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Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography Hardcover – November 4, 2014

by Sara Lipton (Author)

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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.

Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography

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Product Details

Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Metropolitan Books; 1St Edition edition (November 4, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805079106
ISBN-13: 978-0805079104
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #392 in Books > History > World > Religious > Judaism
- #1296 in Books > History > World > Jewish
- #1477 in Books > Arts & Photography > History & Criticism > Themes

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

Medieval Views of Jews

By Rob Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on December 23, 2014

Format: Hardcover

We are unfortunately familiar with gross caricatures of Jews, and it isn’t just Nazis that promoted them. The images go way back because societies centuries ago found it useful to shun or hate Jews as actively responsible for the death of Jesus, despite the illogic of any such blame on contemporaries centuries later. The usefulness manifest itself in part by assigning visual characteristics to Jews that could be easily recognized. It isn’t surprising that many of these characteristics were worked out during the Middle Ages, but it is surprising (or at least it was to me) that in the early period of the first millennium, there were no visual clues, except context, for picking out a Jew in an illustration. Then over the centuries, starting around year 1000, because of complex changes in theology, economics, and urbanization, you could spot a Jew in illuminated manuscripts or stained glass windows. How did these changes come about, and what were the cues that would let ordinary people know they were looking at a depiction of a Jew? This is the big subject in _Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography_ (Metropolitan Books) by Sara Lipton. Lipton teaches medieval history and seems to have looked over centuries of such illustrations, and in a detailed and compelling book charts a slow course of evolving images that have stayed with us centuries later.

If there were going to be illustrations of Bible stories, Jews certainly had to be in them. They were prophets, soldiers, and kings within the Old Testament, for instance, and initially they looked like the other prophets, etc. There was little derogatory depiction in the early Middle Ages because the Jews were officially valued.Read more ›

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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Development of those visual symbols ( like "Jewish" pointed hat ) eventually led to the creation ...

By Peter Barelkowski on December 15, 2014

Format: Hardcover

"Dark Mirror" is an extensive, intellectual analysis describing the development of symbols in Medieval-Christian art indicating Jews. Development of those visual symbols ( like "Jewish" pointed hat, "hooked" nose ) eventually led to the creation of the anti-Semitic stereotypes. Excellent work !

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5 of 12 people found the following review helpful

good read

By Jennifer Kass on November 9, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition

This was a very exciting book for me to read. As I love to read a lot of books that have to do with this style/verity type of book. I really love how this book was put together and how it gave so much on insightful history. I myself believe this should have to be read in schools (high school and up) as it would help in history settings. But with the way the world is today it may only be read in college :(
This book is a very long but interesting read

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