# Synagogue de Doura Europos

La synagogue de Doura Europos est un édifice de culte juif découvert dans la ville antique de Doura Europos, située sur l'Euphrate, en Syrie orientale. Détruite en 256 ap. J.-C., ses vestiges ont conservé un ensemble unique de fresques narratives bibliques qui ont bouleversé, depuis leur découverte en 1932, la connaissance de l'art juif.

## L'importance de la synagogue dans l'histoire de l'art
### Joseph Gutmann

* (en) Discovered forty years ago in what Mikhail Rostovtzeff called "The Pompei of the Syrian Desert", the third-century Dura-Europos synagogue has successfully challenged stereotyped and well-established scholarly theories. Although not as well-known or as widely publicized as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the synagogue, nonetheless, has revolutionary implications of great importance to all students of ancient history, religion and art. The first major Jewish artistic monument ever to be unearthed, it contains the earliest known significant continuous cycle of biblical images. Figural decoration of similar complexity and extensiveness does not appear in Christian art until the fifth century.
* Joseph Gutmann, historien de l'art, sur l'importance de la synagogue dans l'histoire de l'art.
* The Dura-Europos synagogue, A Reevaluation (1932-1972), Joseph Gutmann (éd.), éd. American Academy of Religion, 1973, p. 8

### Carl Herman Kraeling

* (en) Here we see in a new light the common front which Christianity and Judaism held against paganism, and the relationship between Jewish and Christian art.
* Carl Herman Kraeling, théologien et historien, sur l'importance de la synagogue dans l'histoire de l'art.
* The Synagogue, The Excavations at Dura-Europos, C. H. Kraeling, éd. Yale U. P., 1956, p. 8

## La découverte archéologique
### Clark Hopkins

* (en) The signal was given and the best of our pickmen undercut the blanket of dirt concealing the west wall. Like a blanket or a series of blankets the dirt fell and revealed pictures, paintings, vivid in color, startling ; so fresh it seemed they might have been painted a month before.
* Clark Hopkins, l'un des archéologues de Doura Europos, sur l'instant de la découverte des fresques.
* « The excavations of the Dura synagogue paintings », Joseph Gutmann (éd.), The Dura-Europos synagogue, A Reevaluation (1932-1972), 1973, p. 15-16
* (en) It was a scene like a dream ! In the infinite space of clear blue sky and bare gray desert, there was a miracle taking place, an oasis of painting springing up from the dull earth.
* Clark Hopkins, l'un des archéologues de Doura Europos, sur l'instant de la découverte des fresques.
* « The excavations of the Dura synagogue paintings », Joseph Gutmann (éd.), The Dura-Europos synagogue, A Reevaluation (1932-1972), 1973, p. 16
* (en) We stood together in mute silence and complete astonishment. A casual passerby witnessing the painting suddenly emerging from the earth would have been astonished. If he had been a Classical archaeologist, with the knowledge of how few paintings had survived from Classical times, he would have been that much more amazed. But if he were a biblical scholar or a student of ancient art and were told that the building was a synagogue and the paintings were scene from the Old Testament, he simply would not have believed it. It could not be ; there was absolutely no precedent, nor could there be any. The stern injunction in the Ten Commandments against the making of graven images would be sufficient to prove him right.
* Clark Hopkins, l'un des archéologues de Doura Europos, sur le choc de la découverte des fresques.
* The Discovery of Dura-Europos, Clark Hopkins, éd. Bernard Goldman, 1979, p. 131
* (en) Many of the details of the original paintings were brought out in greater clarity in the copies, and where subsequent fading has occurred, the copies have preserved the original lines and colors visible before the fading. Careful study of fragments, where original colors were best preserved in their original shades, was of valuable assistance in making the copies. To study the combination of color, detail, and design today, one will find the copies better than the originals. Of course, one supplements the other, and both are indispensable.
* Clark Hopkins, sur l'importance des copies des fresques réalisées in situ par Herbert Gute.
* The Discovery of Dura-Europos, Clark Hopkins, éd. Bernard Goldman, 1979, p. 208

## La découverte et l'étude de la synagogue dans le contexte politique des années 1930-1940
### André Grabar

* André Grabar, sur les circonstances politiques de l'étude de la synagogue.
* L'art de la fin de l'Antiquité et du Moyen Âge, A. Grabar, éd. Collège de France, 1968, p. vol. 2, 687.

### Gabriel Millet

* Gabriel Millet, dans l'introduction à la première publication systématique des fresques par R. Du Mesnil du Buisson.
* Les Peintures de la Synagogue de Doura-Europos 245-256 ap. J.-C., R. Du Mesnil du Buisson, éd. Institut pontifical, 1939, p. xxiv

## La synagogue aujourd'hui
### Annabel Jane Wharton

* (en) Last Spring, I was given permission to photograph anything in the Museum, except the Synagogue frescoes. Such a denial could, of course, be ascribed to the micropolitics of institutions with which all art historians are familiar. However, I think that this instance of veiled images is more likely attribuable to the macropolitics of the state. Though accessible upon request, the presence of the Synagogue frescoes in the museum is nowhere announced. Even in foreign guide books, the Synagogue itself is censored in the plans of the museum's galleries. There are good reasons for this. The Israelis and Syrians have been in a state of war since Israel was introduced in the East by the West in 1948. Consequently, Jewish production is not celebrated in Syria.
* Annabel Jane Wharton, historienne de l'art, sur la relative inaccessibilité des fresques de la synagogue au musée de Damas.
* « The Synagogue of Dura Europos : Contexts, Subtexts, Intertexts », A. J. Wharton, Art History 17 (1), 1994, p. 1-25
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