Epstein, Dreams of Subversion INTRO ... - Dickinson Blogs

XVI Preface
this work grew and developed, David challenged and encouraged me to tighten
it, to ground it, to make it fit together as an integral study. For his patience, in
particular, I am truly grateful.
Professor Walter Cahn of Yale is a consummate and masterly art historian,
keenly discerning and observant of both the microcosmic and macrocosmic dimensions
of iconography. By simultaneously warning me against overinterpretation
and urging me to explore issues of national consciousness through art, he
urged me toward the golden mean that transforms art into a truly useful tool for
understanding the internal landscape of those who produced it.
John Boswell was a friend and adviser in the truest sense of the word, even in
the throes of the terrible illness that eventually took his life. He was a superlative
editor, an ever-tactful critic, but most of all, a teacher. I learned and grew from
every suggestion he made to me. His keen interest in issues and methodologies
that cross disciplines and extend beyond the bounds of the mainstream and the
expected, as well as his grace, wit, scholarly acumen, and philological integrity
proved a constant inspiration.
I was privileged to spend a wonderful year doing research at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem in 1988-89, where I received the assistance and counsel of a
number of exceptional scholars in the fields of Jewish history and history of art. I
am deeply grateful to Richard Cohen, who was the first to examine my proposal;
I could not have picked a wiser or more incisive critic. Likewise, Reuven Bonfil
has enriched this work by urging me to ask of the material what he calls "the
questions which really matter." Avraham Grossman pored cheerfully and everaccommodatingly
with me over halakhic materials and literary sources alike,
most notably the torturous language of Yehudah Hadassi. Bezalel Narkiss
and Elisheva Revel-Neher each took an active interest in this project in the early
stages, and their suggestions with regard to matters iconographic have proved
invaluable. Israel TaShema and Moshe Idel are two of a kind -fonts of information
and helpful suggestion-both in terms of content and methodology. I learned
more in a single bus ride with Idel about dogs, hares, and gilgul than I warrant I
ever shall again (at least in this incarnation). The secrets revealed to me in the
realm of libraries, manuscripts, and variant readings over coffee with TaShema
proved invaluable.
Many individuals have been extremely helpful in reviewing various stages of
my finished manuscript and ideas and in providing guidance and encouragement.
I am particularly indebted to Daniel Sperber, Nomi Feuchtwanger and
Bracha Yaniv of Bar Han University, Elliot Horowitz of Ben Gurion University,
Shalom Sabar of Hebrew University, and to John Ahern, Judith Goldstein, James
Mundy, and Benjamin Kohl at Vassar.
Dean Nancy Dye of Vassar, now president of Oberlin College, followed this
research with particular interest and acuity. I have, over the years, maintained a
lively exchange with Ivan Marcus at Yale about the relevance of this sort of work
Preface XVll
for the new Ashkenazic cultural studies, and Ruth Mellinkoff and I have initiated
a spirited e-mail correspondence on some of the issues dealt with herein. To Bill
and Lisa Gross, collectors, scholars, humanitarians in the deepest sense of the
word, go my sincerest gratitude for their warmth and interest.
Finally, my colleagues at Vassar, Deborah Moore, Larry Mamiya, BetsyAmaru,
Mark Cladis, Mary McGee, Lynn LiDonnici, Tova Weitzman-Leibovitch, and
Eric Huberman, as well as the members of the Jewish Faculty discussion group,
have supported this research in innumerable ways, intellectually as well as
emotionally.
Other wonderful supporters and friends have aided me in bringing my ideas
before the public in various contexts. I am grateful to Myron Gubitz for giving
some of my initial forays into this topic their first public airing in Grim, and
Hananiyah Goodman for inviting me to participate in the series "Another World:
Jewish Mysticism" at Yale. Nancy Troy at Art Bulletin was gracious in her desire
to introduce my materials and methods to the wider world of art-historical scholarship.
To David Roskies I am grateful for publishing an article that was a preliminary
foray into the literary aspects of some of the arguments elaborated in
this book. Laurie Patton has been a wonderful friend and editor, believing in my
material, questioning my assumptions in a cross-cultural context, and ultimately
anthologizing, in slightly different form, a section from this work. Vivian Mann
provided extraordinary support, and invited me to present my conclusions on the
iconography of the hare hunt as the Zucker Lecture in Jewish Art at the Jewish
Museum in spring 1995. Elliot Wolfson of New York University and David Berger
of Brooklyn College have followed my work with flattering interest, adding to it
their patient guidance and acute suggestions. Guy Haskell of Emory and Shimon
Brand of Oberlin have been the truest of supporters, above and beyond the call of
duty. Finally, I thank Michael Camille and Tony Perry for reading my manuscript,
and Philip Winsor and Cherene Holland of the Penn State Press for being exceedingly
supportive from the inception of this project to its completion. Barbara
Cohen prepared the superb index and Caroline Kiel assisted with proofreading.
I gratefully acknowledge the support, financial and moral, tendered me by the
following grants and foundations and the exceptional individuals associated with
each. Without their help this book would literally not have been possible: the
Andrew Mellon Foundation, from which I received the Fellowship in the Humanities
(1985-88) that made it possible for me to attend Yale, and the Dissertation
Year Fellowship (1990-91) that made it possible for me to begin this work.
To the foundation, and its former director, Dr. Robert Goheen, I am exceedingly
grateful. During 1990-91 I also received a John F. Enders Fellowship from Yale
University, which made it possible for me to spend the summer months engaged
in final adjustments to the project. Because of the exemplary support provided by
these two grants, when I was offered a grant from the National Foundation for
Jewish Culture, in the same year, I accepted honorary status. I am equally thank-