, the composition was designed to evoke the Holy Land in England. A map of the Holy Land preserved in the Bodleian Library seems to be the only component to have survived. The article studies the installation in relation to the widespread European tradition of relocating the Holy Land to Europe, and discusses in greater detail the incorporation of a map of the Holy Land into the category of fifteenth-century devotional imagery. The first section of the article outlines the principal layout of the chapel as it emerges from the formulation of the rubrics. The second section details the collection of objects deposited in the chapel. A comparison with fifteenth-century devotional and pilgrimage imagery enables us to specify the exact composition of items. The third section focuses on the map of the Holy Land, discussing several features exclusive to MS Douce 389 as well as general features of the format. The last section presents the installation as an elaborate mimesis of the Holy Land.
Crusades, 2006
A new reading of two charters promulgated in Acre in 1198 and 1235, in conjunction with a fourtee... more A new reading of two charters promulgated in Acre in 1198 and 1235, in conjunction with a fourteenth-century plan of the city (made by Paolino Veneto in 1320s), allows for the reconstruction of a small area in the northern part of Acre, in close proximity to the Hospitaller compound. It throws light on the urban development in this part of the city during the first decades of the thirteenth century.
ים המלח הפך מטפורה לחטא ועונש בתרבות המערב וכיום הוא קורבן של חטא סביבתי
הארץ, 2024
על ציור של ירושלים מן המאה ה-17 שהתגלה בעת שיפוץ חנות האופנה ״אוסקר דה לה רנטה״ בפריז
מפה ״אנונימית״ שנרכשה במחיר מציאה ונתרמה לספרייה הלאומית התבררה כיצירה של האמן הגרמני לוקאס קראנך... more מפה ״אנונימית״ שנרכשה במחיר מציאה ונתרמה לספרייה הלאומית התבררה כיצירה של האמן הגרמני לוקאס קראנך האב וכאחת המפות החשובות ביותר של ארץ הקודש
This book offers a way of reading maps of the Holy Land as visual imagery with religious connotat... more This book offers a way of reading maps of the Holy Land as visual imagery with religious connotations. Through a corpus of representative examples created between the sixth and the nineteenth centuries, it studies the maps as iconic imagery of an iconic landscape and analyses their strategies to manifest the spiritual quality of the biblical topography, to support religious tenets, and to construct and preserve cultural memory.
Maps of the Holy Land have thus far been studied with methodologies such as cartography and historical geography, while the main question addressed was the reliability of the maps as cartographic documents. Through another perspective and using the methodology of visual studies, this book reveals that maps of the Holy Land constructed religious messages and were significant instruments through which different Christian cultures (Byzantine, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Orthodox) shaped their religious identities. It does not seek to ascertain how the maps delivered geographical information, but rather how they utilized the geographical information in formulating religious and cultural values.
Through its examination of maps of the Holy Land, this book thus explores both Christian visual culture and Christian spirituality throughout the centuries.
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503585260-1
The Medieval Review (TMR), 2022
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/33977/37441
Journal of British Studies, 2023
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Crusade historian Reinhold Röhricht published a... more In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Crusade historian Reinhold Röhricht published a series of studies on maps and plans of the Holy Land (or, as he termed it, Palästinakunde) from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries, thereby establishing a corpus of materials for future scholars. Yet despite their apparent centrality for medieval studies, it has taken some time for Christian maps of the Holy Land to come into focus as the object of close scrutiny. Now, however, the topic is gaining some momentum: Patrick Gautier Dalché's important article, "Cartes de Terre Sainte, cartes de pèlerins" (in Tra Roma e Gerusalemme nel Medio Evo: paesaggi umani ed ambientali del pellegrinaggio meridionale, ed.
The Art Bulletin, 2018
Proskynetaria - Ottoman-era paintings of the Holy Land on textiles, made in Jerusalem for Christi... more Proskynetaria - Ottoman-era paintings of the Holy Land on textiles, made in Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims - are studied as icons of iconic landscape. The paintings and the biblical land are considered as a chain of topographical media that mediated between the faithful and the absent divinity, and fortified faith. The stimulating nature of the biblical landscape is my point of departure in examining the paintings as a means of concretizing religious values, as substitutes for the biblical land in remote places, and as cultural instruments for constructing individual and collective identities.
Keywords: visual conceptualization of a holy landscape, Christian Hajj, pilgrimage souvenirs from the Holy Land, Eastern Christianity
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2023
It has recently been claimed that the Madaba map illustrates notions of law and ownership, and th... more It has recently been claimed that the Madaba map illustrates notions of law and ownership, and that it was displayed in a hall with secular functions. The present article rejects this claim, asserting that while we have insufficient evidence for determining the building’s context, the map speaks in religious language. I argue that the Madaba map conveyed the very same message communicated by both early Christian typological imagery and Palestinian pilgrimage art, suggesting that apart from conceptualizing the topography of Palestine in religious terms and as a sacred space, the map gave expression to the theological notion of Fulfilment.
Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief , 2022
Three installations of the “Stations of the Cross,” established as stational urban exhibitions ac... more Three installations of the “Stations of the Cross,” established as stational urban exhibitions across London, Washington, D.C., and New York in 2016, 2017, and 2018 (respectively), are the focus of this article, which examines the significance of the Via Dolorosa in Western culture and the role that visual media embodying this sacred topography have played in pre-modern and contemporary Western societies. It studies the contemporary installations in relation to sixteenth-century trend of superimposing the Via Dolorosa upon Western towns, and shows that the contemporary installations used the paradigm of the fourteen stations to contextualize themes that are entirely unrelated to Jerusalem or the Gospels but are highly significant within twenty-first-century Western cultural discourse. It discusses the way in which these installations bridged the gap between religious and secular worldviews in a post-secular age, studying them as a form of post-secular art.
Viator, 2022
This article reconstructs the Holy Land installation that Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, estab... more This article reconstructs the Holy Land installation that Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, established in the All-Saints’ Church in Wittenberg at the beginning of the 16th century. It relates this display of relics and pilgrimage imagery to the contemporary European cult of the Holy Land, and argues that this installation played a role in Frederick’s attainment of cultural hegemony in his land. In 1517, while Frederick, using relics and indulgences, encouraged Catholic worship at All-Saints’ to a record level, Luther nailed his Theses on the doors of that church and initiated the Reformation. This article explores the different fates of Holy Land objects following the Reformation – destruction, survival or adaptation into the new Protestant iconography – and argues that they played a part in the cultural transition that held in Wittenberg. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of the Holy Land in constructing cultural values and identities for both Catholics and Protestants. Keywords: Frederick III the “Wise,” Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, Holy Land relics and book of relics, Holy Land imagery, map of the Holy Land, pilgrimage, indulgences, Reformation, cultural hegemony.
Imago Mundi, 2017
The article explores the Jewish approach towards the biblical land as this was reflected in Jewis... more The article explores the Jewish approach towards the biblical land as this was reflected in Jewish maps of that land, and points to the formation of the visual motif of Messianic Jerusalem in Jewish art.
KEYWORDS: maps of the Promised Land /the Holy Land, a Jewish map made in Mantua in 1560s, a map in the Amsterdam Haggadah (1695), Erhard Reuwich, Rashi, Exodus, Borders of Canaan, Tribes of Israel, Messianic Jerusalem, 'East Gate', Menorah, Feast of Tabernacle, cultural memory.
Viator, 2012
The article offers a reconstruction of a chapel, set up in England in the 1470s to commemorate a ... more The article offers a reconstruction of a chapel, set up in England in the 1470s to commemorate a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The reconstruction follows information drawn from the founder’s will. Made up of architectural components, paintings, wooden models, stones, maps, and a manuscript narrative, the composition was designed to evoke the Holy Land in England. A map of the Holy Land preserved in the Bodleian Library seems to be the only component to have survived. The article studies the installation in relation to the widespread European tradition of relocating the Holy Land to Europe, and discusses in greater detail the incorporation of a map of the Holy Land into the category of fifteenth-century devotional imagery. The first section of the article outlines the principal layout of the chapel as it emerges from the formulation of the rubrics. The second section details the collection of objects deposited in the chapel. A comparison with fifteenth-century devotional and pilgrimage imagery enables us to specify the exact composition of items. The third section focuses on the map of the Holy Land, discussing several features exclusive to MS Douce 389 as well as general features of the format. The last section presents the installation as an elaborate mimesis of the Holy Land.
Crusades, 2006
A new reading of two charters promulgated in Acre in 1198 and 1235, in conjunction with a fourtee... more A new reading of two charters promulgated in Acre in 1198 and 1235, in conjunction with a fourteenth-century plan of the city (made by Paolino Veneto in 1320s), allows for the reconstruction of a small area in the northern part of Acre, in close proximity to the Hospitaller compound. It throws light on the urban development in this part of the city during the first decades of the thirteenth century.
