THE MENORAH AND THE SEVEN-BRANCHED CANDELABRUM.
Jewish and Christian Manifestations in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, Universität Tübingen, Alte Aula (and via zoom) 10.11.–12.11.2022.

In both Jewish and Christian traditions, the Menorah plays a prominent role as an iconic artefact in medieval and early modern art and thought. As an implement of the Tabernacle as well as of Solomon’s Temple, its outstanding importance in the religious and national life of the Israelites is evident in the Hebrew Bible. After the destruction of the Temple, it became the quintessential symbol of the Jewish people—both in the Land of Israel and throughout the Diaspora. Christians, for their part, regarded the Tabernacle and Temple as prefigurations of the Church; the Menorah thus figures prominently in Christian exegesis and iconography as well. Beginning in Carolingian times, seven-branched candelabra made of bronze or brass were placed in churches. The installation of such artefacts raises questions about their spatial aesthetics and liturgical and performative functions as well as about the “Christian Menorah” as adaption or appropriation.
An international, interdisciplinary conference in Tübingen aims to shed light on Jewish and Christian traditions by bringing them into direct dialogue. The conference is the outcome of a research project on “Siebenarmige Kandelaber in Kirchen: Semantik – Kontexte – Praktiken“ (“Seven-Branched Candelabra in Churches: Semantics – Contexts – Practices”) within the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre “Andere Ästhetik” (“Other Aesthetics”) (SFB 1391).

International and interdisciplinary conference organized by Andrea Worm (andrea.wormuni-tuebingen.de)
Registration is requested (free of charge): sekretariat-khiuni-tuebingen.de
The access information for Zoom will be sent to you after registration and announced on the website in due time.

Program:
Thursday, 10.11.22

10:00 Welcome by the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Leonhardt
10:15–11:00 Andrea Worm (Tübingen), Introduction. Menorah and Seven-branched Candelabrum
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break
11:00–11:45 Lutz Doering (Münster): Priester, Tempel oder Jüdischsein? Überlegungen zum Zeichencharakter der Menora im antiken Judentum
11:45–12:30 Matthias Morgenstern (Tübingen):The Fate of the Temple Menorah. Mysteries, Interdictions, Speculations
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–14:45 Vera Henkelmann (Erfurt): Seven-branched Candelabra from the Carolingian Period 
14:45–15:30 Tobias Bidlingmaier (Salzburg): Seven-branched Candelabra in Medieval England. Gathering the Evidence
15:30–16:00 Coffee Break
16:00–16 :45 Emma Abate (Paris/Bologna): Temple Vessels: a Brief Account of their Iconography and Tradition in Hebrew Biblical Manuscripts from Spain and Italy, (14th–15th Century)
16:45–17:30 Josef H. Chajes (Haifa): “A Secret Particularly Obscure”: The Menorah and the Sacred Space of Classical Kabbalistic Trees
19:00 (evening lecture) Mary J. Carruthers (New York/Oxford): Articulating the geometricalia of Scripture: Bezeleel, Aaron, and Moses

Friday, 11.11.22
9:00–9:45 Hanna Gentili (Haifa):Guillaume Postel’s Interpretation of the Menorah: Remarks on the Hebrew Text, its Sources and its Circulation in Latin, French and Italian
9:45–10:30 Ilia Rodov (Bar Ilan): Survival or Revival? The Menorah in Early Modern European Synagogue Art
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break
11:00–11:45 Margit Krenn (Heidelberg): Der siebenarmige Leuchter im Speculum humanae salvationis
11:45–12:30 Lesley Smith (Oxford): Jewish and Christian Re-imagining of the Seven-branched Lampstand in the Postilla of Nicholas of Lyra, OFM (†1349)
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–14:45 Andrea Worm (Tübingen): Image – Space – Context. The Seven-branched Candelabrum and the Baptismal Font at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt (Oder)
14:45–15:30 Jochen Vennebusch (Hamburg): Marienwohlde oder Mölln. Überlegungen zur Provenienz des siebenarmigen Leuchters in der Möllner Nikolaikirche (1436)
15:30–16:00 Coffee Break
16:00–16:45 Judith Utz (Salzburg): Der siebenarmige Leuchter in Vulturella (Menorella) in Latium und sein Kontext
16:45–17:30 Maria Streicher (Tübingen): “Madonna dell'Albero, dandole tal cognome quella gran Pianta“. On the Spatial and Liturgical Reconfiguration of the Trivulzio-Candelabrum in Sixteenth-Century Milan Cathedral

Saturday, 12.11.22
9:00–9.45 Gerd Blum (Münster/Wien) und Katrin Kogman-Appel (Münster): In God’s Shadow: Towards a Reception History of Ex. 24–40 on Bezalel’s Tabernacle
9.45–10.30 Eva-Bettina Krems (Münster): Die Menora in Darstellungen der Vertreibung des Heliodor und der Vertreibung der Händler aus dem Tempel
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break
11:00–11:45 Claudia Echinger-Maurach (Münster): Siebenarmige Leuchter im 16. Jahrhundert. Zu einem kaum bekannten Projekt Michelangelos
11:45–12:30 Jens Niebaum (Münster): „den store liusestaken af bronz med dess Siu Lampor.” Siebenarmiger Leuchter und schwedisches Königtum bei Nicodemus Tessin d. J., 1708 
Concluding remarks