The Emergence of Anti-Jewish Imagery in the Christian Art of High Medieval Spain

FAIN: FT-53992-06

Pamela Anne Patton
Princeton University (Dallas, TX 75205-1902)

This book analyzes the emergence of a specialized visual language related to Jews and Judaism in Christian art of high medieval Iberia, from sporadic ethnic/religious identifiers in the late twelfth century to a consistent vocabulary of anti-Jewish signifiers by ca. 1300. Examining works of art whose significance to such study often eludes scholarly attention, it investigates their intersections with non-visual means of anti-Jewish expression, such as religious polemic and oral lore. It concludes that this hostile visual language, inspired by social and religious pressures that transformed Iberia's Christian kingdoms in the thirteenth century, prefigures the better-studied intolerance of Spain's late Middle Ages.

Associated Products

Art of Estrangement: Redefining Jews in Reconquest Spain (Book)
Title: Art of Estrangement: Redefining Jews in Reconquest Spain
Author: Pamela A. Patton
Abstract: Art of Estrangement illuminates the influential role played by visual images in reinforcing the efforts of Spain’s Christian-ruled kingdoms to renegotiate the role of their vibrant Jewish minority following the unprecedented territorial expansions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Scrutinizing a wide range of works, from luxury manuscripts and altar sculptures to household ceramics and scribal doodles, it traces the emergence of a new, alienating visual language that enabled Iberian Christians both to affiliate with mainstream Europe and to distance themselves from an uncomfortably multicultural past.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-05383-7.html
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780271053837
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Millard Meiss Publication Grant
Date: 6/1/2011
Organization: College Art Association

Publication Subvention
Date: 7/7/2011
Organization: Program for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States Universities

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