Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Jewish artifacts at the ROM (with aside on fake metal codices)

THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM has a new exhibition with items of interest:
Jewish artifacts are displayed in a new ROM gallery
By SHELDON KIRSHNER, Staff Reporter (Canadian Jewish News)
Thursday, 14 July 2011

TORONTO —The Royal Ontario Museum has unveiled an ensemble of four new galleries on the ancient empires of Rome, Byzantium and Nubia, all sup­plemented by videos shot on location in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ring with a menorah

Janet Carding, the director and chief ex­ecutive officer of the museum, said this was “a key moment” for the Toronto museum.

These civilizations span 2,500 years of history and had a lasting influence on art, esthetics, architecture and religion, said Carding.

The galleries – which add ap­prox­i­mately 7,000 square feet of exhibit space to the museum – were open­ed on July 1.

The new galleries consist of the Eaton Gallery of Rome, the Joey and Toby Ta­nen­baum Gallery of Byzantium, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Rome and the Near East, and the Gal­leries of Af­rica: Nubia.

Several Jewish objects from an­cient Pa­lestine are ex­hi­bited in the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of By­zan­tium – a jar with a menorah, a ring with a men­orah, etrog and lulav and a bread stamp with a menorah and cross.

They date back to the period from 300 to 614 CE.

The jar and the ring were most likely made for Jews visiting holy sites in Jeru­salem.

The bread stamp engraved with a menorah and a cross is extremely rare because the portrayal of images was considered idolatrous, said Paul Denis, the assistant curator of the Greek and Roman collections.

[...]
The ring is quite interesting. Could it be another inspiration for the fake metal codices (follow those links)?

Below: genuine early-Byzantine metal ring with seven-branched menorah. Note the etrog on the lower left and the lulav (palm branch) on the lower right.Below: fake metal codex. Note the seven-branched menorah on the lower left. And could that wreath under it be partly inspired by the etrog and lulav on the image above?


Just a thought.