ים המלח הפך מטפורה לחטא ועונש בתרבות המערב וכיום הוא קורבן של חטא סביבתי
הארץ, 2024
על ציור של ירושלים מן המאה ה-17 שהתגלה בעת שיפוץ חנות האופנה ״אוסקר דה לה רנטה״ בפריז
מפה ״אנונימית״ שנרכשה במחיר מציאה ונתרמה לספרייה הלאומית התבררה כיצירה של האמן הגרמני לוקאס קראנך... more מפה ״אנונימית״ שנרכשה במחיר מציאה ונתרמה לספרייה הלאומית התבררה כיצירה של האמן הגרמני לוקאס קראנך האב וכאחת המפות החשובות ביותר של ארץ הקודש
האיקונה של ארץ הקודש ממנזר המצלבה שבישרה גאולה בתבנית טופוגרפית, מחכה לגאולתה שלה
במפה היהודית מבטא המקדש את התקווה לשיבת ציון ובמפה הנוצרית - את הגאולה בדמות הפסיון של ישו
Medievalists.net, 2023
The Monastery of the Holy Cross is located approximately two miles west of the Old City of Jerusa... more The Monastery of the Holy Cross is located approximately two miles west of the Old City of Jerusalem, that is about two miles away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of the Crucifixion and burial of Christ. The monastery’s original construction dates back to the 11th century, and as its name implies, it is deeply connected to the Cross of the Crucifixion. The interesting question is: in what sense was the monastery connected to the Cross, and when and why was this connection established?
https://www.medievalists.net/2023/09/place-become-holy/
Medievalists.net, 2023
This article shows that the earlier Western type of Holy Land map – sometimes referred to in rese... more This article shows that the earlier Western type of Holy Land map – sometimes referred to in research as ‘situs Jerusalem map’ – was conceived in relation to the increase in Western pilgrimage to Jerusalem and on the basis of a new genre of pilgrimage guides that appeared in the West in the first years of the century. It examines the strategy by which this type of map conceptualized the biblical topography as a physical reflection of Christ’s life (in relation to the devotion to the humanity of Christ) and explores the potential use of this map as an aid for conducting a virtual pilgrimage to Jerusalem (at a time when the concept and practice of embarking on a virtual pilgrimage through visual imagery had not yet been developed in the West).
My argument is that the earliest Western type of Holy Land map was formulated in a purely religious context — not in relation to the Crusader enterprise and ideology — and that this type of map was a pure devotional image.
הסדרה ירושלים לדורותיה מגוללת את תולדות העיר ירושלים לאורך כארבעת אלפים שנה, מראשית האלף השני לפס... more הסדרה ירושלים לדורותיה מגוללת את תולדות העיר ירושלים לאורך כארבעת אלפים שנה, מראשית האלף השני לפסה"נ - תקופה הברונזה התיכונה - ועד אמצע המאה העשרים לסה"נ - ערב הקמתה של מדינת ישראל. הסדרה עוסקת בתולדות העיר, עומדת על סוד מעמדה המיוחד בהיסטוריה ובזיכרון של עמים, דתות ותרבויות ומסבירה מה מייחד אותה ומעניק לה חיוניות היסטורית שנים כה רבות.
היא מתחקה אחר הגורמים שעשו אותה מוקד של התעניינות כלל-עולמית, ונדרשת לשאלה כיצד זכתה למעמד מיוחד לא רק במישור ההיסטורי-הראלי, אלא גם במישור המטא-היסטורי, וכיצד נתייחד לה מקום מרכזי בעולם הנחמה בחזון אחרית הימים.
היחידה הרביעית - ירושלים בתקופה הביזנטית - עוסקת בתהליך הפיכתה של ירושלים מעיר רומית פגאנית בעלת עבר יהודי עשיר לעיר נוצרית. הדיון עוקב אחר התחזקות מעמדה של ירושלים בתודעה הנוצרית ובמדרג הכנסייתי, והפיכתה למוקד עלייה לרגל ולעיר נוצרית קדושה. כן עוסקת היחידה בשינוי פניה של העיר ובמעורבותם של הבישופים שעמדו בראשה במחלוקות התאולוגיות שהסעירו את האימפריה הביזנטית.
Lecture: “Twelfth-Century Maps of the Holy Land: Image, Context, Function” Dr. Pnina Arad will co... more Lecture: “Twelfth-Century Maps of the Holy Land: Image, Context, Function”
Dr. Pnina Arad will consider how circular maps of Jerusalem were made on the basis of a new genre of pilgrimage guides that appeared in the West in the first years of the century and will focus on the potential use of these maps as aids for conducting virtual pilgrimages to Jerusalem (when the concept and practice of virtual pilgrimage by means of visual imagery had not yet been developed in the West). She will also present the strategy by which these maps conceptualized the biblical landscape as a physical reflection of Christ’s life (in relation to the devotion to the humanity of Christ at the time).
REGISTRATION REQUIRED:
https://arthistory.wisc.edu/event/medieval-studies-lecture-pnina-arad-ben-guiron-university/
https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/whats-on/maps-and-society-lecture-series