Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography

by Sara Lipton

In Dark Mirror , Sara Lipton offers a fascinating examination of the emergence of anti-Semitic iconography in the Middle Ages

The straggly beard, the hooked nose, the bag of coins, and gaudy apparel―the religious artists of medieval Christendom had no shortage of virulent symbols for identifying Jews. Yet, hateful as these depictions were, the story they tell is not as simple as it first appears.

Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, Lipton argues that these visual stereotypes were neither an inevitable outgrowth of Christian theology nor a simple reflection of medieval prejudices. Instead, she maps out the complex relationship between medieval Christians' religious ideas, social experience, and developing artistic practices that drove their depiction of Jews from benign, if exoticized, figures connoting ancient wisdom to increasingly vicious portrayals inspired by (and designed to provoke) fear and hostility.

At the heart of this lushly illustrated and meticulously researched work are questions that have occupied scholars for ages―why did Jews becomes such powerful and poisonous symbols in medieval art? Why were Jews associated with certain objects, symbols, actions, and deficiencies? And what were the effects of such portrayals―not only in medieval society, but throughout Western history? What we find is that the image of the Jew in medieval art was not a portrait of actual neighbors or even imagined others, but a cloudy glass into which Christendom gazed to find a distorted, phantasmagoric rendering of itself.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Judaism, Art History, Art, Medieval History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2014

About the author

A native New Yorker, Sara Lipton is a medievalist who specializes in Jewish-Christian relations, art, and religious practices. Her first book, Images of Intolerance, won the Medieval Academy of America's John Nicholas Brown Prize for Best First Book. Lipton has also written on more contemporary topics, including gender, anti-Semitism, ethnic caricature, Israeli culture, and religious retreats for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, TomDispatch, and The Huffington Post. Lipton teaches at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Reviews

[Petra X]

I had never really thought of why Jews were always depicted (by anti-semites) the way they are in easily-identifiable evil, hook-nosed, dark and oily characters, so I'm quite interested to get this book.

Lucky Jews don't get into a murderous lather about drawings, cartoons or that sort of thing. Which isn't to say it isn't unpleasant. What is also unpleasant is being told by people that I don't look like a Jew. I'm a green-eyed red head with a very ordinary sort of nose.

On the island there are always Mormon missionaries going around in twos or threes. They always wear shirts and ties a little backpacks which really makes them stand out on this tropical island. Two of them were in my shop. They never have any money for books so I knew they were going to try and convert me so I said not to bother I was Jewish (actually existentialist by philosophy but we never get well-educated missionaries around here so I didn't want to confuse the issue).

One of them said with raised eyebrows looking really surprised, "I've never seen a Jew before".

Really? How would he know? We don't have little horns and look like cartoon characters you know? Luckily his friend was mega-embarrassed and hustled him out fast. (There are about 6K Jews in Salt Lake City so he'd probably seen one but without the stereotypical identifying characteristics never realised it).

This might be a good book.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

The West is ashamed of this facet of their past, and justifiably so. But what surprises me is that the way they cheer on cartoonists who depict Arabs and Muslims in general as hook-nosed, bearded terrorists. According to me, the principle is the same in both cases.

There has to be something I am missing...

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is that although Christian religious art was not very anti-Semitic in the 11th and 12th centuries, it gradually became more so over the last few centuries of the Middle Ages. For example, while early medieval art rarely showed Jewish men with pointy hats and deformed noses, 14th and 15th-c. art was more likely to use such stereotypes. Eventually, negative depictions of Jewish women also became more common.

What changed? Lipton suggests that changes in Christian society were to blame. Christian art became more naturalistic, and began to emphasize Jesus's human-like vulnerability, which in turn made it more tempting for artists to depict persons hostile to Jesus (i.e. Jews).

And as society became more affluent, art was more likely to be available to the masses, and so Christian art was more focused on families. As a result, artists became more interested in art about home and family. As a result, Jewish women seemed more relevant, and thus were (in Christian art) more likely to participate in their husband's rites.

[Zivile · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might think it would be more of a book about Jewish heritage but you cannot see white without black, therefore you will learn a great deal about Christianity.
I would admit I expected more to hear about anti-Semitic beliefs, but this study is done about a very strict time-frame and I could not expect more. If I wanted to get deeper into anti-Semitic topics, I should turn towards 19th century studies.
Nevertheless, it's a great read and would be a great joy for fans of scholarly books, especially, about Medieval times.

[Roger Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lipton carefully analyzes the emergence and development of anti-Jewish iconography from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, revealing that anti-Semitism in art was anything but static. Lipton argues that the images must be read as religious iconography because the main audiences of these paintings were Christians who became increasingly hostile with the development of Early Modern civic society.

[Barbara Adde · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Whenever we create images of a stranger, alien, foreigner, or even the unknown person across the street, we should bear in mind that we are also creating an image of ourselves. Let us hope that we will like what we see when we look in that mirror."

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful academic read. Well researched, great writing. Learned so much about medieval artwork, the possible intent and meaning of it.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sara Lipton has been badly let down by her publisher.

This is an important analysis of the progression of Christian anti-Semitic representation of Jews in medieval art There are numerous illustrations in the text to demonstrate this progression. However, the black and white figures are so poor that the points raised in the text cannot be effectively seen in the figures.

Some black and white figures are also given in (unnumbered) plates, but this just highlighted how much detail had been lost in those figures without a colour plate.

My rating relates to the book as printed (first edition). If it had supplied colour plates for all the figures, this book would have been rated as five stars.

[Iolanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember my visit to Prague, where I had the opportunity to explore the Jewish cemetery and learn about symbols and iconography, including those with antisemitic connotations. This book brought back memories of that experience with my class. It was incredibly informative and has inspired me to pay more attention to symbols and iconography, especially in medieval art, when visiting museums.

[Andrew Jampol-Petzinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even where aspects of Lipton’s readings remain unpersuasive, the subtlety and nuance of the author’s overall argumentation make this work an invaluable and important corrective treatment of Jewish Medieval history.

[Kimm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read far too much about Jewish hats which weren't even Jewish or even worn, apparently. However, I made the connection between Jewish hats and witches hats and was happy to see the author brought up the connection in the conclusion. Like others, I found the black-and-white photos hard to see and the lack of description under each figure further confounded me for some reason.

What bothered me most, however, was that the author admits in her conclusion that anti-Jewish sentiment wasn't all that straightforward or constant during the period in question. She admits that life began to imitate art, and there was no real "anti" anything that prompted the beginnings of the negative images other than a, supposed, need for Christians to feel better about themselves as they strove to stress the New over the Old and the need for visual images of faith. Seems silly that clerics and artists would go to such lengths, but yet aren't the same things still going on today? We tend to believe what we see or are shown rather than thinking for ourselves.

I received an uncorrected proof for review from Henry Holt and Company.

[Laura]

I received this as a giveaway. Thank you. It was altogether shocking to me, interesting.

[Sophia Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

for school 🤓 very interesting book