Page 441 - שערות לילית וקרני אשמדאי / נעמה וילוז'ני

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comparison with other kinds of art, while the second part discusses the essential attitude of
the two Jewish communities to magic activity and to the art associated with it.

An appended catalogue of all the incantation bowls describes in detail the paintings on
the incantation bowls. Each description is illustrated with a photograph of the artifact and
a hand-copied drawing of the painting on it.

CHAPTER ONE: STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF THE FIGURES
APPEARING ON THE MAGIC ARTIFACTS
This chapter presents a stylistic analysis of the items in the catalogue. The artifacts are
examined individually and from a range of aspects, while the motifs and elements of the
paintings are discussed through detailed description and analysis. The research traces
recurrent motifs and elements which help to classify groups and thus to discern a set of
rules and lay out the principles which guided the creators of various types of magic art.
The classification and typology, like the system, provide a means which can form the basis
for future analysis of paintings not included in the current catalogue, as well as of artifacts
as yet undiscovered.

CHAPTER TWO: PAINTINGS ON THE INCANTATION BOWLS: THE FRUITS OF
THE JEWISH ARTISTS’ IMAGINATION, OR PART OF THE CULTURAL FABRIC
WITHIN WHICH THEY EMERGED?
This chapter includes an analysis of the artistic and magic significance of the creatures
on the incantation bowls. One way of understanding the paintings is by examining their
sources – that is, the local tradition in which they developed together with foreign traditions
which they adopted.

Traces of Mesopotamian magic occasionally occur in the incantation bowl paintings
and are evidence of the longevity of these elements. Indeed, the incantation bowls indicate
a tendency of the Jewish Babylonian community towards art adopted in Persia, with
characteristics typical of Persian culture contemporary with the incantation bowls finding
their way into the depicted figures.

The purpose of these comparisons was to attempt to find parallels between the bowls
and other artifacts, in composition, design of the figures, their dress, and the articles
they hold etc. Based on these parallels we find that the incantation bowls were not the
independent fruit of an artist’s imagination, but reflect the culture in which they were
made, so that the artistic language in which the artist chose to present them, with all of its