Brooke1995

Anti-Semitism in Medieval Christian Art

This Wikipedia article lacks a section on Anti-Semitism in Medieval Christian Art. So far, this page does not have any information about the topic of anti-Jewish representation in the art from this time period. Using Debra Higgs Stricklands’s book Saracens, Demons, and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003), I will create a section that both contextualizes and gives examples of what anti-Semitism in Medieval Christian art looked like. For example, Strickland explains that the anti-Semitism that Jews faced during this time period was due to the fact that Jews were different from Christians both culturally and religiously. One way in which this hatred manifested itself was through the creation of anti-Semitic art, which served the purpose of discrediting both Jews and their religious beliefs. Anti-Semitic art from this time period can be split into three categories: art that focused on physical descriptions, art that featured signs of damnation, and art that depicted Jews as monsters. I will give examples and context to these categories. For instance, in these images Jews were often depicted wearing pointed hats and long beards, simply meant as a derogatory symbol, to separate Christians from Jews. Additionally, Jews were also depicted in scenes that showed them crucifying Christ, which goes back to the false Christian belief that the Jews themselves were responsible for murdering Christ. Finally, since Jews were seen as outsiders by society due to their different dress and means of worship, social tension manifested itself into the belief that Jews were barbarians, eventually evolving into the idea that they were monsters. Some of the art from this time period morphs these ideas, combining the stereotypical Jewish beard and pointed hat imagery with that of monsters, creating art that made Jews synonymous with monsters. During the Medieval period, anti-Semitic art was created by Christians as a manifestation of their hatred for Jews, as a means of propaganda to spread this message of anti-Semitism further into society.

If anyone wants to comment on these changes, please let me know on this Talk Page or on my Talk Page. Brooke1995 (talk) 20:20, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

• Hi Brooke - I think that this is a step in the right direction, however I think that this may be a wee bit too specific for this page in the way you have it here, as Christian art was only a portion of medieval art. It was a very visible portion, but it wasn't the entirety of it and as such, this could run the risk of being too specific. I think that it would be a good idea to have a section that goes over biases and racism in general, then have the sub-section about anti-Semitism in MCA. Basically, I do think this would be good information to have, just that you should have it in a general section about biases seen in the art as a whole. The general section wouldn't have to be long - just a few sentences or a paragraph about the more general topic before moving to the specific. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:53, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Apologies - I hadn't read this page before I deleted your contribution, not had I realised that you were a student working on an assignment. Nevertheless, I don't believe that the addition was useful. To say that much mediaeval art was prejudiced does seem to be a statement of the blindingly obvious - that was why much of it was painted. Perhaps a little more research, some better sources and better formatted headings might lead to an addition being retained. Regards  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   20:49, 27 November 2017 (UTC)